Hotch potch

Sorry I've not been around, it has been a hectic week for me and my back problem has meant that I haven't been able to stand sitting still for too long. It has also left me feeling extremely grouchy and as with any persistent pain it had started to quietly feed my ever present fears of a recurrence.

What have I been up to?

Well I went to see the Eva Hesse exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. It is a modestly sized show, but the works on display are quite extraordinary, words like visceral and temporal have been used to describe them. I loved the materials she used, things like cheesecloth, papier mache and latex. There were a series of breast-like forms that I found particularly moving, as well as a latex box with a long umbilical like cord that hangs down to the floor with the weight and curve of an enormous burden.

I also saw a couple of the women who where on the Fielding Programme course with me earlier in the year, and got the benefit of seeing Katie's new hairdo, "The Amazing Quiff" in all its glory.

And I had my mother-in-law for a few days. She was in quite good form and we had fun talking about the bits and pieces she is going to buy for her new sheltered flat.

On Monday I took my turn with the School of Poets courtyard readings at the SPL and enjoyed some amazing readings from the young men that turned up. Yes it was all men! They have all been reading at Utter. I particularly liked a poem by Richard Tyrone Jones, on the subject of some noisy unborn children, who live in a biscuit tin. It was good to hear a poem like this from a young man.

The photo is from a hike I did last night with some other photographers, out to the site of two WWII mini submarine wrecks -scuttled to provide target practise for the RAF. They are only accessible at certain tides and we had a long hike, that ended in a downpour on the way home. But while everything else hurts today, wonder of wonders my back doesn't!