Posts Tagged: innes

Bananas – 15 December 2014

Bananas:Bananas 141214I dislike the colour, the smell, the texture, the taste, the shape and the word. Everyone else seems to like them though, so I accept them and we live in peace.

Isla and Innes - 13 December 2014

Isla and …

Jennies 21st 15 December 2014…my mum, telling us how it is.

Innes 141214Innes listening, or maybe thinking about something else. He loves bananas.

Talking About Sketching – 5 December 2014

A girl on the train back from Glasgow at 8.30pm on a Friday night.

Train from Glasgow - 5 December 2014Andrew Gillespie of the A@131 society had been kind enough to ask me along to talk about sketching to Strathclyde University students.  I studied at Strathclyde so was keen to go back and they put some effort into advertising it, so it was well attended.

sandy-morrison

I hadn’t talked about my drawings before and enjoyed it a lot. It’s good spend a little time thinking about what you are trying to do, after all.

La Marzocco - 3 December 2014

Earlier in the week, after a late Christmas do, I spent some time looking at a coffee machine: modern on the inside, classic with a hint of modern on the outside. In the design world, from suits to buildings, that’s a popular mix.

Innes - 30 November 2014Innes and I missing the outing to the Singing Kettle. He’s on the sofa, ill, and he can’t get comfy.

The boys – 23 November 2014

Innes & Fraser asleep after an afternoon in Fife.Fraser & Innes 23 November 2014

Fraser reading.

Fraser - 23 November 2014

Heisker – 16 November 2014

Heisker is a wee island off North Uist, and a new face at Gran’s for lunch.

Heisker - 16 November 2014Before that, reading some funny French words.

reading - 16 November 2014

3 Places – 8 August 2014

A week in London, and 3 nice places to spend some time

1.  London’s public space has had a makeover since I lived there.

innes 7 August 2014The focus is kids and the device that gets them active is fountains you can play in. People used to point to Spain to show how kids playing could be a welcome part of civic space, but London does it too now. This one is Princess Diana’s memorial, swishest of the five we came across on our travels.

2. Ben’s shed. I spent some time looking at it and thinking about spaces to be creative in (with some help from the White Stripes*).

bens shed 8 August 2014

This might be what Ben would describes as ‘rus in  urbe’

julie and eames chair 4 August 2014

3. Eames lounge chair 670. You need somewhere cosy to relax after a day in central London with three under fives.

*

http://www.whitestripes.net/songlyrics.php?id=49

 

Teddy Bear’s Picnic 20 June 2014

Big Ted  and I on a Saturday night with the beers out and the football on. We don’t normally do this, but Julie’s in London for three days so the place is ours.

big ted 20 June 2014Yesterday Innes and I took Big Ted to Innes’s playgroup Teddy Bear’s picnic: 40 mums, 1 dad. The mums were keen to know the details of how J had left me looking after three under fives for three days. I kept quiet, aware they were only gathering evidence for use in their own time-off negotiations.

Man on ladder 23 June 2014We all survived and I recovered by watching a man changing some light bulbs in a café. It made me think of independence which is a common topic of conversation in Scotland and pretty much the only one when I’m in England.

Long Weekend – 3rd May 2014

Innes & I got to go to a party with a bouncy castle.

Bouncy Castle = 140503

He had lots of fun, so hanging around with me next time big brother and sister go out will definitely seem like the short straw. We watched a film after, to recover.

FII - 140502One of the many extra things you get to do when there’s one more day in the weekend. It feels more like another week.

MaxiCosi - 140503The chance to offload some old kit, and move on to the next stage.

 

HTA Design LLP is One 4 April 2014

It’s more fun on the train when you bring the family. We all went to London to help celebrate HTA’s first birthday. The bairns got a first experience of family holidays in big cities: traipsing around, sore feet, trying to find somewhere cheap enough that we could have a meal each…

on the train 4 april 2014We visited a house with a hole in it.

portal 6 april 2014It’s a nice enough house characterised by fantastic vibrant colours, but we’re drawing up plans for it’s demolition.

JFI - 5 April 2014Innes isn’t here, he’s looking for the funny man.

Innes & Pharrell 8 March 2013

Here’s Innes flat out on the couch after an afternoon flat out on his scooter chasing after big brother.Innes & Pharrell 8 March 2014

He finds it exhausting keeping up with his siblings, but it is, and always has been:

My sister Flora has put together a book on my great aunt Christina’s time on the Western Front in the first world war. It contains characterful portraits from my great uncle Barr’s sketch book. The portraits are of the men he fought alongside and the notes describe what happened to them.

It’s for sale in Waterstones, or here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Classics-Remarkable-Scottish-Christina/dp/0750953667

 

Uncle Ed’s Chair 29 January 2014

This is Uncle Ed’s Chair. Uncle Ed was born in 1908, so he was probably sitting in it about a century ago.

Uncle Eds Chair 29 January 2014He was my Gran’s little brother. As we’re the folk left in the family with kids who fit it, we’ve inherited it. I like how the seat’s all scratched and the arms are shiny, a reminder of all the abuse it’s taken in the last 100 years.Watching TV 26 January 2014Ours prefer sitting on tables or on the floor. Perhaps it’s unfamiliar.Morning 25 January 2014I like that it’s useful and practical, and gives a physical connection to the past. It’s not the only connection: the watercolours that the sketches are done with belonged to my Gran. It’s nice that they’ve lasted.SKMBT_C28412111215570