hiya

come down from the mountain, you have been gone too long

2011-12-13T18:15:00.001Z

I'm just back from spending six weeks living and working on the Isle of Canna. It has a population of fourteen adults and has no shops, no pubs, no cinemas, no hotel bars, no streetlights and for a long time I had no internet or tv. It was quite intense.

hello internet

2011-09-23T12:05:00.000+01:00

This summer I went to Istanbul, where the stray cats have no fear

parks and recreation

2011-04-25T10:30:00.002+01:00

top: a present from Alice, shorts: butchered topshop jeans

I hold grudges and don't forget things easily, so it's taken me a while to get over winter and finally admit it's spring and get my legs out.

head, shoulders, knees and toes

2011-02-03T17:02:00.001Z

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun - Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine-Habsbourg, Queen of France, and her children (Versailles)

Jacques Louis David - Bonaparte Crossing the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass, 20 May 1800 (Versailles)

Caravaggio - Medusa (Uffizi Gallery)

Sandro Botticelli - The Birth of Venus (Uffizi Gallery)

Hans Holbein the Younger - Sir Thomas More (The Frick Collection)

Thomas Gainsborough - The Mall in St. James's Park (The Frick Collection)

James McNeil Whistler - The Princess from the land of Porcelain (Smithsonian)

Sir John Everett Millais - Ophelia (Tate Britain)

Sir John Everett Millais - Hearts are Trumps (Tate Britain)

Marcus Gheehaerts II - Portrait of Captain Thomas Lee (Tate Britain)

David Des Granges - The Saltonstall Family (Tate Britain)

Francis Danby - The Deluge (Tate Britain)

British School 17th Century - The Cholmondeley Ladies (Tate Britain)

British School, 16th Century - A Young Lady Aged 21 (Tate Britain)

John Bettes - A man in a Black Cap (Tate Britain)

Hans Holbein the Younger - A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (National Gallery)

Lucas Cranach the Elder - Portrait of a Woman (National Gallery)

Hans Holbein the Younger - The Ambassadors (National Gallery)

Boris Kustodiyev - Pancake Week (The State Tretyakov Gallery)

Vincent Van Gogh - The Starry Night (MOMA)

Hans Holbein the Younger - The Merchant Georg Gisze (Gemäldegalerie)

I've had way too much fun with Google's Art Project and I've had to stop myself from screencapping every single ruff and beard. As part of my Archive Management Course I've been studying digitisation and thinking about whether or not a high quality digital image can be a substitute for an 'authentic' experience. I think the benefits of being able to view paintings I'd never see in real life anyway can only be a good thing? Especially when you can zoom in on every nook and cranny. And I've realised I seem to have a bit of an obsession with hands.

highland clearance

2011-01-07T10:10:00.006Z

Out then spak her father dear,
And he spak meek and mild,
"And ever alas, sweet Janet," he says,
"I think thou gaest wi child."
"If that I gae wi child, father,
Mysel maun bear the blame,
There's neer a laird about your ha,
Shall get the bairn's name.
"If my love were an earthly knight,
As he's an elfin grey,
I wad na gie my ain true-love
For nae lord that ye hae.
"The steed that my true love rides on
Is lighter than the wind,
Wi siller he is shod before,
Wi burning gowd behind."
Janet has kilted her green kirtle
A little aboon her knee,
And she has broded her yellow hair
A little aboon her bree,
And she's awa to Carterhaugh
As fast as she can hie.

1 & 2: Derek Hudson
3 & 4: Keira Knightley in Vogue Italia January 2011
5: Derek Hudson
6 & 7: Kate Moss via I Love Wildfox
8: Electric Scotland
9: Murdo MacLeod
10: Harry Lauder
11: St Kilda climber
12: St Kilda Main Street
13: The Ballad of Tam Lin

I know that in fashion time I should be posting pictures of spring dresses and straw boaters but screw fashion time. I live in Scotland and I'll have to dress like this until we get our two weeks of summer in July.

