Sian

@Walkaholic I don’t think I did, no! One to look out for. We only did a short walk up the glen and back as we also wanted to walk into Largs and stock up on sweets. We need to go back and explore the whole estate properly, maybe in the spring.

A lively river runs through a glen and on the riverbank above it, a series of wooden letters spell out the words My Beloved. A smaller stream runs down between the letters to join the river.

A beautifully located artwork in the glen at the Kelburn Estate near Largs.

Ereader showing the cover of Voices by Ursula K Le Guin

I loved this. Very similar to The Tombs of Atuan, in that it features a new protagonist in the same world, but also that that protagonist is a clever, driven girl who makes her own future.

Full of the importance of literacy and story, and the responsibility […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

If you’re following me on Bluesky, please know that I can’t follow you back unless you bridge your account. It’s not difficult! Instructions here: https://fed.brid.gy/docs#bluesky-get-started I miss you all and would be happy to follow you back if could.

A very sad read about working life at the British Library after the cyber attack that happened two years ago: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-library-strike-cyber-attack-b2855495.html

As a Library Systems person, that attack is always at the back of my mind as I work […]

So sanity has prevailed and I’m just not going. I’m not willing to travel on rammed trains with no seat reservation, and thankfully the flights don’t really work out, as I hate taking domestic flights.

It’s a shame I’ll miss the User Day I was travelling for, but it’s even more of a shame that […]

@Walkaholic The landslide is at Shap, so south of Carlisle. It looks like they're running buses but 🤢 I don't get on with coaches. I'm reluctantly looking at flights but there's not many of them, as it's ridiculous to fly such a short distance.

Thank you for the sympathy, it's appreciated!

@samanthalf.bsky.social Oh I'm still at home. I'm trying to work out how horrific tomorrow will be and whether it's even worth it.

I was booked on a civilized 9:30am train. Looks like my best bet now will be the 06:48 Cross Country, which will have no unreserved seats and will take SIX HOURS to get to Birmingham. And Cross Country always gets delays, so probably more like seven. And still with the likelihood that my train […]

I hate to sound rabidly self centred, and of course I hope no one is hurt, but I have West Coast Main Line induced PTSD* so I can’t help but take it personally that the day before I have to travel for work, there is a derailment and all lines are blocked. I can already feel my heart rate […]

An eraser displaying the cover of Gifts by Ursula K Le Guin

Continuing my (deliberately) slow paced Le Guin read. This is a quiet and thoughtful book with not a lot of action, but plenty of wonderful world building and character work. No one can do as much with as few words as Le Guin.

There's a lot here about using […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

A fieldfare is perched on a small branch among a lot of red berries, it has a beautiful ochre-colored chest full of tiny dark spots, the light grey head is tilted to the side and it got a searching look.

These berries are mine!
Don’t even think about it!

A river bordered with autumnal trees, and a blue sky behind

Golden leaves clinging to a tree, with blue skies behind

A bridge over a river, with a church tower beside it and mostly bare trees, though one still has golden leaves

Text of the poem November by Maggie Dietz, from the Poetry Foundation website

The first of November, along the Kelvin Walkway

#Glasgow #Scotland #poetry

Photo of curled up fox. It snuck its nose under the tail.

firefox

Cover of Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Read this in one wet, windy night, which was atmospherically perfect for this wonderfully woody novella.

If you like Green Men and folklore and autumn and forests, then you'll love this, plus it has a lovely queer love story too.

If you're in the UK you'll […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

Cover of The October Country by Ray Bradbury

A seasonally appropriate read, and interesting to read some 'foundational' SFF short stories.

My favorites were The Emissary, Scythe, Uncle Einar and The Wind. No one can write nostalgia quite like Bradbury.

I was going to whinge about the female characters […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

Two #UrsulaLeGuin treats from these days off.

#books #bookstodon

A wide river with trees turning gold and red along it's bank and blue skies above.

The tree canopy with green and gold leaves lit by the sun

A broad path covered with fallen leaves, beneath green and gold trees lit by the sun

Two men fishing in a river, bordered by autumnal trees

Having some days off to enjoy Autumn properly.

#Crieff #perthshire #Scotland

A riverside path with a low stone wall on the right and trees on the left, covered in fallen leaves and illuminated by the late, low sun

Autumnal leaves clinging to a tree lit by the sun

A faint rainbow over autumnal trees on a river bank

Large riverside houses reflected in the water

#SilentSunday

@florilegia.bsky.social Thank you! Wish you could've been there - I do miss our yarn market heydays!

Four skeins of yarn; one dark blue DK from Iolair Yarns, one lavender blue 4 ply from Woollenflower, two vibrant green worsted from Rainbow Heirloom

Showed great restraint at the Glasgow School of Yarn.

#knitting #yarn

Cover of The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leith

A wide, slightly shallow, survey of British children's literature - not that it could have been much wider without doubling the length!

Really good indepth looks at some authors (Kipling, Nesbit, Hodgson Burnett) not enough on others (Lucy M Boston) and a few […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

Cover of Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter

A short but beautiful and sad read. Loved the way you get such a vivid portrait of the family from so few pages, and how real their grief feels.

I've read Porter backwards, as I read both Lanny and Shy before this. I think this and Lanny are my favorites - I […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

Close up of the button band of a green baby cardigan with heart shaped wooden buttons, and a handmade care label with spare yarn and spare buttons

A green hand knitted baby cardigan with heart shaped wooden buttons

With buttons and care label 😇

And now in the post!

#knitting

Cover of The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden

I wish I'd read this when I was younger. Loved the endless summer vibes, the adolescent angst, that feeling of escaping an ordinary, humdrum existence and lovely Willmouse.

But oh it's so hard in this day and age to read all the fully grown men lusting over […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

Sunshine lighting up oak leaves that are just starting to turn golden

A wooden bridge beneath an old oak tree, the path covered in fallen acorns

Trees by the river turning to gold

#SilentSunday

A green, textured, buttonless baby cardigan drying on a pink towel

This is why I've been silent for several weeks - still only a baby cardigan but all the K1 P1 has been keeping me very busy. Cast off the second sleeve the very day its recipient was born, so once it's dry and has buttons it will be on its way.

Pattern […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]

I was driven to the pub from my office and the very, very large spreadsheet of academic journal collections I'm wading through when I encountered "Advances in Cement Research" and the "Magazine of Concrete Research."

I mean really.

View up Loch Lomond with colourful buoys on the loch in the foreground and mountains in the distance

Autumn sun at Balloch. Love feeling the changing of the seasons.

Cover of The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

The most original novel I've read in a long time, with fantastic world building and language. The magic and mythology is rich and varied. Chandrasekera does a brilliant job of giving us an immigrants POV into a complex, bureaucratic, often violent city / state […]

[Original post on mastodon.scot]