Top Tracks for The Flying Burrito Brothers (playlist)

Map of the Week

This is a detail from a map I bought from the National Library in Edinburgh recently.  It's a reproduction, obviously - a copy of Blaeu's Extima Scotiae, 1654.  The kind of map that gave me ideas for the original Sea Penguin characters and location.

Pink Floyd -- Take it Back

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged ...

Bill Hicks on Marketing

Bill Hicks - Play From Your Fucking Heart

Kind of sez it all really.  About everything.

Found items from the Bay #2 and #3

 A stone that looks like a whale,  and a stone that looks like a shark.  Magic wand in the foreground.

On the way to the Coral Beaches,  Isle of Skye.

Camus Malag and Blaven beyond.

Found Items from the Bay #1

It's not that unusual for items to make their way across the Atlantic to the shores of the west coast of Scotland.  I just haven't found any,  till now.  This is a "plant pot" - i.e. a receptacle in which one grows "plants", or "green-style things".  I was terribly excited when I spotted it on the shore at Camus Malag,  Isle of Skye (photo to follow).  That looks Mexican!  I shrieked, swiftly nipping my fag and breaking into a trot.
It isn't Mexican, but it does have "Made in the Dominican Republic" printed on the base.  Has it floated all the way from there, to the shores of Scotland?  I hope so.  On the other hand, it COULD be a souvenir that Kylie McGumphy brought back for her nan from her honeymoon, circa 1985, that got flung out when they were clearing her house after she went into the care home.......
I'll never know.  Either way,  I'm going to plant a heather in it,  and raise a glass to Kylie's nan, the late Mrs Effie McGumphy.  Yes, she died after going into the care home.....

On the way to Suisnish, Isle of Skye

Top quality vid.,  as usual.  Taken on my recent trip to Skye.  Lovely views over the sea to Rum and Eigg (in the distance) and then the Cuillins and Bla Bheinn.   Scorching hot day - walked about eight miles, no shade, thought I might die of heatstroke, but didn't, obviously.
Walking boots now stink so horribly they will have to be binned.
More photos on way - some glorious ones of the Coral Beaches.
Skye was the inspiration for the original blog;  characters,  terrain, and so forth.  I had a good think when I was there this week, and have come back refreshed and with some pretty good ideas,  which I hope will emerge fully or at least partially-formed, in due course.

Bande à part - Run Through The Louvre

I think the Talbot Rice gallery in Edinburgh are doing a version of this during the festival.  Sadly won't be able to attend.

New Author Page on Amazon

I now have an author page on Amazon.  Here is the link. https://www.amazon.com/author/katesmart Feel free to check it out and have a look at the e-books.  Prices stated are in dollars but if you "proceed to check-out" - which I hope you do! - they will be converted into the currency of your home country.  You can also borrow them for free, via the Kindle library.

Projects underway include another blog-based e-book (taking me AGES due to transcribing from handwritten notebooks), a short self-help book on agoraphobia (still very early stages),  a novel (eek), a few stories, a joint project with BW Nicol, and a couple of other things.  Multi-tasking, in fact.  I have a very active brain (considering my age), I hate to be bored, and I'll complete them all in time.

Harpo Marx Brothers