Sometimes, you just need to make a space

One of the best things about 2011 has been exploring different ways of presenting my work to an audience. Music, poetry and live literature have been adventuring pretty much since the year began. What more could I have wanted?

The new year will see me adding more tracks to my brand new soundcloud page. You'll be able to head there other times by clicking the 'Music tracks' tab beneath my header photo. I'll also be cheering up January by dipping my toes into another river of stones. So, lots of little pieces to come.

It's been a busy year, so the thought I have in mind for 2012 is about slowing down a bit. Sometimes you just need to make space. So, put your coat and scarf on, leave the house, cross the road, walk down lots of steps, crunch across the stones.........sometimes grey grey grey, sometimes like the shot below.

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

Thanks for reading. Ax

A Christmas full of stars

Thanks for your company in 2011.

I'd like to wish everyone who reads and comments

on Inkhaven a Christmas full of stars.

Hoping 2012 brings many creative adventures.

Annie xx

Still in progress, still fluid

The new piece. Shortest day. It had been going so well that I decided to put it on my set list for the gig on Sunday.

Except, browsing the book store in the interval break, I realized I couldn't remember the middle section. I refused the rum punch, opting instead to keep a clear head and hoped the melody would strike me again.

A sketch, a work that was obviously still in progress, so new, still fluid. It lay on the kitchen table humming to itself while I ummed and ahhed about the best thing to do.

So, given it was very nearly the shortest day and given that no-one in the world knew how this piece went, I went for it and introduced it, saying it was brand new, that I had forgotten part of it, but was going to let it emerge as semi-improvised. And ......

It became a piece of those moments, played to that attentive audience in a little theatre, became a new version of itself, better than before, still in progress, still fluid.

And I came home to the sketch and crossed out the middle section that doesn't need to be there.

All I want to do

That time of year - a hundred things are calling me and all I want to do is walk here.

Stormy rainbows

Here so soon, Stormy Rainbows all the way from Australia! Thanks so much, Fiona.

My name was drawn out of the hat for Stormy rainbows - a set of 7 gorgeous handcrafted notebooks - in Fiona's blog giveaway. They line up beautifully in their own box and I know it's going to be really hard to choose which one to start writing or drawing in first. You can be sure they'll be in my pocket on a few adventures!

I was just thinking that I'd head down to the beach in a little while, my first proper beach walk right by the waves for some time. All those stones have been waiting for me to get better! Except now we seem to be having another burst of rain and a few more stormy rainbows are being cast down to earth.

I'm very much on the mend after my accident and feeling more my usual self again. Thankfully my violin survived unscathed. Obviously, it did the right thing and let me fall first so it could crash land on top of me! I'm able to play again, although my right arm is a bit creaky still. But I was able to play on some recordings for someone yesterday and getting back to doing all my usual stuff is exactly what I need. Thanks again for all the good wishes.

So good that I'm better, as I'm playing a few traditional and self-penned tunes at a gig on Sunday evening in Brighton. If my Myspace page ever lets me add new info, I'll put the details on my gig list there, but in case you are local and you'd like to come here are the details.

This Sunday 18th December, Waterloo press is holding a Christmas party at Iambic Theatre, Regent Street, Brighton. The entrance is just North of the Komedia rear entrance. Come and hear 4 poets reading their work and me playing violin. Book stall and rum punch!! All starting at 7pm and finishing around 10pm. £5/4 It's small venue, so be early if you want to ensure your seat!

So, on that note of optimism, I'm going to check the skies to see if a storm is about to lash in before stepping outside into the gale.

Ps. Good job I checked, I just got blown back in through the front door with a face full of hail!!

Ouch!

You get the picture?

I took this shot in Wales this Summer thinking it was funny. I had no idea that a rusty old sign on a little mountain railway track would sum up a week in December.

A bicycle going at speed crossed paths with me a few days ago and I came off the worst. No broken bones, thankfully. But I have bruises that look like new islands on an atlas page and a headache that makes me weep in my worst moments. I have yet to find out if my violin has come through unscathed. I can't play it to fully find out.

So, I have been "elsewhere" in a fog of shock and fury, lulled by the radio. Sleep has been my friend and I've spent most of my wakeful hours watching the comings and goings of the birds in the garden.

But things are looking up. Yesterday, I had a slow limping walk in the sun and managed to scrawl a few angry words in my notebook about tarmac and Lycra and go faster lines. Today, I have kinder thoughts in my head and can type a bit. A new poem is in the making, I think.

It's great to hear I've won a giveaway from Fiona's blog. It's a set of little notebooks that will be in my pocket on my walks and meanderings. Thanks again, Fiona.

And thanks to everyone who has sent me good wishes. I'll be out and about again soon.