Friday, October 13, 2006

Blogger Bother

I am having terrible problems with the beta version of Blogger. My system does not seem to like the new user interface at all. So - as I now have my own standalone wordpress installation, I am going to move my blog there until I can get these problems ironed out. Please visit me! I've temporarily moved to:

www.carolekirk.com

I have also finally got my business website up and running at

www.careerclarity.co.uk

Let me know what you think. It's all rather new.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Published!

I found out completely by accident that a circle poem I submitted in 2004 has been published.

Just one problem - they've not responded to my (predictable) order to buy the book.

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Saturday, October 07, 2006

Adventures with wire

In art class this week, we continued our adventures in 3D. We turned up to find a roll of garden wire, some brown gummed tape and a large roll of chicken wire. These are my attempts at making something out of garden wire.


The big one is a grasshopper - honest. The little one - well, who knows.
I also made a 'thing' with chicken wire, masking tape and brown tape. You'll have to wait for the photo of that one, and for the adventures with clay that we had the week previously!

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Thursday, October 05, 2006

Coming clean

OK, it's time to spill the beans. We are planning on moving again. Rick is parting company with his employer. So we are planning to move to Yorkshire, where we have always wanted to live. It's only recently, though, that we've managed to narrow down exactly where in Yorkshire (which, let's face it, is a big place.) We've had several holidays there, and spent days driving around looking for the area we could imagine living, with no success.

Then I started looking at rail maps. Living in the countryside as we do now, we have realised that you do have to drive everywhere. This is not good for blood pressure, life expectancy or our fragile climate. So we want to find somewhere with good rail links. Looking at the rail maps for West Yorkshire, I suddenly realised that Hebden Bridge sits right in the middle of a lot of large-sized (therefore employer-rich) conurbations. I googled to find out more, and discovered it is full of artists, writers, and hippies (and apparently lesbians and anarchists as well.) I think I've found my home! Or near enough; we may need to live somewhere nearby if property prices are too prohibitive to live in HB as many people suggest they might be.

So - I handed in my notice a couple of weeks ago. That did feel a little strange, it has to be said. And I am now building my own career coaching business - slowly, but surely.

I'm continuing at art college this term, and exploring the option of switching to Todmorden College when we move. Apparently this is a thriving little centre for adult art education. I am planning to meet with them, complete with sketchbook, in December when we will be going up to find somewhere to live.

Meanwhile, we are decluttering (again!) and visiting everyone we know in the South while we have the opportunity. It will be a long trek once we move North (tho' not as far as some people we could mention ;) )

Saturday, September 30, 2006

I've done it!

I've just submitted my end of course assessment project for the Creative Writing course. I never fail to be astonished at how long the process of editing and polishing takes. Thanks are due to Beth, my critical reader, for her very helpful suggestions.

So that's another writing course finished.

Sigh.

At least it gives me more time to get on with developing my career coaching business. One day I will have a website to show you.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Blackberries

It is a beautiful day here - sunshine, blue sky, lots of silver clouds to keep the sky interesting. The colours are vivid and clear. We've just been for a long walk, stopping for a picnic on Burton Dassett hills. The long pale grass stands against the blue horizon like hairs standing up on your arm, and the lichen on the old quarried rock stands out like carvings. And we had snacks for free all the way round our walk - God bless the blackberry fairies!

I'm in Love

What more can I say?

Monday, September 25, 2006

Sending Rain

A crisp white A4 envelope sits on the chair waiting to be posted. I wrote two 'rain' poems aimed at MsLexia for TMA05 of my Open University A215 course. Yesterday, I got them back from my tutor with some really helpful feedback. I've redrafted them in the light of her comments and so they are now ready to go out into the world.

*Gulp*