Scunnered!

 Remember  this post? In particular this sentence 

I am going to be naming the socks in a sequence and I will be interested to see how long it takes Son No 1 to work  out what it is. These first ones are MacDonald. I reckon he'll have it sussed somewhere between March and May, but we'll see. 

Well I had an e-mail a couple of days ago from Son No 1 saying he had received the socks and he reckoned he had worked out the sequence. And he had. How did he do that? Possibly it was too much of a clue saying the names were going to be a sequence. And to be fair to him (and me I suppose) he said if he hadn't got it from the first one he reckoned it would have taken him until July to get it. So that's a (very small) consolation. 

And another one was that he said he liked the socks and didn't say 'please don't knit me another eleven pairs this year Mum'. As they used to say on 2012 'So that's all good'. 

And now I must go and do some work on pair number two. Mackenzie if anyone wants to play along!! 

Everyone* I Know Raved About This Book

 * although by everyone naturally I mean the members of a rather specialised Facebook Group called 'Scottish Books of the Year 2020' and a few other Scot Lit friends. 

The book was called What We Did in the Dark and it's by Ajay Close. It was in our local library so I borrowed it, with some trepidation, as my track record for liking books other people rave about is not good. But in fact I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well possibly enjoyed is not the word. The book is a fictionalised account of the marriage of  a Scottish writer called Catherine Carswell, who famously married in haste and repented at leisure. The story of her dawning realisation of her husband's insanity, which manifested itself to start with as what we would now call 'coercive control' and her subsequent struggle to free herself of him, isn't particularly joyful, but Close is brilliant at evoking it. 

The author has obviously done a massive amount of research into Carswell and her circle but it's lightly used; no great slabs of  'I found this out so I will insert it come hell or high water' here. I was quite amazed to see that she was English, although only in the sense that she knew of Carswell at all since she's  not a particularly well known writer even in her native Scotland. 

It's nice to be able to be positive about a book now and then; I'm not going to be telling you how brilliant the current Saturday Slaughters choice is any time soon. Or at any time at all really. 

New Course

My new course is Celtic Art , and the Celtic Art Revival in Scotland. I wanted to do Picts but that wasn't running this year and in fact, given my background in C19 Studies the Celtic Art Revival bit of this was very appealing. 

What was not quite so appealing was that the basic text for the course is Celts Art and Identity which was produced in association with the exhibition of Celtic Art we went to several years ago at the National Museum of Scotland. As quite often when we go to see exhibitions there the Anglocentric nature of the associated verbiage, including this book, was a bit of a pain. So I am sorry to have to give it house room as far as the text goes. The photos inside though are fabulous. The cover design perhaps not so much.

The first session was taken up with introductions, a run down on the course format and a bit of 'what does Celtic art mean to you?' type stuff. So that was all easy to cope with. I laughed when he talked about the assessments. The first one is an essay of 1500 words. As I said to the OH, 1500 words is not an essay, it's an essay plan. Even the second one, the Big One if you like, is only 2500. I daresay I'll manage to put a few sentences together when the time comes. 

For now it's a lot more reading for next week, mainly along the lines of 'there was no such thing as a Celtic people, there was no such thing as a Celtic language, there is no such thing as Celtic Art ' which rather begs the question that if this is so, why are you curating an exhibition of Celtic Art and making money by producing an expensive book to flog about it? 

Baking subscription January

Yes, we are amazingly enough into our fourth year. I keep thinking I'll cancel, but it gets me into the kitchen to bake which is good for me. Also my sister now has a subscription so we can compare notes on each month's offering, although we rarely seem to agree. 

Anyway this month was Chocolate Brookies, which are a combination of chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Here's the photo

The OH did the honours with the drizzling. Opinion is equally divided here into the one that loves them (him) and the one who does not (me). Well it's one way to keep me from temptation. 

Short post today as I am about to attend the first instalment of my new on-line course. I think I'm going to enjoy it and be frustrated by it in equal measure; that's the whole thing not just today's session although that might well set the pattern. We'll see, and I'll naturally be reporting back here in due course. 

And the answer to yesterday's question is

not just yarn, thank you Heather, ho ho ho! 😅  Did you not see the beads?

The pictures were of course of the parcel that arrived yesterday for the 2021 Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket. 

