It only takes a knee to comfort a child, To receive a knighthood, To listen to a god - to be inspired; Just a knee for grouting around tiles, To ask a girl if she will, To loosen bolts and change tyres; Perhaps two for French cricket, To warm a lamb as its fed, To chase mice, all smooth and sleekit. It only takes a knee placed very precisely To stop a man’s breath, To fully express centuries of othering.
Category: CharlesCharlieCharles
Including a tour of the cleared castle and news on the ongoing works for the restoration.
After several requests, and given that we are nearing the festive season, I thought I would finally try my hand at developing a cross-stitch pattern! The results can be found here and below is a gif of the unrestricted palette version (you’ll need 95 colours!!).
The clearance of the back two compartments of the castle has taken much longer than the others, simply because they aren’t accessible by the minidigger and there’s not enough room for more than a couple of workers. Our luck continues with the floors, which are all concrete, making clearance much much easier than suspended floors.
If you want to help with castle or bridge we have two volunteer fortnights in May 2020 and September 2020 – available here.
Day one: lots of clearing out joints, discussion of approach, and above all, lots of learning about rubble-built structures.
Before 
After
Readers will be aware of my ongoing design and illustration work, as well as installations and videos I have produced over the years. Last year, inspired by a series of illustrations I produced prior to delivering a show in Birmingham, I launched Selwyn & Ink a portfolio website and overall brand to encapsulate this work and separate it from ScottishLaird and Dunans Castle. The website is available here.
So much #disinformation around – and we seem to have stopped having the #criticalthinking skills to #decipher #objectivetruth from ur-truths promoted by #vestedinterests.
This is the first in an occasional series of pertinent questions I’ll be posting on CCC.com – as well as @seedixonspain, @dixonspain and my FB account. Share at will, but always with this url!
This morning I was shocked out of my contemplation of Boris and his new cabinet by The 1975’s new single featuring Greta Thunberg, the world’s most famous climate change activist. That shock was precisely the point. Greta lambasts older generations, she rounds on the present polite political dialogue and makes the case that we should all act now – we should rebel!
Here’s the track: https://open.spotify.com/track/6sQeHBkvilt6ycKfnJMki4?si=HgxgRt_nTI6KzLshO9f6wA
… I particularly love the video cover
And here’s a more direct admonition: https://open.spotify.com/track/2N2u7QF2uJHbEEUEDS7UQK?si=lR4CulkeR4iZ9ezE2C920g
These five are in my forever hundred. Thoroughly recommended, along with the albums and other tracks associated with. Well, maybe not all of OVSC’s oeuvre (particularly MILF … you have been warned).
- The Wood Burning Savages, America – Why is this not a global hit? Northern Ireland’s next big export.
- Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Howling at Nothing, only slightly better than S. O. B. – an album of genius.
- The Ouse Valley Singles Club, Girl from the Fens. Still listening to this, and still laughing! Who’d have thought … the video is priceless.
- Spector, Bad Boyfriend. Keep coming back for more.
By their guns become not their gun,
by their killing hasten not their death,
by their hate, forget not the Love
which should infuse every breath:
so embrace them for they are unaware
of the mud they smear upon their souls;
embrace them so that they might learn
only Love is the answer to their call.