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Blogging Frenzy!!
Once again, I have been waylaid by real life, my friends. Or rather, by the pressures of doing writerly things ( Read more... ) -
Another Small Step on The Learning Curve...
Yesterday evening, I had the very great pleasure of giving a lecture at the Beith Cultural and Historical Society centred on the historical events that inspired 'Fire and Sword'. A modest audience of 11 people turned up for the occasion - though I was fortunate enough to count the Honorary President of the Dorothy Dunnett Society amongst their ( Read more... ) -
Hellebores, Hellebores, Everywhere...
The sun came out this morning and I was going to take some photos in the garden. And then I thought, "Naw, I'll do it later," and of course the cloud came in, and the rain started ( Read more... ) -
Introducing - Cocky II!!!
You will remember, I'm sure, my friend the baldy robin, whom I nursed through last winter (with the assistance of many RSPB brand Fruity Nibbles) & coaxed back to health throughout spring and summer until he returned after the August moult with a fine head of feathers ( Read more... ) -
My Return From Self-Imposed Exile
Or: Why Writing A Novel Is Very Much Like Completing a Ph.D ( Read more... ) -
What Can You Do When The Parrots Have Flown?
I've been meaning to do a gardening post for a long, long while but I just haven't been able to sit down and find the time ( Read more... ) -
The Long Uphill Struggle...
A couple of weeks back, I got more than a little exasperated when I read an article did the rounds on Facebook amongst my writer friends. It was an interview with a moderately famous author (can't remember her name, sorry...), whose novel 'There's Something About Kevin' has recently skyrocketed in popularity when it was turned into a film. Anyway ( Read more... ) -
May You Live In Interesting Times!!
I'm back. After an awe-inspiring week in which my days were spent hooked to the yoke of commercial archaeology, and my evenings ere spent attending the Glasgow Archaeology Society's annual Dalrymple Lectures, which this year were presented by the one and only Prof. Mike Parker Pearson of UCL ( Read more... ) -
Swaites Hill, Or Bust!
Let's have some real archaeology now, shall we? None of this glitzy shiny nonsense that you get in Wessex ( Read more... ) -
Some Things Just Make You Want To SCREAM!!!!
It started out as an ordinary day at work. Got to rummage through some medieval pottery, scratched my head over whether I was looking at a grey form of gritty ware, a reduced form of redware, or some anaemic-looking Post Medieval Reduced Ware (hey, that's what a SPECIALIST is for!!!) and figured out that our recent clay tobacco pipe find from an ( Read more... )