I will front this up and say that yes I do remember saying that I wasn't going to order it, both here and elsewhere, and at the time that was my firm intention. But then we were promised bright festive colours and I thought well the two I've done started have been subdued to neutral and really a nice warn cosy brightly coloured blanket would be a nice thing to work on during the long grey days of lockdown. So I caved. 

Doubtless progress will be reported on here in due course. The first set of patterns are due on 1st Feb. And I have one or two things to get on with before then. Although not today. Today I am slightly lurgied, although happily not with Covid symptoms, and so I am taking it easy. I am even ignoring reminders from the twice blasted owl that I have yet to turn up to do my daily Gaelic and Spanish lessons. Not happening, not today. 

I may even let myself off the current book poster book instalment. I'm not saying what the book  is until I have finished it, but at ten pages a day, which is all I can cope with, it's going to take a while  and a few renewals at the library before I fight my way to the end. I keep having to remind myself that, despite feelings to the contrary as I read, I am not stupid, which is not a good frame of mind to be in when you're reading  a book. I will be gibbering by the end. 

Q: Can ayone guess what this is?

 

Answer tomorrow. 

Meanwhile the rain having let up at last we got out for walk today, although we cut it rather short because our lips went blue and our faces went stiff with the cold. I am not exaggerating. I don't kow what the wind chill was, but it must have been high.

I did take a couple of photos of cold sheep and soggy fields

And when we got home I had some hot chocolate. I stopped sort of topping it up with brandy or scotch, although I was tempted. I'm hoping it might be a bit warmer tomorrow. 

Sock Challenge 2021

 I know, why do I do these things to myself? I blame a Calvinist tinged upbringing. 

Anyway the challenge is to knit twelve pairs of socks, one a month, for son no 1. I got the idea when he said that a) he liked the ones I did for his birthday and b) the only socks he had were the ones I had knitted for him. This last was a bit concerning since as far as I can recall I have only ever made him about six pairs and half a dozen pairs of socks doesn't seem many for a country like Canada where keeping your toes warm is a challenge for 6-8 months of the year. And since I enjoy knitting them and since I have - ahem!- quite a lot of sock wool and some new patterns I'd like to try  this looked like a bit of a win/win. The only slight concern was that he famously doesn't like 'bright' socks, but I have dug out five skeins of less than bright sock wool which will keep me going and I've ordered a couple of balls of black which I shall jazz up with contrasting toes, heels and cuffs in brighter left overs. So that should keep me going until July I think. 

Here are January's which will be going into the post today if I can swim to the post office. 

They're very nice. 

I also made a set of cards to go in the parcel with them each month and here is the one that's going this time. 

They're not all of wolves although quite a lot of them are. I had great fun making them, I'm always saying I should go back to  making more cards ...

But I'm not the only one working in this challenge I hope.  Since all projects put up on Ravelry need a name I am going to be naming the socks in a sequence and I will be interested to see how long it takes Son No 1 to work  out what it is. These first ones are MacDonald. I reckon he'll have it sussed somewhere between March and May, but we'll see. 

It's a Short One Today

 

Latest jigsaw puzzle. This is the one I treated myself to after Christmas. Proof, if it were needed, that I'm just an old romantic at heart with a love of fairy tales and happy ever after endings. This is, naturally,  a keeper; I really need to crack on with a few more that are Destined to Go. 

The weather is such that I feel perhaps I should be following Noah and starting to build an Ark; there was no walk yesterday and it looks doubtful for today. The OH has driven into Kirkwall for his annual, but rather delayed, retinal scan. Since it's persisting down he has chosen, against all advice on the appointment letter to the contrary, to drive in, not being able to face the prospect of having to walk back from the bus stop in the pouring rain And who an blame him? They have never yet put any drops in his eyes for this scan that would interfere with him driving, so let's hope this is isn't the first time they do it! 

St Mary's and Seals

We weren't sure where to go for our walk yesterday as it has been so wet recently that it's necessary to stick to roads unless we want to get literally bogged down. There were also heavy showers forecast and it was very very cold. We decided on a short walk in St Mary's village which is in the parish of Holm (pronounced Ham), about half way between Burray and Kirkwall.  It has to be said that quite a lot of people, ourselves included when we're not thinking properly, tend to call the village Holm but it's not, it's St Mary's. 

