A day for remembering

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Hannah

At the top of the farm the low sun illuminated the golds and bronzes of the long grasses. The sky was lilac and the wintery sun elongated our bodies in leggy shadows across the fields. It felt like a day for remembering.

I find Remembrance Day very moving. We all have our links to the armed services and I have mine: a personal photo album I hold up in my mind’s eye. Then there are those who are faceless to me but who are named on war memorials around the country. No doubt they will appear in someone else’s photo album. The war memorial in the village brings all this into sharp focus for me. There is little movement in this part of the world and families have occupied the same farms for generations. The surnames I read on the memorial also belong to many living people I know. Suddenly those names gain a face because the person named on the memorial must in some way be related to little Douglas at toddler group or so-and-so on the farm along the back lane. On Remembrance Day we all seem so connected, so fragile, so human, and so very lucky to have such brave forebears.

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Tea labels

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Hannah

The last week as has been wet and wild. Most of the autumn colour on the trees has now been blown away. Dark clouds sweep across the sky. The rooks who roost in the trees behind our house reel and dive on the gusts. The sunflowers are blackened drooping stalks but are still visited by the birds for any last morsels.

At college we have been working on some tea labels for a local tea company. The labels are tiny and the owner would like pattern on them. It’s a tough one. Here’s one of my ideas.

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Christmas cards

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Hannah

At last they’re here! Visit my shop if you’d like to buy my Christmas cards.

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Bonfire Night

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Hannah

Here are some burning sparks from our bonfire on saturday. After last year’s unfolding disaster with the cinder toffee I didn’t bother with it this year (read about it here, here, and here). I did return to Delia Smith’s Parkin recipe however and Big Dreamer says it was my best yet. He knows the right things to say!

We burnt up all our garden trimmings from the summer, danced with sparklers, supped on mulled home brew, and savoured our hot stovies and sausages. Little Owl was most unimpressed by our efforts to warm marshmallows over the fire. Why would we perform such a trick on something she considers so perfect?! We had some friends visiting, one of whom is a Brown Owl, so it was obligatory to end the evening with a few campfire songs. “My eyes are dim I cannot see! I have not got my specs with me!…” What is that song all about?

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Christmas stock

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Hannah

Yes, it’s that time of year again…the countdown to Christmas has begun! Big Dreamer’s mum texted the family to let us all know she was stirring the Christmas cake (we do the cake rather than the pudding in our family) and it was time to make a wish. So, it also means I have put a few Christmassy items in my shop for you to take a peek at and buy, should you like what you see.

First up is some Christmas wrapping paper I hand printed using Lino cut. This may be your one and only chance to buy it as I’m not sure I’ll ever do it again. It was really hard work.

Second are some Christmas reindeers made by my lovely mum. It’s her first time selling something she’s made and I’m dead proud of her.

There will be some Christmas cards coming soon but my printers are a little snowed under (get it!) at the moment.

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Halloween

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Hannah

I’m not much of a fan of Halloween. As a child with a vivid imagination I could never control my fears enough to find them entertaining. It was always pure terror or nothing. Now an adult and mum to boot, I’ve not changed. I’ve also become more and more suspicious of the images used around Halloween. There was a time when women with initiative were labelled witches and people with disabilities were seen as monsters. Stereotypes and labels dehumanise, allowing cruelty to be practiced without comment. At Halloween those primitive fears of people who are different seem uncomfortably close to the surface.

On the other hand I am a big fan of pumpkins! We often like to pick up lots of discounted pumpkins after Halloween at the supermarket. They keep so well under the stairs that we can enjoy them for a few months to come. In the last couple of weeks we have eaten pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin and black-eyed bean rice, and pumpkin and prawn curry. And here is our pumpkin lantern. It’s not carved with a spooky face but with some of Little Owl’s favourite things… a star, an elephant, a butterfly, and a princess crown.

