Ever wondered what the key text of the book South West Sea Kayaking would look like, converted to a word cloud? Wonder no more.
Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Word Cloud Leave a comment
Whitby Abbey Leave a comment
Whitby Abbey overlooks the North Sea from atop cliffs. Whitby harbour is directly below, down a steep flight of 199 steps. Whitby was the key setting for the novel Dracula, chosen largely because of the atmospheric abbey. This gothic theme has become self-perpetuating; Whitby is now a mecca for modern Goths, with various annual get-togethers and horror film festivals.
The Abbey was built on the location of an early Christian monastery,which was the site of the Synod of Whiby in AD 664. This was basically a conference where it was ‘agreed’ that the Celtic Christian Church would now embrace the practices, beliefs and authority of the larger and more formalised Roman Church. However, such political machinations took place long before the current Abbey was built, and the archaeological traces of St Hilda’s original monastery have mostly eroded into the sea.
I’ve been researching and writing about the significance of the coast in early Christianity. Whilst it’s an interesting topic, as an Historian it’s incredibly frustrating to research. As with Whitby, the physical evidence is very limited and worse, almost everything in print seems to be written by people who actually believe in miracles and are unable to discern half-baked fairy stories from actual Historical evidence. Rant over.
*Postscript: in the hour since writing that draft above, I stumbled on something by landscape historian W. G. Hoskins that sums up the problem rather well;
“W.G. Hoskins – ‘Whoever approaches the Celtic Saints walks on the edge of a quicksand”
North Bay, Scarborough 2 comments
Just returned from a mellow dusk surf below the castle at Scarborough’s North Bay, a 5 minute walk from the holiday flat H and I are occupying through this week. We have plans to explore the rather attractive looking local coast, and hopefully get a bit of writing done too. The wind was howling today, so the kayaks stayed on the roof…but their time will come.
On a totally unrelated point…this week has seen usage of this blog suddenly go ballistic. About 1000 different visitors a day; I have no idea what has caused this three-fold increase, but if you’re one of these new readers, welcome! I rather suspect that this is an illusory thing though, and that every single visitor is in fact some kind of automated web crawler. Which would mean that I’m talking to myself right now.
All good.
Machir Bay 1 comment
Machir Bay, Isle of Islay. We surfed until after sunset, with the entire beach to ourselves.
We are off on the road again; we’ve been back at work for literally weeks, it must surely be time for another holiday. This coming week, we’ll be exploring the Yorkshire coast, aided by sea kayak, surfboard and walking boot. Obviously this is a working holiday, we’ll be enduring all of this to help get our book written. Our holiday flat happens to be a short walk from a great beachbreak, but obviously any surfing will be done purely for research purposes.
Teaching, a highly under-rated career choice.
Austrians in the Western Isles 1 comment
A pair of rather hardy Austrians setting out for a paddle to the island of Taransay* in the Western Isles. I paddled across to the island just after them, spent a while sitting miserably in the rain, and quickly came back. That afternoon was so wet that I had to work in the tent with a towel over my head and laptop, to collect the drips. The Austrians returned exhausted after many hours, having battled the whole way around in strong winds and low visibility. I estimate that I made and drank six hot cups of tea, in the time that they were out in the water.
*Taransay is chiefly famous for the crime of making Ben bloody Fogle into a regular fixture on the TV in our house.
Summer’s End Leave a comment
Back home at last, after six weeks away; thankfully the house is still here and the cat still loves me. I enjoyed wonderful trips to Islay and the Western Isles with Heather, and then spent the last week with a few friends exploring the coast of a very different environment; the wide open skies of Norfolk and Suffolk! All of this was about writing/ photography ‘work’ for forthcoming books. There may have also been some paddling and surfing involved, so it wasn’t much of a hardship! These six weeks have offered a very eclectic holiday around our coast, and all the better for it.
A few randomly selected photos follow, for now…
Western Isles Work Avoidance 1 comment
Greetings from an obscure corner of the Western Isles, where I’m supposed to be typing up some notes on sea birds. Finding it hard to focus after this mornings’ splendid paddle, and indeed last nights’ fantastic surf session (where H was confidently standing up for the first time, and I progressed past this stage to falling, with style).
So … here are some random shots from the last few days. We’ve been right up to the top of the islands at the Butt of Lewis (no sniggers please) and we retreated to van residence for a few days when the weather got really wild, but now we’re back camping on the wonderful Uig peninsula. We just have the rest of this week left (so I really shouldn’t be slacking right now) and then I’m meeting some friends to paddle in Norfolk and Suffolk, researching a guidebook.
Apologies for ropey Photoshoppery in the B&W shots, I hate this sort of thing myself so have no idea why I’ve done some today.
Cliobh 1 comment
Cliobh (‘Cliff’ in English) is a beautiful sheltered surf break on the Uig peninsula of the Isle of Lewis. Warm clear water, consistent waves, no crowds…although there was a seal crowding the line-up, the other day.
Our self-taught level of board-surfing prowess has progressed from ‘disasterous’ to ‘merely incompetent’.
The waves kick in best at low tide, which incidentally is about when the Uig Community Centre (our current writing base) closes each day.
All good.
Wet and Windy Western Isles 1 comment
Greetings from the Outer Hebrides – the Western Isles, Eilean Siar.
This fellow is sheltering from the relentless Western Isles wind behind a nascent sand dune, newly formed by rotting seaweed deposited on a spring tide strand line. At least it stopped raining for a few minutes to allow me to take the photo, but otherwise the weather here on the Isle of Harris has been pretty lousy so far. My favourite memory is of working inside the tent one day when it was so wet that I had to type with a towel over my head and laptop, to collect the drips…
The good news is that the Western Isles are as stunning a landscape as ever, rain or shine. There is a slight improvement in the weather today and this evening we hope to load up the boats and make the crossing out to the Shiant Isles. The forecast keeps changing, so maybe it will happen, maybe not…but either way, there are worse places to be than watching the Western Isles weather…
Inside Islay 1 comment
A couple of images taken within caves and tunnels on the Oa Peninsula, island of Islay.
We’ve been ploughing on with the book writing, interspersed with paddling and some incompetent surfing. I can at least now catch waves high enough to wind me if I fall off them, as I painfully discovered last night…
Nothing can go wrong.
Islay office Leave a comment
We’re currently camped beside this beach on the Scottish island of Islay. Islay is famous for its whisky but also rather good for sea kayaking and surfing. Remember to cover your head with your hands if you wipe out whilst surfing, though, or you might wind up needing a few stitches…
Getting plenty of writing done, whenever the sun disappears behind the clouds. All good.
Moving Office 1 comment
Just a day or two left at work and we’re out of here…yes, the summer hols have arrived. We’ll be loading up our mobile office with kayaks and surfboards…but also with laptops and books. We have an awful lot of book writing to get done in the next six weeks, so we’re almost praying for bad weather, if that makes any sense…
For reasons too mundane to explain, we’ll be calling by South Wales, then we’ll be camped on the island of Islay for a few weeks, then on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides for a couple more, before heading south for a final week on the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk.
All good. Good good good.