I wore a v -necked jacket with the new cowl underneath it, and very warm and cosy it was too. Which was just as well, given the weather. 

In the event we walked rather further than we had planned, but that was a good thing. Despite the strong wind we ventured along to the end of the pier, which we've never done before and that felt like a bit of an adventure, since it would have been no fun being blown into the sea. 

We were rewarded by seeing a whole group of seals, about a dozen of them although, as per usual, in the photograph all you can see of them is small heads bobbing over the waves. 

Looking back at the village from the end of the pier. We were impressed by the harbour wall, which of course we had never seen before as it's not visible from the road at any point! 

There honestly are seals in this photograph, about eight of them.

This is an old storehouse which once belonged to a large Orkney  estate, and it is chiefly famous for being briefly captured by Pirate Gow, a local bad boy who took unsuccessfully to piracy and came to a Bad End. He was apparently part of the inspiration  for Walter Scott's novel The Pirate, but readers who have been with me long enough to remember my reports of having to read The Talisman will not be surprised to learn that I have never read The Pirate. 

Dead Time Knitting

So I always think the time between Christmas and New Year is a bit of a dead time.  I wanted to do something productive with it this year so I thought I would knit something that was quick. I'd been given some wool for Christmas by a friend and as it was lovely and warm and thick it seemed the perfect choice. I had thee skeins of it and I used two, one on a hat

and one on a cowl

I love the way the colour did a zigzag stripe around the cowl. I also love the way it's tight enough to cover the bottom of my face when we're out and it's very very cold. 

I'll use up the third skein on some mittens in due course. 

Meanwhile we continue to walk most days and I continue to work on my blanket. Mattress stitch is slower than I anticipated and hard work when you have rolled edges. I am getting better at it though. which has to be a good thing.

A Rave and Not a Rant

.Natalie Haynes

She's brilliant.  

I can't remember exactly when I became aware of her; sometime last year I think Possibly when she was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction for her novel about the Trojan War - A Thousand Ships. I'd just read Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls which was sort of about the same thing and A Thousand Ships  came up as an associated recommendation, in the helpful or irritating  way these things have. (I don't mind it when it's books, but honestly how stupid does a computer algorithm have to be to send  you a message saying 'Last week you bought this lawn mower for £2000. Here are some other things you might be interested in ... ' before listing another ten lawn mowers. How many lawn mowers does one individual need?) But I digress. 

Because the digital library didn't  have it, I bought it. And then I bought her earlier book The Children of Jocasta. And then I got her Radio Series Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics on audible. And because it was half price I bought A Thousand Ships on Audible too. I put her most recent book, Pandora's Jar on my Amazon wish list for Christmas and as is the January way with these things as no-one had bought me that, or the Aimee Stewart jigsaw, I bought them for myself. This is in no way a dig at anyone. I got lots of lovely things from my Wishlist and I was pleased with them and grateful for them. As I was with everything I was given. I just didn't want to wait to read Pandora's Jar) 

Haynes is clever and funny and well read, but she is all these things without being conceited or overbearing or patronising. A Thousand Ships was my favourite novel of last year; it made me laugh and cry and be angry and indignant in turns. I particularly love the voices she gave to Calliope, Muse of Poetry ('Let's not talk about Helen, she gets on my nerves' being a classic line) and Penelope who goes from patient credulous wife to really annoyed and non-credulous in a very believable way during  the ten years it takes her husband to get home from Troy. And there's a wonderful description of the moulting, confused, petulant Eris, the goddess of discord, who lobs a golden apple into a crowd of wedding guests and thus in a way starts the whole thing off. 

If you have an edge to your tongue and believe as Haynes does that war exacts a toll on women as well as men, and one just as worthy of being documented,  you will enjoy this book. Except of course for the bit in the afterword where she describes a male friend who denies the heroism of women in war. That will leave you aghast. I hope. 

The Cowl is complete

 and here it is.

The long point is designed to go down the front of coats or jackets with V-necks, and the piece that goes around your neck is double thickness. Very warm and cosy and the colours in the wool are lovely, although not particularly well visible in photographs. 

