Category Archives: Uncategorized

Let’s discuss fireplaces. Or more precisely why there’re only scattered open fireplaces left in all of Kinrowan Hall these days: one in the Library, one in the Pub and in the senior staff residences (RHIP).  Why this is so is what … Continue reading →

The voices of cold reason were talking, as usual, to deaf ears. — Brother Cadfael’s Penance (Ellis Peter’s Chronicles of Brother Cadfael series) That lovely aroma is the smell of apple pumpkin tarts baking in the Kitchen a few hundred or so … Continue reading →

Her name was Bronwyn ap Tewdwr and she was our guest judge for the annual pudding contest. ‘A pudding contest?’ you ask. And I say, ‘Why not?’ Real pudding, like real ale, is a long way from the packaged puddings … Continue reading →

He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself like watercolors.― Catherynne M. Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden I’m in the Kitchen enjoying a very late evening snack of hot … Continue reading →

From The Sleeping Hedgehog, date unknown. No idea if it’s a story retold there, or a true story transcribed into written form. Not that it really matters, does it? There, my friend. I am not good company tonight, but if you can … Continue reading →

Nothing happened. We stitched in silence. At least we stitched without words. Having nothing else to listen to, I began to hear needle points puncturing cloth, threads drawn through, again and again, as rhythmically as breathing. Our breaths mingled with … Continue reading →

Dear Anna, I thought you’d appreciate this copy of Ciaran Carson’s Last Night’s Fun: In and Out of Time with Irish Music, which is the best book ever done on Irish traditional music. I particularly like the chapter on what … Continue reading →