It seems to me that to be trained in the system of I.33 is to be trained to do that which is 'unnatural ( Read more... )

It's worth recording the key principles of the I.33 sword and buckler system. These are points that, in all situations, remain true and guide the student's interpretation of the treatise ( Read more... )

Every time Neil and I train in I.33 we have some new revelation and refine what we do. I want to get our current status down for later comparison.
( Read more )

We had to call the police out today as some imbeciles on a shoot in the woods next to us, obviously knowing nothing about gun safety, were wandering around on rough ground with unbroken shotguns over their shoulders, barrels in the air. To top it off they shot our stables! We were inside with the horses when we heard a terrific double bang that ( Read more... )

Kat had an accident on Christmas Eve while driving home from Glasgow. At the Laurencekirk intersection on the A90 (street lit, 50 mph limit, at night, in the 4x4 with lights on) a car pulled out right across her front having 'not seen her'. She managed to swerve to avoid killing the fool (and his children) but having hit his front wheel and then ( Read more... )

The dark nights are here again. During the summer I come home from work and can easily work on the croft until well after 10pm. Now it's dark it's hard not to just sit on the sofa staring blankly at the telly until bedtime. I don't feel depressed I just tend to shutdown. Every year I'm determined to keep busy and not just 'exist' through the ( Read more... )

This post is somewhat after the fact but I want to record it ( Read more... )

The Boss is away for a week and I've taken time off to work on the croft. Today I shovelled horse muck, collected a load of firewood from the sawmill, prepared bacon cures, fed and mucked out all the animals and potted on some lavender plants. This is fun. But, I'm looking forward to hitting the pub at the end of the week!

Kat's birthday yesterday and, I suspect, not the best birthday ever. She spent an hour in A&E with me after I (unsucessfully) tried to slice my finger off with an axe. Then she had to cook her own birthday dinner. To cap off the day Badger, our pretty and friendly bantam hen, was taken by a fox. By 'taken' read ripped limb from limb and messily ( Read more... )

Since the Dead By Dawn horror film festival isn't running this year we decided to do our own version - Slains By Dawn ( Read more... )