Fox on a Boat

Battersea Power Station  This weekend was London Open House , and one of the buildings open to the public was Battersea Power Station. Love it or hate it, it is an iconic building. Pink Floyd used it as cover art, and recently it appeared in a Sherlock episode.. I am using these two examples because they interest me personally, but of course it featured in other films - Hitchcock's Sabotage , for example.  BPS, as I like to affectionately call it, is seemingly a magnet for all types of artists. Personally, I painted it for one of my graded art pieces in college. It pops up in the painting of an artist friend of mine.   Michael Collins takes some exciting pictures of it.. There is something for everyone. Being busy all day yesterday, I only had today left to go. As I got ready this morning, I was told there was a five hour queue - I nearly gave up on the idea. Finally I did set off, and it all turned out pretty well. The queue went through Battersea Park, so we...

Stormy skies in Alabama Autumn is in the air - I can smell it. Olfactory memories are probably the sharpest ones I experience. A certain smell will whisk me away from the present moment, and I'll land, confusingly, at a crossroads of intermingled thoughts. Often, it is not a distinctive memory I have; rather, a feeling - or the memory of a feeling. Now and then a memory will be locatable in time with varying precision. And then, the more confusing part: an olfactory memory of an olfactory memory. Two places in time, interwoven, tangled. Our minds are such complex places! This morning I was partly here and partly somewhere in 2010, by the Thames - sometime later I was projected to a different country and more than a decade back in time. A memory I had not accessed previously through smell. It was all so new, so different - I feel different. This time in my life is strange and exciting, and new, all so new - it is as if I am on a bridge between my teen years and my future - I ...

Hello all! Today I am writing this post from Texas. It is my first day here, and also the first time I set foot in America, so all in all I'm pretty excited. It is only morning and already rather hot, but I can't wait to use the swimming pool and go see new places. Travelling here was not as bad as I had expected - I usually get quite bad travel anxiety, but I was remarkably calm once I'd arrived early at the airport. All went smoothly, bag checking, security checking, etc. The plane was an Air Canada one, which I was happy about.. For my new readers who might not yet know, I have loved Canada since I was 16; at the time it was nearly an obsession. So I found my seat in the plane, a window seat, and there were not many people so I had two seats for myself, which would come in handy later. I made myself comfortable with my neck pillow and the plane pillow and once the safety announcements had been made, I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. For the first time, believe it...

Good day to all! (It's actually nearly 1 am here, but oh well.) I was doodling a lot yesterday, trying to get the perfect drawing (still haven't found it!) and finally felt comfortable enough to use my watercolours. This is an otter!  And it represents me! Isn't that just adorable? Unless you hate otters, in which case.. Sorry? I'm not really an otter, if that helps? (Do you like tigers?) Uh, but Kerridwen!! I hear you exclaim. Your blog is called The Tiger's Sterne! Explain please? Yes, yes I shall. You see, I have quite an unusual name. This name has a rather long meaning behind it,  it's all Welsh legends and stories - often with the name being spelt 'Ceridwen'. Well, in pretty much all version of the stories,  Ceridwen gets a bit annoyed with someone and chases him, at one point turning herself into an otter. Voila. Here's the wiki entry on Ceridwen  if you want a better explanation.

I hope to update the blog in the upcoming week. In the meantime, here's a horse, playing what I hope looks like a banjo. Enjoy!

So it's already a week since I wrote my last NaPoWriMo poem , and I'm already relapsing back into, well.. nothing! I will try working on my poems but I do need a bit of time to read them with a fresh mind. I do not, however, want to let this blog become silent again! So tonight I have a poem for you. Not a poetry challenge one, just a regular poem. Poetry For The Homesick Love Song of a City I Hate Ireland was a welcome breath After months of stifled air all around. The river was my water and the Irish sun stretched my roots. The dark side to this growth Was a previously unknown side effect. Not advertised on the mountains. After three days of life The return was unavoidable. Then the problems start - allergies. A side effect of Wicklow,  the river Liffey and Irish air. I was allergic to you. My love, my life. We've had our problems, I've Loved and hated you, But I can't see me living without You. And now, now I c...

My attempt at an  ethere .. Sleep eludes me mostly because I don't go to bed at regular times.. oops.. -- Sleep Eludes me More, these days. My dreams last longer When the morning arrives, fast. Suddenly I am comfortable and cosy, Now I really could sleep for hours! Alas! My alarm clock simply does not agree. I moan and sigh and toss and turn, groggily. "I should go to bed earlier!" I promise and fail.