Cadder Excursion

The HarperCollins visit was a great success. They marketed the event as a chance to see original Peter Pan artwork and unseen letters from famous authors such as JRR Tolkien and Agatha Christie, but in reality we enjoyed the visit to the cartographic offices much more. We also had a chance to peek into the process of making dictionaries. Very cool, very interesting and very cheap because the on-site bookshop was closed. Boo. The Antonine Wall/the Cadder Fort? Underwhelming as the site was excavated in the 1930s and subsequently turned into a sand quarry during World War II. So we stood in the rain, looked across the Forth and Clyde canal and saw a bunch of trees. However, as the Antonine Wall now has been declared a World Heritage Site, we might get to see something a bit more involving in the future. We did learn that the Roughcastle fort in Falkirk is well-preserved and well worth a visit, so we might head up there at some point.

Finally, we spent some time at Cadder Parish Church which stands in the middle of a forest. There has been a church on site since the mid-12th century and although the church has been rebuilt and refurbished many times since, you could still see the passing of ages in the surroundings. Dave loves his stained glass windows and was thrilled to see stained glass windows featuring World War I tanks. I was more taken in by the graveyard and its odd open iron coffin.. It was used during the 19th c to deter grave robbers (who'd sell fresh bodies to the anatomy schools). You'd simply put the coffin on top of the grave, fill it with stones and just sit in a little waiting house nearby until you heard the unmistakable sound of men trying to remove stones from the iron coffin. The waiting house is still there -- it looks to be a favourite spot for the local foxes.

And what is this? Could this be a sighting of the increasingly common februarii ladius sweaterae? I believe this one is the organic Scottish Gray variant with mother-of-pearl features..

This photo was actually taken a day earlier during our bramble picking adventure. Bramble is the Scottish word for blackberry and we have had quite a few bramble crumbles lately. Yum, yum.

Tuesday Linkage

I may be in the throes of female hormones, so here are some calming links. + Smugopedia: "Smugopedia is a collection of slightly controversial opinions about a variety of subjects. We offer you the chance to buy a fleeting sense of self-satisfaction at the small cost of alienating your friends and loved ones."

+ It’s Not You, It’s Your Books: Literary dealbreakers. I once dated a guy who had a shelf of Oprah-esque self-help books. I'm not saying that's why I broke up with him.. but we only lasted a week after that discovery.

+ Pretty staircases. Note that the URL is NSFW but the content is very, very SFW. This is my personal favourite (first photo).

+ A Field Guide to Ten Most Common Frontmen Styles. My favourite frontman happens to be a cross between no. 6 and no. 10. Hmm.

+ The Lost Tribes of Green Sahara. Beautiful photography.

+ Sarah Palin is Your New.. What? Many people have opinions on just what who Palin is. I quite like "..Hail Mary" and "Faustian Bargain" but my absolute favourite is "Star Wars: Episodes I - III Plus The Clone Wars". Heh.

Addendum: Booker Shortlist.

Click

Misquoting Shakespeare is always amusing and frequently apt: "Vanity, thy name is Karie Bookish".

This evening we were invited to the opening of World Press Photo 08 exhibition at The Scottish Parliament. My partner wore a suit and I opted for a little black dress. Sadly I also opted to wear high heels for the first time in three years. If they could speak, my feet would be screaming right now. I'm now limping on my heels and I'm also wobbly. But I looked really good, so there.

And the photos were very good and interesting, of course. I tried to find an online representation of the one photo that really stood out in my eyes: a Kenyan warlord who is depicted in his office with two bodyguards. The photograph is very sparse as is the office, but the guy has a few, selected trappings: two mobile phones, a pair of sunglasses and he is wearing a Stetson. All coolly calculated to give him an air of Western machismo. The guy looks like Hollywood is telling him he is supposed to look. Taking the context into consideration, the photo is absolutely chilling.

The End of an Era

No more polaroids - Polaroid has announced it will stop producing the film that is used to produce its iconic pictures. Apparently stocks will last until 2009.

As a gesture of mourning, my partner has just bought a selection of old polaroids he found in a secondhand shop. I might just scan one..

Saturday Linkage

Why smart songwriting is huge in Sheffield and guitar-pop thrives in Glasgow: You hear where you live? An interesting look at how geography may help shape your taste in music - whether you are aware of it or not. Meanwhile, it's nice to note that Hillary Clinton wants to share her political views with the part of the American public who are devoted to gossip magazines: Hillary Clinton: My Worst Outfits!. Not only is it low-brow journalism - it is also low-brow journalism that panders to stereotypes (i.e. why is nobody asking John McCain to go through his fashion mistakes?) and makes the vast mistake of underestimating women voters.

Finally, I followed the Beeb's The Genius of Photography when it was aired last year and was very pleased when I found Jörg Colberg's blog where he writes eloquently about fine-art photography. His What Makes a Great Portrait? stands out as a wonderful meditative essay on portrait photography. Not only does he cite many examples of portrait photography (and I should point out that some of these may not be entirely safe for work as they include nudity and violence), but Colberg explains why he thinks some photos work better than others. It is hugely inspirational and educational for an amateur photographer like myself.

Oh, and a music recommendation on the fly: Alaska in Winter is on constant rotation in our home. So gorgeous.