Category Archives: Countryside

At long last…

I hope you enjoyed my delvings into the folklore behind my children’s novel, The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle over the last few weeks. In the mean time, life has been marching on… the swifts arrived and with them, finally, … Continue reading

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Folktales: Witches

In my book The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, Avery has no memory of the group of witches who promised to look after her when she was a baby. The witches live in a magical house called Cunningfoot, with doors that … Continue reading

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Folktales: My Baddies

At the beginning of my book The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, Avery has a horrible feeling she is being followed by something not nice… and it turns out she’s correct! There’s a few baddies in the book, and my ideas for them … Continue reading

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Folktales: Giants and Standing Stones

In my book The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, Avery journeys to a circle of standing stones in Orkney called the Stones of Callanish. She is surprised to find that the stones can come to life, as a band of craggy … Continue reading

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Folktales: Crannogs and The Crannog – Monsters in the Landscape

In my book, The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle, there is a great monster, kept in an enchanted sleep in a cavern under Edinburgh. The creature is called a Crannog. A crannog is not really a monster at all, but when … Continue reading

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Folktales: Scottish Faeries and ‘othering’

I’ve written in my previous post about the Cat Fae element of Avery’s character in my book, The Spellbinding Secret of Avery Buckle. For those of you who don’t know, one of Avery’s secrets is that she is a Cat Fae. … Continue reading

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Castles

I read Kathleen Jamie’s book of essays, Surfacing, over January. As you would expect from Jamie, it’s a beautiful selection. She explores the life transitions going on in her own family against the background of an archaeological dig in Alaska, … Continue reading

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Merry Christmas

On Sunday morning I trundled out on my rounds, listening to Sunday Worship on Radio 4. The service came from St David’s in Pembrokeshire. After all the bad news of recent days it was comforting to hear Welsh words spoken, … Continue reading

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Wet towels

I left the towels on the line for three days before I gave in and brought them in to dry indoors. The days have been full of fog and mist down here in the South West. Yesterday we drove out … Continue reading

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Storm Alex

This morning I’ve been watching the footage of the storm damage in France. An orange-roofed chalet clings impossibly to the side of a sheer mountain, a grey slash showing the path of a landslip, a slither of tarmac on a … Continue reading

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