2010

2011-01-02T22:24:00.002Z

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

(photos from flickr)

A whole year of discarded photos

and there is a barber who's cutting and cutting away at my only joy

2010-12-19T12:45:00.001Z

Long hair, short hair, skirts, shirts, shorts.

the beautiful and the damned

2010-11-22T20:32:00.004Z

Hannah sent me a link via Twitter to this documentary about the Bright Young People of 1920s London and I looooooved it so I thought you might loooooove it too. I feel a new obsession coming on.

fantasy tableware

2010-11-21T00:56:00.003Z

Just some stuff from Anthropologie I'd buy for my dacha if I had a dacha or even some money.

sunday

2010-11-08T10:55:00.001Z

(photos from my flickr)

Yesterday I went for a walk around Chatelherault Country Park, near Hamilton. There's a lovely eighteenth-century hunting lodge (designed by William Adam, check out the plasterwork) which has been partly converted into an ugly little cafe and visitors centre (sorry, but it's true). The function rooms that are open have some pretty crazy subsidence due to quarrying nearby - I actually tottered backwards at some point and the stairs were a nightmare to navigate. There used to be a lovely looking palace too which was demolished but google tells me that the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland are attempting to recreate it digitally. There's something quite sad about a demolished house. The lodge made me quite sad too. Then I was supposed to be essay writing all night but ended up watching Twin Peaks instead. The weekends go so fast.

honourable

2010-11-03T22:26:00.004Z

All images from the BBC

The BBC showed this great documentary on Country Life's 'girls in pearls' as part of their Wonderland series. Ostensibly it was a 'where are they now' of high society engagements but it was one of those shows that manages to reach further than its abstract. Anyway, it pretty much ticked all my boxes and you can probably see why.

autumn

2010-09-27T19:15:00.000+01:00

shorts = topshop, top = h&m, jacket = barbour, bag = urban outfitters, shoes = new look

Yeah! I love Barbour season! Last week I put it on for the first time since March (according to the train ticket in the pocket) and realised that it has completely moulded to my shape and fits like a glove. Nor had I appreciated how soft the pocket linings are. It's getting fair nippy in Glasgow so they'll do until I find some replacement gloves. The pictures above are from my trip to Bothwell Castle at the weekend. We explored the castle, had a walk by the River Clyde, ate sausage rolls and got the train home. A+ autumnal action!

I had so much more to say here but it was all getting a bit 'dear diary' and I'm too stuffy with the cold to sort it out. Next time!

oh captain, my captain

2010-09-15T12:15:00.000+01:00

1. Tim Walker, UK Vogue August 2006, 2. Dead Poet's Society, 3. David Sims UK Vogue October 2010, 4. Wuthering Heights 1939, 5. Russh Magazine May 2010, 6. & 7. Tim Walker for Vanity Fair, 2008, 8. & 9. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Self Service Magazine, 10. Tim Walker, UK Vogue August 2006, 11. Batty Walsh bringing stones from Ballinagoul, 12. Sheringham Fishermen, 13. 14. 15. & 16. Topshop Unique a/w 2010, 17. Hallam Foe, 18. At Eighty by Edwin Morgan, 19. & 20. The Bill Douglas Trilogy, 21. Who Put Bella in the Witch Elm?

Poblenou, bitches!

2010-09-07T09:30:00.003+01:00

(wearing: floral dress from Primark, white dress from ASOS, khaki-ish dress from a shop in Sitges. Sandles from ASOS, pink satchel from Topshop, grey bag from Primark.)

It's so bloody miserable in Glasgow this morning that Barcelona feels like it never happened. I know all holidays are nice but this really was amazing, thanks in large part to Sarie's flawless recommendations. Highlights included: pug watching in Poblenou, swimming in the sea in Sitges, the MNAC, winding streets in the Gothic quarter, the Sagrada Familia, the metro (weird I know, but European transport is always a treat compared to Glasgow's), haggling over tacky flamenco-themed souvenirs and tapas! Apart from the aforementioned souvenirs, I didn't do too much shopping but I did buy the grey/green dress in the bottom picture from a shop in Sitges after spilling a variety of food down all my other dresses. Cool.

