scenes from middle aged life

Standing infront of a Fringe hoarding tonight in Edinburgh with a friend guesticulating rudely at the sight of 3 male comics advertised infront of us. Where are the women? And frankly Edinburgh’s pretty well over the comics too. ( You can tell the festival is coming a sleugh of London types are starting to follow me on twitter.)

Leith is full of young men cycling on pavements. They are drug couriers – a friend of mine yells after them ‘Ya mammy no let you on the road’ to try and embarrass them. Leith Polis in the style of getting Al Capone via tax – make the wee buggers bloody walk.

I’ve spent 24 hours trying to get the Fat Black Cat to pee into a litter tray to get a sample for the vet – she is most affronted and plotting to phone Catline.

I went on holiday to Galway and hurrah! the last vestiges of the desire to achieve have left and spent it pottering around quietly mostly in this awesome bookshop.

While I was having lunch at Ard Bia the owner came up and showed me a photo of a lady with a crocheted shawl and asked if I could make one (I was crocheting a shawl for the person I was going on to stay with) which lead me to look at photos of shawls on the Arran Islands.  I’m definately going to rock the shawl, scarf, black dress and sensible shoe look this year.

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Public Meeting about India Buildings Development and impact on Edinburgh Central Library

7pm 5th April Grassmarket Project Grassmarket

Our beautiful Carnegie Library is about to be trashed by this uncivilized city. It needs all the support it can get. More info here at the Let there be Light blog.

F**k it + tutus

 What a tumultuous time I’ve been experiencing…. I’m aware that I’ve been writing  / thinking this for a 2 years now .. or more?

On Friday I went to a memorial in Glasgow which I was dreading. The weather was truly Shakesperian and cooperated by sheeting rain, gray skies and blacker buildings. I managed to fall UP some stairs – a first for me. I passed the few hours beforehand at The Yarncake. The truly hideous weather removed all desire to tramp to galleries to improve myself. Instead I parked myself in the The Yarncake, purchased some yarn and did a little crochet. If you are yarn minded and going to Glasgow do make the effort to seek it out only a few minutes walk from Hillhead underground station. The cakes looked utterly divine but I’d had a huge lunch at the Hillhead Book Club near the subway so resisted.

At the memorial I met people I haven’t seen in 15-20 years. People who belong to a different part of my life. A part which I sometimes regret, a part which I sometimes celebrate, a part which enrages me. (I am a former feminist activist who in middle age regrets not learing to use a gun. All I can say that it’s a jolly good thing this country has strong gun control laws). And recent encounters with young women online haven’t improved my mood.

I don’t know if the younger me could ever have understood or contemplated what I’ve been through in the last twenty years. How I have struggled through chronic unending illness to keep my sanity, try and create a bearable meaningful  life for myself.  How do you explain to someone who chirps at you – ‘have you made any films recently? That actually just getting up in the morning and getting through the day is a win? And that really I’m beyond the woman who thought mistakenly that achieving things and public ticks of approval was a good way to organise her life and that in anycase it never worked and never made her feel any better?

And then  the next day as a sort of reward by the universe after the gloom of the day before I went to a wedding. A lovely wedding where I sat with lovely people. Despite everything I’ve managed post my earlier life to make new friends. I was charmed to finally meet the mother of one. Who made my heart purr when she announced that really she had gotten rid of her husband after 20 years because ‘she couldn’t  be bothered to live with someone else’ and in her retirement has become a devotee of the most violent video games giving the geekiest dorkiest boy a good run for their money.

And today I met a friend for a walk on Portobello Beach and we followed it by errands in Ocean Terminal which evolved into trying to find the friend a grown up tutu to celebrate a photo of herself wearing one aged 5.

And yesterday before the wedding I went down to pick up a vinyl copy of my favourite album – the live recording of the last Ziggy Stardust concert. I’m too tired to set up the turntable I bought to play it on but consider it part of the same project. Not to wait for permission to do what we love and like, or hide it because its not the done thing to wear a Tutu aged 38, or video games if one is 60 plus and a woman or craft if one is a grumpy ill feminist.

 

the solace of making

January, crappy day at work, dark, nearly went down the social media rabbit hole, that unsatisfactory flitting about online but pulled myself back from the brink put on The Last Five Years the doc about David Bowie (Be Still My Beating Heart!) and took out some crafting and felt slightly whole again

Renoir’s Garden – Monmartre

I highly recommend going to Renoir’s Garden Museum in Monmartre. Actually Renoir only stayed there a few years but Suzanne Valadon lived there much longer and she is very interesting. Her studio is preserved and they had an extensive exhibtion of her works when we were there, The exhibtions do change though so I’m sure it would be different by now.  But what really transformed it for us was discovering it has a ‘cat with a job’. The clue was when we came across this half open cupboard as we walked over to a room with an audio visual display. After wandering in the gardens and admiring the vines in the vinyard next door (the vinyard is run by the Mayor of Monmartre and the wine is sold for charity – you can buy bottles in the museum shop) we were rewarded by meeting the occupier of the basket. A very fine almost friendly Museum Cat Greeter who is obviously a French Cousin of the Fat Black Cat Herself. Sadly we failed to get the name of this hard working feline.

Captaine Crochet!

A poster seen on the Paris Metro… I had to take a photo for obvious reasons…!!

I did another African Flower Hexagon blanket. Made with Big Merino from the Jenners Haberdashery closing down sale in September. Like many other crafters I gorged myself on yarn. Made of this blanket very quickly then stalled on the half hexagons and the border.I’d started making these blankets to send to Knit-a-square in memory of a family friend Jo Warner who died a year ago. I meant to get an email together with pictures to send to her husband Norman Bright but I kept putting it off. In the last few days I just heard that Norman has died too. Oh dear please please lets stop putting off difficult things and difficult emails. its to  easy to think another time is a better time but the imperfect now is better.

Jo worked for many years in education so  KAS remit to support early years education through the informal creches in shanty towns seemed appropriate.

Monmartre II

More to come! I’m struggling with the new wordpress dashboard.  Meanwhile in other breaking news I finally planted my parrott tulips ordered in the Autumn. A realisation that one has to plan for forward pleasures. A gardening minded friend thought they might actually come up next autumn! But gardening in Nov/Dec was a no no for me. So I popped out with the aid of a dessert spoon planted them all and hope that cats/squirrels do not dig them up.