Disability Arts

I intend to post one or two sites on the subject of arts and disability (my particular interests lie in the fields of writing, photography, card-making and art).

• Disability Arts Cymru: Wales, UK
• Kaleidoscope Magazine: 'Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts', Ohio, USA.
• Twenty-Four Seven: an opportunity for carers to contribute to an anthology on the subject of being a carer. Go to: http://anthologynewsandreviews.blogspot.com (this should take you to the blogspot where you may need to type 'anthology' into the search box). http://www.carersgroup.com/publications.htm
  

Competitions and cards

In the course of my Coastcard activities, I come across other greetings card and/or photographic sites (some with competitions). The following ones have caught my eye recently:

• The Hallmark site with its blog.
• The Medici Award, Royal Horticultural Society (photographic card competition: no caption or poem required).
• The Linden Postcard Show, St Kilda, Australia.
• Digital Camera Photographer of the Year 2008.
• Environmental Photographer of the Year 2008 (closing date: 31 July, so hurry).
  
• The Nature Conservancy Photographic Competition (winning entry to appear in the 2010 Nature Conservancy calendar)

Aeronwy Thomas in USA
Aeronwy Thomas has been in the USA. The BBC has reported on her inaugural Dylan Thomas walking tour in New York, arranged by the Wales International Centre (WIC). Swansea poet, Peter Thabit Jones, joined Aeronwy on a recent USA tour. Peter has an excellent website.

Friday, 25 July 2008

Disability Arts

I intend to post interesting sites on the subject of arts and disability (my particular interests lie in the fields of writing, photography, card-making and art).

• Disability Arts Cymru: Wales, UK

• Kaleidoscope Magazine: 'Exploring the Experience of Disability
  through Literature and the Fine Arts', Ohio, USA.
• Opportunity to submit to 'Twenty-Four Seven', an anthology by carers, Ireland. Web address below:
  

http://anthologynewsandreviews.blogspot.com/2008/08/twenty-four-seven-caregiving-anthology.html

Burns

I missed posting a blog on the anniversary of the death of Robbie Burns (21 July 1796), but this seems an appropriate moment to make amends. I discovered an article about the making of a replica of the printing press that would have been used for the printing of Burns' poetry. You may like to visit the National Burns Collection site. The Writers' Museum in Edinburgh contains more information about the poet. The Burns National Heritage Park site has more information.

P.S. Burns is heading for a BIG anniversary!

P.P.S. Literature or doggerel? It may be my Scottish roots coming to the surface, but I would defend Burns from Jeremy Paxman's views. The Daily Mail, 15 August 2008.

Guardian Poetry Workshop

Here at last is the link to The Guardian Poetry Workshop.

Buchan: contre v. counter ... & one 'n' or two?

Right: the shores of Fife

Those of you who have visited my blog before, will know that I am a John Buchan fan. My husband, David, has been writing on British archaeologists who were working for military intelligence during WW1. He asked me to proof-read his latest chapter, and I queried the term contre-espionage, which he had spelled with one 'n' (i.e. one 'n' in espionage).

Imagine my amusement when we discovered that according to the OED, one of the early references is to be found in John Buchan's novel, Mr. Standfast (1919). Take a look at chapter XIII, The Adventure of the Picardy Château. (p.281 in my Nelson 1948 edition).

The quotation is as follows:

A sensible man would have gone off to the contre-espionage people and told them his story.

The OED advocates the use of contre-espionnage, but apparently it is quite in order to use counter-espionage.

The plot of Mr Standfast concerns the Ottoman Empire in WW1. One of Buchan's contacts was David Hogarth, the former Director of the British School at Athens, who was in charge of the Arab Bureau in Cairo. The term contre-espionage was used by Frederick W. Hasluck, a member of Hogarth's team in Athens.

Elias Tobias: A World of Words

I have just exchanged links with Elias Tobias. His blog is now listed in my Top Blogs. You may like to check out the New International Poetry Link Exchange at the World of Words: Elias Tobias feels that he may be able to assist promising poets by helping them to find 'the initial exposure needed'. Click on the livelink to read about Elias Tobias, his interests and qualifications. Biographical notes (& a photo) are also included on the site.

P.S. Can anyone identify the blue dragonfly?

Wordsworth and Rydal

I have just been reading an interesting feature on Wordsworth and the RHS show at Tatton Park. Wordsworth worked on the garden design at Rydal Mount between 1813 and 1850 (when he died).

I was particularly struck by this article as an ancestor of mine, Stanley Hughes le Fleming, was instrumental in designing the garden in the grounds of nearby Rydal Hall. He was living at Rydal Hall at the time of the 1881 Census. Thomas Mawson was responsible for the development of the Italianate terraces at the beginning of the last century.

Rydal Hall is very close to St Mary's Church, which adjoins Dora's Field.