Dear Orlando, I am very worried about my health. Every time I sit on the mat near the warm fire, find a comfy place on a lap or am stroked, I experience a strange wheezing and rumbling. Have I got some sort of chest infection, or congestion of the lungs? Or maybe a severe stomach … Continue reading Help! A strange rumbling
Tell us 4 important facts about yourself: My son Freddy is my greatest achievement I need to get outside into nature every day to walk and think and find that if I don’t then I am probably even more difficult to live with! Animals, including my dogs, pet sheep and deer, are my passion I … Continue reading Quick & Quirky Questions with Polly Pullar
All images taken by Polly Pullar Sleep has been hard to come by, for I have been rising in the small hours to nurture a minute red squirrel kit, rescued by a Braemar Mountain Rescue Team member, and aptly described as ‘another climber’. We care about red squirrels. Imagine one hundred people together from all … Continue reading Squirrel
I’ve always adored animals and have had lots of pets over the years. When I reached my fifties, however, I found myself living in Ross and Cromarty, sharing a house (and running a business) with a dear friend, and thoroughly pet-less. It was a strange experience. I was happy and busy and working and socialising, … Continue reading Webster and Wolfie in Wigtown
Tell us 4 important facts about yourself: When I was young, I travelled to Samarkand and then further along the Silk Road to Penjikent, the ancient Sogdian city where Alexander married Roxanne. I am inordinately proud of my two grown-up children. Paying many visits behind the Iron Curtain in the 1970s/80s really opened my eyes … Continue reading Quick & Quirky Questions with Vivien Martin
‘If you go down to the woods today . . .’ . . . you don’t usually expect to come face-to-face with an emu. But last week I did. And I have to admit that, fence or no fence, he was a scary-looking character! I’d gone for a walk from the small Perthshire town of … Continue reading ‘If you go down to the woods today . . .’
Dear Orlando, I write in a state of total despair. My humans have started shutting me in some sort of overnight prison and I’m absolutely furious. Prior to this outrage, I enjoyed roaming around my house, doing whatever the hell I liked and sitting atop whatever pleased me. Granted, this included my humans, and I … Continue reading Stuck in overnight cat prison
Tell us 4 important facts about yourself: My fascination in life is religion I wish I had married a farmer I am ambitious, more so now than ever I listen What is your favourite age that you’ve been so far in life, and why? 17 is my favourite age. For most of my childhood I … Continue reading Quick & Quirky Questions with Sue Oxley
Our CLANGERS project has come to a natural end, but our content from Autumn Voices members and bloggers goes on! We thoroughly recommend you continue to practice the principles of CLANGERS as part of your creative activities, and you may yet here more from us about them (this is deliberate intrigue on our part here) but we … Continue reading A Scottish Seabird Centre Volunteer writes . . .
Renita kindly offered us some of her bedtime stories to help us nod off to sleep last month. To round things off, and to get us into the mood for our September theme of pets, animals and the natural world and our forthcoming poetry competition, she has a woodland theme and a poem for us. … Continue reading Renita’s Last Bedtime Story
Tell us 4 important facts about yourself: I am the father of two brilliant girls I play lots of music I am blind in my left eye I walk an intelligent collie. Or as Georgie tells me, he takes me for walkies. What is your favourite age that you’ve been so far in life, and … Continue reading Quick & Quirky Questions with Miller Caldwell
Tell us 4 important facts about yourself: I had a happy marriage from which I have a son and a daughter, now in their forties, living useful and creative lives. I was a librarian for thirty years. As poet and editor I’ve had many books published and as a publisher myself I’ve midwifed many books … Continue reading Quick & Quirky Questions with Hamish Whyte
So, okay, I know this isn’t going to be a ‘How To’ book, but I can’t help hoping there might be a tip or two from a poet renowned for both his poems and his insomnia. Let me begin. It’s a hard read. I start at the Notes & Acknowledgements (isn’t this where every writer … Continue reading Diana Hendry reviews – Learning to Sleep by John Burnside
Renita has kindly offered us some of her bedtime stories to help us nod off to sleep this month. She normally reads them to young children, but we think bedtime stories are for everyone, so either share this with someone to help them fall asleep or keep it all to yourself! As a preface to … Continue reading Renita’s Bedtime Story
Tell us 4 important facts about yourself: Jane and I have been married for 55 years so far I’ve never stopped learning I’m a lifelong Zen Buddhist I love people What is your favourite age that you’ve been so far in life, and why? My fifties. I reached the top of my profession, then took … Continue reading Quick & Quirky Questions with Colin Will
