sit down have a chat

MOFFAT

the town to stop off at

Undertaking a project that focuses on sustainable rural development, myself and my lovely co-working partner in collaboration decided it was time to do some proper field research. So we hired a car and headed on the road west to experience the rural for ourselves.

Having passed through Moffat this summer on my way home from a hike up the Gray Mare's Tale (a National Trust hike with a mystical glacial lake at the top) the town made a fantastic impression on me. A pub serving baked potatoes and a good glass of guinness will tickle my fancy on the best of cold days, but to witness the spectacle of a whole town heaving with people out for the annual Sheep Race really was something else. Cue the one main street of the town barricaded off and rounds of six sheep running the length of the street with miniature knitted jockeys strapped to their backs, with locals cheering on waving their betting tickets in good humoured £1.00 a piece gambling. Yes, this is indeed the reason why we went back. They seemed to have a solid tourism structure in place, a strong sense of community and events and run on the time of volunteers - the exact criteria on our list of things we needed to find out. And why, for three days and three nights we met with some of the most interesting characters who make the town what it is and who were as kind as to give us so much of their time and assistance. 

Doing work and being in the countryside at the same time? #dreamlife.  

the basket weaving circle

It was the first Saturday in October and a crisp autumn day. I took the bus from Edinburgh along by the coast to a small town called Tranent to participate in a basket weaving workshop. Generally categorised as an old-folks activity, traditional handcrafts are actually, in fact, just that. My twenty-something year old self showed up to the given address and found there a small gathering of ladies well past their forties, each holding a cup of tea. All the boxes ticked? Yep. However, as an unashamed fan of aformentioned pensioner-style pastimes, I really enjoyed my time there.

The sun came up enough that once the morning had passed, it was surprisingly warm. We therefore decided to relocate ourselves from the workroom and place ourselves and our willow outside for the remainder of the day. Provided with endless cups of tea that were drank mostly out of politeness to our host, I concentrated in silence enjoying listening to the real, live BBC radio 4 happening around me.

To watch something that you are making grow right in front of your eyes through a meditative passage of time is a satisfaction I wish everyone could have the good fortune of experiencing. My own final basket is one called a 'Mudag' style. It's woven but not yet photographed... looks a bit like an egg.

chalk, cheese and cardboard

And the new academic year begins once again. 

Beginning the term by compiling a Materials Bank of various forms, textures, and colours that are interesting to us, we provide ourselves with an easily accessible source of inspiration for the projects to come. However, my little library features two halves, each very distinct to the other. On the left we have the natural, organic pieces whose essence is of great importance and whose value I feel so strongly about. On the right we have a box of fun; it's pink, fluffy, glittery, sparkly, shimmery, shiny, plastic, and oh so barbie. Please don't make me pick a side of the fence to sit on. My challenge will have to be finding the middle ground.

First to experiment with the natural. Inspired by a tour of an old paper mill in Amalfi, Italy over the summer, I try to re-create the process in a sustainable, vegetable loving, way. Maybe the results are not so beautiful but they are a successful sort of cardboard.

youfoundlunch

Every year graduate students from art colleges around Britain exhibit their collections in London. The event in question is New Designers where we flock in the hope of having our work seen by somebody in the industry and *eek* being offered a job!
A venture on the expensive side of expensive, Chloe and I decided to get together and fundraise ourselves some money. Current target: £400. That covers the cost of our stand in the Design Centre alone. After that I think we'll be ringing on friend's doorbells looking for a couch to crash on for the week.

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During the summer we had splendid success selling salad boxes. But now the days are colder and the students newer, we thought a bake sale was in order. Theme? OATS!!!

Calling our day 'oatily delicious' we stood outside the main University of Edinburgh Library with an array of sweet and savoury bakes, each containing that one key ingredient.... oats!

For the savoury bakes we prepared small stacks of oatcakes, with a choice between spinach, pumpkin seeds or cracked black pepper. Sold as a set with a nice British apple and a wedge of either Danish blue or Gouda cheese, they were a perfect snack.

Over on the sweet side we had - Ginger and Dark Chocolate Cookies - Chewy Apple Cookies - Peanut Butter and Banana Flapjack - Banana Bread - Raisin and Pumpkin Seed Flapjack- Jars of Granola.  Many credits are due to DeliciouslyElla for her wonderful vegan recipes, thank you. 

Talk about a two-way twister

   

"Never knew how much I missed ya..." Gone are the days of having a 30 minute tv allowance in the evenings, being made by parents to choose the one programme you want to watch for that day. Here are the days of internet streaming and too many hours wasted away in the lazy indulgences that being grown up entitle you to. Here's to hoping my eyes don't turn square.

beginning a new chapter

They say it is the intention that counts. And so listening to whoever "they" are, those spoken of wise people somewhere someplace, I shall begin again the blog. Because a friend is a very special thing to have and one should endeavour to make happy those who make one happy.

Much time may have passed since I last wrote, but in terms of things changing during this sojourn, well, little has. Knitting still happens and small projects are undertaken. Today I worked my way toward the toe of this sock, number one of two, which shall be a present for my dad, a man who asks every year for socks for Christmas, though how he makes his way through so many pairs in a year to always need more, I'll never know.

there is so much more to life than lemonade

When you don't have a smartphone or a facebook you often miss out on idling time away on activities such as looking at buzz feed. But living with a friend whose buzz feed is closer to holy than the devout catholic's bible feed, certain side product materialise themselves from time to time. Such as the now very long ago Ginpop Party. It was summertime. We had lemons. An article was read. An article was liked. An article served as inspiration for a trip to the big Sainsbury's to buy all the additional extra requirements for the funtime recipe. And lo and behold, there was gin with cucumber and ginger beer, gin with raspberries and elderflower cordial, gin with so many combinations of delicious frozen ingredients I can't even remember them all now.

portrait of a young lady