everything fun is good for the stomach

2010-08-18T15:40:00.000+01:00

"Give me the rope, and you shall have fish," said Snufkin. "Wrap them in wet newspaper and smoke them on an open fire. They will be delicious." (Tales from Moominvalley)

Nobody could think of anything but the big feast in August. Everything had to be ready before moonrise. How wonderful it was to prepare an enormous feast that we knew would be so much fun and where all the right people would join in together! Even the Muskrat seemed interested. "Make sure to set out plenty of tables," he said. "Small tables and large tables. And put them in unexpected places too. At a big feast like this, no one wants to sit quietly in the same place all night. I'm afraid they might end up floating around the park even more than usual. But first of all, you have to serve up the finest things you have. Later on, it doesn't matter what they get, as they will be happy in any case. And don't disturb them with performances, singing and such like, but allow them to be the entertainment themselves." (Finn Family Moomintroll)

It was a beautiful autumn morning, the kind that makes your cheeks tingle in the shade, but in the sunshine it feels almost summer. Everything was damp after the rain that night and all the colours glowed bright. When the apples had been picked (shook down from the branches, that is), father brought out the largest apple press they had seen, and they all started preparing the apple sauce. (Tales From Moominvalley)

It's Moomin's 65th Anniversary this year and it's quickly turning into Moominfest 2010 for me. Last weekend I went to a talk by Sophia Jansson (Tove's niece and half the inspiration for 'The Summer Book'). Sophia was lovely - articulate, intelligent, and more than happy to talk for an hour about her famous aunt (I think it must be a drag being related to a famous person) and this weekend I'm going to a Moomin exhibition where I also intend to fill my boots with more Moomin tat.

I thought I'd waited aaaages for the Moomin cookbook to come out but it turns out it was only three months. I'm not a very good cook and my family mock me for my won't cook/don't cook attitude. I know this is a terrible thing to admit but I don't enjoy anything I'm not good at right away so rather than try, try, try again I just pack up and pretend it never happened (see also: sewing). Nevertheless, my determination to live life like a Moomin and to gorge myself on pancakes and drown myself in mead has meant that I've actually made an effort this time around. I think it helps that the book is full of lovely illustrations and food related quotes from the Moomin books rather than photographs of impossibly perfect pies (I'm looking at you 'Easy Comfort Food') so there's no sense of failure when things turn out slightly askew. I did try to take some photos of things I've cooked so far (mead, coconut biscuits and pea and frankfurter soup) but it seems food photography is another skill I don't possess and won't be trying again. You'll just have to use your imagination.

historic scotland

2010-07-27T19:17:00.001+01:00

a summertime photo dump

reading/reading/read

2010-06-03T09:32:00.012+01:00

Books are probably like wine, and you should select the right one for the time of year but I treat them like Lambrini. I'm sure that there are 'summer books' and there are 'winter books' but I always pick the wrong ones. Like when I read Wuthering Heights in the heatwave of 2006 or Kate Chopin's The Awakening in January. Anyway, since submitting my MPhil in March I've been reading furiously and indiscriminately. Here are some of the books I've read in the last few months:

1) Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition, B. R. Burg
Gay pirates aside, this is a really interesting look at homosexuality in Stuart England.

2) Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
I rushed through this for the third year of my undergraduate degree back in 2005 but after reading The Handmaid's Tale (below) I decided to give it another go. I got way more out of it this time around (and finding my original notes scrawled inside was a total beamer) but I felt it peaked long before the end. Still worth a read though.

3) The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
So awesome. I asked for this as part of my Christmas stocking because it seemed like the sort of book one reads. I see why.

4) Be Near Me, Andrew O'Hagan
My pal Lee gave me a loan of this last year and I never got round to reading it until last week. I thought this would be a dour west coast tale (and in a way it was) but it totally surpassed all my expectations. I should read it twice but my heart can't take it.

5) The Secret History, Donna Tartt
I read this everywhere: on the loo, in the park, eating my dinner, at bus stops, at the hairdressers, on the phone to my mother. I wanted to study Classics and wear tennis jumpers and drink too much at a country house. Bunny had it coming...

