Fieldview Hotel, Portree, Skye

In the week before Easter we drove from Edinburgh to Skye. We stayed in a country hotel which hadn't been decorated for about a hundred years. It looked lovely.

Caledonian Thebans v. Newcastle Ravens

On Saturday Newcastle Ravens came up to Edinburgh to play us at home.  They're a nice bunch of lads, and they'd made the effort to come up and see us, so we let them win again. I'm on the left in the front row of the scrum.

Kaspar and my Dad

My Dad and Angela came to stay in Edinburgh last weekend. They both seemed to enjoy themselves. My Dad turned out to be a dab hand at pool. Think he may be better than me in fact, and I certainly learned a few tricks off him. Angela played the piano for the first time in forty years, and she's definitely better than me.  I took this photo on my iPhone and re-worked it in Photoshop.

Am impressive performance...marred only by the fact that he got disqualified

Alan put on an impressive performance at the cross-country trials. Marred only by the fact that his horse went the wrong way and got him disqualified. At least I got some good pictures.

Duns Castle

Last weekend we drove out of Edinburgh on a bright and blustery Sunday morning to watch our friend Alan compete in a cross-country riding competition at Duns Castle in the Scottish Borders. 

Art production continues unaffected

Due to the credit crunch, work is very slow at the moment, so I've been spending my time doing art. Here's an example. It's a charcoal drawing on a large scale...60 x 85 cm.

Life continues on the estate, but Shannon won't be going back

Last week Edinburgh Art College held its Christmas drinks. The only entrance requirement was that everyone who comes should produce a piece of original artwork on the back of the invitation. Here's mine. It's a pastel drawing from a photograph that appeared in the Times featuring the Shannon Matthews case. Shannon was kidnapped earlier this year, and was later found being held by a relative. During the trial it became clear that Shannon's mother had arranged the kidnapping in order to sell her story to the newspapers.