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Mog the cat

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Hannah

Today we headed up a mysterious green lane near to our house. We’ve been passing it ever since we arrived here saying, “We really must explore what’s up that lane.” It’s a thin strip of grass between two dry stone walls and it heads enticingly up the hill and out of sight. The air today was full of thin rain, which was joined by an easterly wind as we reached the top. Spread out below us was an array of autumn colour. Beech trees in full copper blaze.  Larches golden against the deep green of the surrounding pines. We stopped for a picnic in Shining Pool Wood but couldn’t find any pool let alone a shining one. According to our OS map the remains of a settlement were to be found on the edge of the wood. Heavily disturbed by quarrying we could still make out the ramparts of a Roman hill fort. It’s one of the things I love about the Scottish borders: the way history is marked out in the landscape. It’s like a giant illustration drawn out in the soil.

Here is Little Owl dressed as Mog the cat from the Meg and Mog books. The children at her nursery were asked to dress up as their favourite character from a book. When I told my friends at college they were very envious. They’d give a lot to be able to come to college as their favourite characters.

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Pub quiz

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Hannah

The sky has suddenly become very dark in Edinburgh and the trees are being blown about in the quad at college. Some students are messing around outside the window. If I don’t tune into their voices they could be wailing apocalyptically at the gloom. I predict some mighty rain on its way.

In my role as Creative Director for the Edinburgh University student magazine Nomad I have also become official poster maker. Here is one I did this week for a pub quiz fundraiser we’re putting on next week. I just couldn’t resist the Christmas theme!

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Autumn jobs

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Hannah

I’ve been feeling pretty smug over the last couple of days. We got two really satisfying jobs done. The forecast for cold weather at the end of this week made me get in our bird feeders and give them a good scrub. We don’t tend to feed the birds here in the warmer months as there’s plenty of food around for them. Winter is a different story. Our feeders are now reinstated in the garden, bright and sparkly, and full of seeds and nuts. Now we just have to keep up with demand.

We’ve also been filling pots with hyacinth bulbs to give us some joyful colour indoors during the dark months. They’re now sat in the cupboard under the stairs ready for us to bring out nearer Christmas. I haven’t ever reacted to hyacinth bulbs before but this time I really did. It started in the garden centre where I must have touched my neck after making my selection. Not the most tolerant of people at the best of times, within minutes I was beside myself with the itching. Apparently they release tiny needle-shaped crystals that irritate the skin. Big Dreamer had no problem at all so he was designated the bulb handler.

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Five weeks and counting

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Hannah

I’m five weeks into my final year and time seems to be passing very quickly. The main thing I have been focussing on so far has been the design for the website for my children’s magazine. I have been fortunate to be able to collaborate with a PhD student at Heriot Watt University on it. He is a user experience specialist and a particular expert on game and web design for children. I can’t say that my experiences of collaborative (read ‘group work’) projects at college has been all that positive. It’s more than a little annoying when fellow students can’t even remember to turn up. Collaborating with John has been an altogether different experience. I feel we have come up with something together that I would never have come up with on my own. I’ve loved the process of building on each other’s ideas and thoughts. It’s involved an enormous amount of drawing for me as the design is heavily reliant on the artwork. So, it was frustrating to be told by one of my tutors this week that he viewed it as a professional practice exercise and not illustration. I’m kind of stuck with the comment in my head too and unable to really decide what I think about it.

I’m sure I’ll work it through but in the mean time we headed back to the East Lothian coast today to go kite flying. It has been such a clear, bright day that a trip to the sea felt inevitable. We perched on driftwood logs with our flasks of tea, watching the waves lapping on the shoreline. What a difference to the sea of last weekend. Little Owl has an In The Night Garden kite, which she loves. The only problem being that she loves it so much that she balls her eyes out when it goes up in the air. She runs along the sand crying for it to come back. In true toddler fashion it’s not long before she remembers what it’s all about and is merrily dancing over rock pools yelling at the kite to keep up.

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