In other knitting news I have been scheduling 'start sewing blanket strips together ' on a daily basis for what seems like (but actually isn't) weeks and failing to get around to it. It's partly because other things have taken up my time and partly fear, since it involves learning mattress stitch, which I'm told is really easy. I'm just not sure that I believe it. However today I feel is the day to finally make a start. Just not quite yet. 

Phew, I'm Exhausted!

Today was the day that I gave the paper to the MLA Convention - over Zoom. At one point it seemed as though  we were going to be required to record ourselves and upload the recording but in the end it was hosted over Zoom. The MLA Convention is huge; the program which lists all the sessions  this year was 126 double columned pages long and I gather it's normally four times that size. So it's a Big Thing. 

Almost completely floored by Imposter Syndrome at the start when I realised that all other panellists plus Chair were Professors, and worried they would start wondering what on earth I was doing amongst them. Then I pulled on my big girl pants and reminded myself that if I had taken a different turn in my life I too might have been a Professor, or at least something a bit more impressive than just a Dr., and got on with it. 

The session was timed for 1.45 EST, so early evening here and that wasn't the best thing because it meant I couldn't concentrate on anything else all day save getting ready for it. When I have too much time before something like this I suffer from pencil itch which means I start tinkering with my paper - not ideal. But it's done and actually when it came to it I really rather enjoyed it. There was someone in the 'audience' I hadn't expected to be there and it was really nice to get  a message from her saying how much she had enjoyed my paper -  I know her well enough to know she would not have said that just for the sake of politeness, so that was good. 

I am however exhausted. So I shall be having a very early night I think. 

We've missed our walks for a couple of days this week, including today, because of abysmal weather, but we managed one yesterday and here's a photo, taken on South Ronaldsay, the next island down from us. 

100 Books to Read Poster No 24

 

So on the blurb of the cover the top says 'The novel that thinks it's a history of philosophy' and the bottom says 'The history of philosophy that thinks it's a novel' and when I read that I thought there are three ways this can go. It can fail as a novel, it can fail as a history of philosophy or it can fail as both. In theory there's a fourth option in which the book is a rousing success as both, but that was never going to happen  because if books could be both successful novels and successful histories of philosophy this wouldn't be the first one and there would be lots of them. Never let it be said that publishers can't recognise the main chance. 

It certainly fails as a novel. It has a clumsy and repetitive framing device, which falls apart towards the end, the dialogue is abysmal, the characters are cardboard and it is pretentious, preachy and propagandist. I'm not qualified to decide whether it fails as a history of philosophy, although there are several people included there who I wouldn't think of as philosophers so much as scientists or economists And then there is Freud. Goodness only knows what he's doing there. Apart from taking up space that could have been better spent discussing the French Enlightenment which is given very short shrift. Don't get me wrong. Freud was a great and original thinker, but a philosopher? Not so much, or at least not  the way I see it. 

The one thing I am likely to retain from this not-quite-400 page tome is that there was more to Epicureanism than a justification for sensory gluttony. Which I won't deny is worth knowing, but that was on page 103. 

For the avoidance of doubt, I  really did not like this book. At.  All. 

Walks

 Somewhat to my surprise we are managing to keep up our daily walk - helped a lot by the weather which has been mainly good. It can't last (the good weather, or the daily walking) but I'm making the most of it while it does.

So Saturday we did our  third barrier beach walk. This involves driving to the start of the barrier, then walking back along the sand looking for  shells and trying to avoid the occasional jellyfish while my back screams in protest at the way I'm putting so much strain on it by walking lopsidedly on a heavy sand slope. This is followed by a short but faintly worrying trek over seaweed covered rocks  to get to the bottom of a set of rotting and villainous steps. They take us back to the road on which we trog back to the car. I know, I've made it sound irresistible. It's fun though. I've got loads of photos of it on here already, so for today I'll just pop  up a pic of some seaweed which matched my jacket. 

Sunday we had a long walk at the Ring of Brodgar. Fabulous day - there was no wind at all, which is very unusual for Orkney. One or two people about but not too many. 

It was muddy underfoot so we wore our boots for the first time in ages. Also some boot socks which were a present from a friend in the US. 

As so often on Orkney we were blessed with a fantastic rainbow. 

And I tried to take some moody reflection photos. 

