Each month we try to have an Autumn Voices member contribute to the blog. This could be anything from poetry to pottery and if you’d like to be a guest blogger then apply once you’re logged in as a member.
Regular Autumn Voices contributor, Anne Dunford, is back with another book review for us. This time, we asked her to review Stewart Conn’s latest pamphlet, Underwood, published by Mariscat Press this summer. The title of this, Stewart Conn’s fourth poetry pamphlet, is taken from the old Underwood Standard typewriter which Stewart had inherited from his father. … Continue reading Anne Dunford reviews – Underwood by Stewart Conn
I was fairly certain I’d enjoy this book as soon as I saw it. As I love Scottish islands and poetry, I was almost sure it would be good – and it was. However, this is a book that will, I’m sure, also be enjoyed by many who don’t share my enthusiasms! An excellent introduction … Continue reading Anne Dunford reviews – Other Worlds – An Anthology of Scottish Island Poems Edited by Stewart Conn
There is something very soothing about the rhythmic sound of paddles dipping in and out of a calm sea, the soft lift of a swell as the tide comes in. Kayaking would have been high on my bucket list if I’d ever thought of making one – but I was in my fifties before I … Continue reading Cold Water Therapy
When I moved into my cottage the garden was virtually empty – just a blank page waiting for some words. The cottage had been a rental property, but had been empty for a while, so my next-door neighbour had used it to grow vegetables and, apart from a small privet hedge, it had nothing much … Continue reading My Garden
In Autumn of 2021, Autumn Voices launched its Third Age Plus Pioneers project across Scotland – an initiative seeking to benefit the very oldest in our society and to challenge the perceptions around people in their tenth decade of life. We piloted a project supporting the over-90s in their desire to remain valuable and creative … Continue reading Objects and Memory
Tuesday, March 24th, 2020, was the first day of the lockdown in Scotland. For almost a year before the pandemic, I was bedbound. I’d spent the first two months of the previous year in hospital. I had injured my back, and it had gone into debilitating and painful spasms. This, on top of the fact … Continue reading Multiple sclerosis through lockdown
Most people have heard of Multiple Sclerosis, and also Motor Neurone Disease, since Rob Burrow and Doddie Weir highlighted that disease through their own experiences. These illnesses and many others, like cancer and dementia, attract quite a lot of funding, media campaigns and governmental research. However, my illness, Myasthenia Gravis, is little known and research … Continue reading Living with Chronic Illness
In the lush green county of Hampshire lies a range of chalk hills: the South Downs. As a young boy I lived close to these hills in the post-war 1940s as an unofficial evacuee from the London bombings. These diminutive hills rose to the dizzy height of 800 feet at their highest point, Butser Hill, … Continue reading A week in Kintail
Irene Haining spent the majority of her working life in Glasgow teaching in an inner-city school. Although she and her husband Andrew enjoyed their time in the city, they always knew they were country people at heart. On retirement they returned to their native Dumfries & Galloway, and both agree that it was an excellent … Continue reading Growing older … and feeling healthier
“I love this beautiful book. It will not only help you to die a good death it will strengthen you to live a good life” Richard Holloway We are honoured and delighted to offer a free copy of Living Our Dying to the person who writes the most striking and memorable flash memoir based on … Continue reading Living Our Dying
As I see the first daffodils bravely open – shades of yellow brightness defying the relentless grey of winter – I am reminded of the deep sense of privilege I feel working as a health care assistant with Marie Curie. Throughout these last few weeks however, many of us have been feeling distraught and helpless … Continue reading The Great Daffodil Appeal
Deafness* *An inability to hear properly OR unwillingness to hear or pay attention. I would dearly love to be classed as the latter but regrettably my hearing is very limited and continues to deteriorate. There are numerous reasons why someone has difficulty with hearing and the severity ranges from mild dysfunction to total deafness. With … Continue reading Deafness*
Autumn Voices is delighted to share Jo Clifford’s words on International Women’s Day. Jo Clifford is a proud father and grandmother, playwright and performer, based in Edinburgh. She is the author of over 100 plays, many of which have been performed all over the world. Plays include: Every One, The Tree Of Knowledge, Faust Parts One … Continue reading Jo Clifford on International Women’s Day
The Background A few years ago, we invited a Buddha to run a Mindfulness Workshop with our group, Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Tinnitus Support Group and he suggested writing a letter to our tinnitus. This, for me, was many years after my own tinnitus had started. When my tinnitus appeared, my life was happy and … Continue reading Creativity and Tinnitus
‘In my bairn days, I hed the speech o a bairn, the mind o a bairn, the thochts o a bairn, but nou at I am grown manmuckle, I am throu wi aathing bairnlie.’ (1 Corinthians 13:11 – New Testament in Scots, William Laughton Lorimer, 1983) As a bairn, my first leid was Scots. Till I was … Continue reading The Oor-Wulliefication o Scots?
