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Wednesday 30 November 2011

Iron Pour

Stephen Coles is a sculptor with an MFA from Alfred, New York State, and now has a studio on his dad's Dorset farm. A couple of weekends ago Mr Kite and I went over to help him with an iron pour. My role was pretty safe and easy: take photos. Everyone else was kitted out in full leathers and visors; sand and water easy at hand. 






  The moulds ready for molten iron



  Pouring. 



Exciting stuff! I think the next pour will be bronze; casting a mince pie among more practical things. More on that later. 


Sunday 13 November 2011

Photographic Update

Okay, so I realise that I've been pretty slap-dash about updating what's what over the past few months. So here's some pictures describing the last two months of stuff that's been happening, late october-november's adventures not yet uploaded/ included. 

Cuthays Farm, near Axminster. Mary was interested in buying this dilapidated farmhouse and 28 acres of beautiful land. But it was falling down a little bit too much, and she wants more acres to plant her nut crops and forest garden. Still, it was very interesting to view it. The place wasn't connected into mains water, only having a well, it was all really well set up in an old fashioned and very sensible manner that we'd label permaculture nowadays, but then it was just good old normal common sense. 






Cuthays fields with plenty of wild food. 

Less wild food from Mr Kite's greenhouse, tomatoes grown by my fair hand.  Still cropping right into late October. 

Tay from Cherry Wood with puppy Kaia, ours for such a brief flash of time. 


Kaia's dad is Pippin, and her mum is Mooty of Cherry Wood. Perfect parentage! 



Kaia


Kaia lived with us for two lovely weeks before going on to a new home. We miss her! But I don't miss her mess. 

This is the cabin before Kaia came:

 And here it is during her stay. Very different:



My veg garden back in September. Love it!!




Walking near Mr Kite's place.



The River Stour. 


My allotment in september



Tuesday 8 November 2011

Volunteer


For me 2011 has been a year of volunteering for things, getting involved in the community etc. I unintentionally found myself as the president of my local WI; on the WI committee; a co-organiser of Storyslingers, my writing group; a member of two other writing groups, plus a writers’ network; a member of a Local Action Group for a funding body; a voluntary press officer; a member of a reading group, and a few one off things.
Out of all these things, the only group that has given anything positive back to me has been Storyslingers, and the writing network. The others have simply piled stress onto me, demanded more than I am capable of, and even insulted me.
I now realise why a lot of young people don't get involved in community things; life is in too much of a delicate balance while you're trying to establish a career, not living in your own house and with more money going out than in. These community things are better for retired people who have security, have already ploughed all their effort into their own lives and careers and can comfortably give something back. I'm not there yet! 

And if you ever come across some gullible youngish person willing to volunteer their time to help the community, please consider the fact that they are still learning, they are likely to be struggling financially, and the last thing you should do is to rant your discontent at them. 

2012 is going to be a year for me, for focusing 100% on my career, on spending some time with people of my own generation. 


Monday 3 October 2011

Web Serial Story










I’ve started a new online story that’s available for all to read. The format is in a blog style, about a girl just starting Uni (art school). Eventually I’d like to have it as an interactive story, with guest writers, illustrators, photographers etc. But for now it’s just me on my lonesome.


The idea behind the project is that it’s in real time, so the story is unfolding in parallel to real life timings. All the writing is raw and unedited. It’s a project to encourage me to write something very regularly and get it out there without hanging onto it for years rewriting it and getting bogged down in perfecting it.

I’m 4 blog posts into the story. Here is post (chapter) 1: http://uni-diaries.blogspot.com/2011/09/freshers-week.html






Monday 19 September 2011





















Find out about Yves Klein at Artsy www.artsy.net/artist/yves-klein
- a great resource including a biography, pictures, articles and exhibition listings.

Monday 12 September 2011

Intersection

A new short story of mine has been published by the most excellent Pygmy Giant. You can read it by going here: http://thepygmygiant.com/2011/09/12/intersection/
It's less of a story and more of an intersection between two narratives that haven't been written, with some philosophy thrown in. I hope you like it!


You can read another story I wrote a few years ago that I also got published at the Pygmy Giant: http://thepygmygiant.com/2008/12/05/elder/

Let England Shake




Dorset is a great place to live. We're surrounded by beautiful countryside, inspiring people and soul-enriching music and literature. I've only recently come across PJ Harvey, and now she's won the Mercury Prize I'm starting to pay her proper attention. After listening to Let England Shake, and then quickly downloading White Chalk, I can really feel Dorset in her lyrics and in the quality of her music. 


When I write stories there is something I want to capture, and I think that PJ Harvey has managed to capture something very similar. I hope that someday I will be as eloquent as she. 


Yes, PJ Harvey does Dorset proud, and I get the feeling that Dorset does PJ Harvey proud. 


http://jump-into-the-void.blogspot.com/2008/12/patriot.html

Listening to Let England Shake makes me think that no one who truly feels patriotism would chose to go to war, other than to defend their land. To attack another territory is about as un-patriotic as you can get. We need nothing more than this glorious land. No other territory can match it. 

Monday 5 September 2011

Current Project Research: collected massive attack shorts #2

I'm working on a new Massive Attack short story based on the Atlas Air song from Heligoland. The story deals with extraordinary rendition, as does the song. In light of today's news I thought I would link to Massive Attack's Atlas Air and give a little mention to this short that I'm working on. It's still in draft form at the moment, but when it's readable I'll talk more about the story and research that's gone into it.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14790034


this is an American and therefore slightly sensationalist version of the report:



See http://jump-into-the-void.blogspot.com/2011/05/current-project-research-collected.html for more info on this project.

Friday 5 August 2011

Sci fi story published on Kasma

A sci fi story of mine has been published by Kasma magazine. You can read it by following this link: http://www.kasmamagazine.com/beached.html

Enjoy!

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Narrated Songs II

Another narrated song. I prefer story-based narrative songs. This is more poetic. It's awesome either way. I love Boys Noize, and Jarvis Cocker is some kind of artistic genius.


more narrated songs here

Sunday 31 July 2011

Mary came to stay



Mary visited us. She helped out in my allotment (did most of the work), we fired up the cob oven for the first time, she designed the outdoor kitchen area (awesome drawing skills), and then we went bat detecting in the woods. We saw soprano pips, noctule, serotine (I think), and lots of daubenton's over the river on the way back.







Elderflower champagne I made a few weeks back

Thursday 28 July 2011

Against 2.

"The pessimistic, sceptical and narrow views of the English public, who stupidly adore the pretty-pretty, the commonplace, the soft, the sweet, and mediocre, the sickly revivals of medievalism, the Garden Cities with their curfews and artificial battlements, the may-pole Morris dances, aestheticism, Oscar Wilde, the Pre-Raphaelites, Neo-primitives and Paris."



Tuesday 26 July 2011

garden

The garden is looking pretty. We weren't going to plant anything this year, instead rest it because it's very low in nutrients. But I caved and planted stuff anyway.










The cabin

This is at the allotment a few weeks ago