Yesterday was pretty grey and dampish to be honest so as the OH needed to go and do the shopping I went into town with him and we did a short walk along the harbourside and then round a thing known as the Peedie Sea. 

We saw lots of swans, some of which I took a photo of, and a man walking the cutest husky puppy, which naturally I didn't. 

Today, because we were taking down the decorations and also because the OH needed to work we stayed local and did one of our circuits round the village. It was further than I thought as I discovered when I felt my watch buzz to tell me I had made my daily step target well before we got home. 

In other news I have now finished the increase part of the First Footing Cowl and this evening I'll be tackling the first  bit of odd construction. I also need to cross my fingers I have a 40cm 4.00mm circular needle or I will be stuck until I can get hold of one. 

Really not how you want to start the day

 We were woken this morning by something that sounded like someone blundering about the house. This is worrying, although it has to be said that it is probably a lot less worrying in Orkney than in other parts of Britain, because however bad it sounds the chances of it actually being what the Australians call 'a home invader' here are infinitesimal to nil. That doesn't mean though that it can be ignored, especially when you have cats. 

Now I wouldn't want anyone to think that I don't have almost impeccable feminist credentials, but I have to say that for me the investigation of strange noises in the home is definitely down to the male of the species, always assuming there is one in situ. So it was the OH who followed a trail of bird poo and blood along the passage to the spare room, there to discover both cats, and a terrified water rail beating itself against the window. 

Apparently frightened water rails are difficult to catch Who knew? 

So, my general preference is for the cats just not to bring livestock into the house; when they do my preference would always be for the mammalian rather than the avian variety. I don't want small loose voles and mice running round my house, but better them than large-ish birds. 

He did catch it, and managed to open the window and get it outside (and there's another lesson, we really should check how easily our windows are opening all round the house on a regular basis or they will seize up). And then he cleaned up the mess by which time I was up and hovering around, putting on washing and doing vaguely useful things around the coffee machine. 

We walked yesterday and today, but that will be tomorrow's post; meanwhile here's a picture of the latest progress on the cowl. I know it looks nothing like a cowl just now, but that's because it is 'of strange and ingenious design', and assuming I don't go horribly wrong all will be revealed in due course. 

I had all sorts of plans for today but I think, in view of the discombobulating start I will abandon them all in favour of hot drinks, shortbread and watching Casablanca which I recorded over Christmas and have yet to catch up with. 

New Years Day Walk

 So probably because we felt like we have been confined to this end of Orkney for far too long, yesterday we set off in the car north and west  to find somewhere good for a walk. We decided to stop in Finstown, basically because it's there. It's the  sort of place that you tend to drive through rather than stop at unless you happen to live there. It's a fairly unremarkable village but beautifully positioned on the coast with two small islands in the bay and several other slightly larger ones visible on a clear day. There are also some very nice older houses and, unbeknownst to me because I don't take the interest the OH does in stuff, a new park.  

The park features running water which is rarer than you might think on Orkney

and also an arched gateway, I'm always a  sucker for those 

I'd thought it might be all a bit brown and barren at this time of year but actually some of the trees had lots of colour -

-and there was white honesty

and red berries 

and pink blossom - that one's a bit out of focus sadly

and when we came home I did some work on the first foot cowl. 

Not a bad day all in all. I even quite enjoyed the Dr Who special. 

The Sparklies Number 2

 

Oh look, it's socks. These are for the OH who watched me knit them thinking they were for me. Why he thought I might want to wear sparkly socks I can't imagine. Anyway they got finished yesterday - I was sorry I didn't have them done in time for his birthday but there you go. 

I went to the FB hosted cast-on-along for my new cowl yesterday. It was quite fun although I got the impression that everyone there already knew one another. That said the set up of the cowl took some concentration so I was quite pleased that I wasn't obliged to carry on a conversation while I did it. I did some more work on it when the FB thing was finished and  this is how far I got. 

We went for a long walk in Finstown today and I have some lovely photos but I haven't quite got around to sorting them out, so that will be the blog post tomorrow. And we'll be doing another walk, temperature and weather permitting. Not sure how long we can keep our resolution re a daily walk but it was good to get out of the house, and indeed off Burray, and go somewhere else today. 

2021 has been OK so far. I'm not taking that as an omen though.