6) Comet in Moominland, Tove Jansson
I read this as part of an ongoing attempt to read all the Moomin books in chronological order. I hear there's a film coming out this summer (in the fuzzy felt tradition) and Bjork is doing the soundtrack! There's something to live for.

7) The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Antonia Fraser
I was surprised to find that The Tudors doesn't do too badly for historical accuracy (I'd say a 70% success rate).

8) Four Tales, James Hogg
Four tales. Don't think I can remember what they were.

9) The True Deceiver, Tove Jansson
A book about two women in one house during a long winter. One of those books where nothing happens but everything changes.

What are you reading guys? As per usual I'm scavenging for suggestions! I'm especially keen on crime novels and psychological thrillers right now...

ticket to ride

2010-05-16T11:26:00.002+01:00

Some pictures from my whirlwind trip to London. We took the sleeper train down on Monday night and headed to South Kensington for a walk round Kensington Palace Gardens before the V&A opened. I'd planned on going to the quilts exhibition, but we wandered for a bit too long and our sleepiness caught up with us so we bailed in favour of club sandwiches and getting psyched for J-New. On Wednesday we thought about going back for the quilts, but ended up going to the Delaroche exhibition at the National Gallery instead. (More on that later alligators.)

After this post something inside of me unravelled and my google reader has become a neglected wasteland with 1000+ items to read. I suppose I'm feeling a bit jaded and bored. I love the internet and I wouldn't know half of the things I do without it (Katy and Hannah have both blogged about this recently) but I think that blogs can add to the pressure to look constantly flawless (who knows when you might be spotted by a parochial street style blogger?) rather than taking away from it. Some days I don't leave the flat because I can't be bothered getting dressed and making myself look decent but that doesn't make me a bad girl. I'm just lazy and human.

beside the seaside

2010-05-03T19:08:00.010+01:00

c.1987

2006

2007

2008

2010

From top to bottom - at Ettrick Bay on the Isle of Bute with my Papa and cousins (I'm in the red), near Barfleur in France with Joan, in Ayr (by Colin), on Suomenlinna near Helsinki, on Great Cumbrae, back in Ayr.

Apparently there's nothing I love more than a photo opportunity by the sea! Last year I went to Rockaway Beach in Queens and it was pretty awesome to be next to a proper ocean. I'm used to being closed in by peninsulas and islands. There must be a word in some language for the sense of calm you get next to a large body of water.

tove

2010-04-26T18:00:00.002+01:00

found here

Breton stripes, rolled hems, crew necks and oxfords. It's true - Tove is my homegirl.

i only want to live in peace and plant potatoes and dream

2010-04-14T19:49:00.005+01:00

"He put in almonds and raisins, lotus juice, ginger, sugar and nutmeg flowers, one or two lemons, and a couple of pints of strawberry liqueur to make it specially good. Now and again he had a taste ... It was very good." (Finn Family Moomintroll)

Pals of mine will know that I LOVE The Moomins. If you say 'I watched the cartoon and it scared me' then I'll say 'get lost, you don't know anything'. Not until you've read the books or the comic strips anyway. The cartoon lacks the lightness of touch and sense of humour possessed by Jansson's comic strips and books, and they dilute the Moomin philosophy into trippy whimsy. Moomins place relationships and experiences above material possessions making them excellent post-war fiction. The fact that they live an insular existence in Moomin Valley (which functions as an Arcadia, rarely touched by the outside world) gives them subaltern status - Jansson was part of a minority in Finland, being a Swedish-speaking Finn. Moomins remind me that the most important things in life are friends and family, but also that being alone is no bad thing.

Anyway, my one of my fave things about Moomins is that they are always stuffing their faces. If they're not setting about porridge, jam and pancakes, then they're swilling raspberry juice and gallivanting off on picnics and feasts. This is kinda special in children's books, where food isn't always an innocent joy (see Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - in fact there's a good article about this here). So I was STOKED when I noticed on Amazon this morning that there will soon be a MOOMINS COOKBOOK! I say 'soon', what I really mean is 'July' which seems like ages away. I'm especially excited about 'Snuffkin's Picnic Pot'. Pot of what? Can't wait.

everything is going to be ok

2010-04-10T21:57:00.007+01:00

On the first truly nice day of the year we walked round Great Cumbrae and I got very pink. I don't think I'm suited to emigration after all.

Bambi

2010-03-14T15:23:00.007Z

Glasgow and Arran, February 2010

I have nothing to do for the first time in 18 months. But here are five things I'm looking forward to:

1. Peter Pan at the Kings. It'll be the second production I've seen in 6 months, hopefully this one will be better then the one at the Lyceum. The press release sounds promising: 'this Peter Pan reimagines the Darling family in Victorian Edinburgh with all its mists, gas-lamps, bridges and mystery.' I want to stress I'm not into the Peter Pan fetishism I see on tumblr. It's not all soft focus pictures of girls in trees and scrapbooks full of feathers, ok? This is a deeply disturbing piece of work, ok? Oh, and Finding Neverland is the worst movie I've ever seen. J. M. Barrie was a bit of a weirdo, not a fey misunderstood BFG. He was a deeply disturbing piece of work, ok? And very short.

2. Series 4 of the Tudors! I'm relieved to see JRM hasn't been fattened up.

3. AND the new series of The Hills and The City (don't be hatin', I'm comfortable enough with my own intelligence to handle this stuff). I've gone off The Hills since Kristin Cavallari started, but I can't wait to see Heidi Montag's new face in action.

4. Going to London on the sleeper train to see Joanna Newsom! I can't get the idea of the sleeper train being so dark and romantic out of my head. I think I'm going to be in for a rude awakening.

5. Lady Gaga in May!

6. Graduation! Presuming I ever manage to tie up the MPhil that is. My thesis is currently undergoing approval before it gets hard bound and put in the library (!). While I was doing post-viva spelling corrections/unpicking grammar I managed to stick another 1000 words on it. Let it go, Kirsteen. Let it go.

rock face

2010-03-04T16:29:00.009Z

Living in Scotland doesn't provide many opportunities for Fashion Toast-esque poses on deserted highways against setting suns. Sad times. I can't wait till summer so I can get my legs out. Anyway, here are some photos from a day trip to Stirling a few weekends ago. We went to have a gander at these carvings - replicas of those on the ceiling of the Renaissance palace of James V. Yeah loser alert but I thought they were pretty cool.

Maxwell Park

2010-02-15T21:25:00.004Z

Jacket = Barbour
Scarf = American Apparel
Jeans = Topshop
Bag = Urban Outfitters
Shoes = Converse

This is pretty much my 'I can't be bothered' uniform. On Saturday I got up early (9am is early on a Saturday, right?) to go to life drawing class, then I took Lachlann for coffee and cake. We decided to find Maxwell Park, which I'd seen on Google Maps, then we wandered back home through alleyways. It was a nice day.

When I started my life drawing class in January, I hadn't drawn anything 'proper' (by 'proper' I mean anything that wasn't saved from the internet and drawn from my computer screen) in about eight (EIGHT!) years. I'd forgotten how absorbing drawing can be, but also how weirdly competitive and insecure I can be. Some pictures from life drawing class:

Ёжик в тумане

2010-01-18T13:24:00.000Z

The Bear Cub talked and talked and the Hedgehog thought: "Isn't it wonderful that we are together again." And also... he thought about the horse: How is she, there... in the fog?
Hedgehog in the Fog

I can't believe I've lived for so long without seeing this! Stop motion animation, Russia, hedgehogs, raspberry jam - it's stuff like this that gets me through times like January.

j.b

2009-08-21T19:02:00.003+01:00

Justin Bobby: Not a man, a way of life.

krasivaya

2009-08-01T10:50:00.013+01:00

photo_decadent

In first year of University I studied Russian. We used these learning books called 'Ruslan'. I don't know if you ever used 'Arc-en-ciel' in French class, but it was kind of the same idea. Except with less mopeds and more love affairs. I wonder if Ivan and Ludmila ever hooked up? Last I remember some chancer called Vadim had appeared on the scene.

wuthering heights

2009-07-08T20:55:00.005+01:00

The Guardian

Wuthering Heights dust jacket by Celia Birtwell. I love this! The curtains!