Wee lead slippers

The names

Aye, some people have been wondering.

First names - Ewan and Ellen are both characters in Lewis Grassic Gibbon's A Scots Quair. They appear in the third book Grey Granite. Ewan Tavendale is the son of Chris Guthrie, the main character of the three books. Ellen Johns appears as Ewan's girlfriend. He becomes a commie and dumps her to devote his life to the class struggle. But it's not meant to be literal. Apart from the names, a Scots Quair is set in the Mearns - Kircardineshire in the north east of Scotland. Oor Mandy's part of the world.

If you're interested in Gibbon have a look this trot's eye view or you can buy the book from Amazon.

Middle names - a bit of a middle class affectation if you ask me but Ewan's middle name is Denoon, the family name of Mandy's maw. Ellen's is Christina, which is a traditional name used by the Denoons. Though usually just for girls.

Hope - that's me. Their da.

Oor wee Ellen's a month old

Aye, it hardly seems like a month that I've not been to work. It's such hard work what with the decorating, the bread baking, etc.

And the software's all crapped up again. That iBlog should be nice and easy but it just doesn't work properly. This thing - Typepad - is a wee bit cumbersome, especially on the photo front but I think I'll get around that by just linking constantly to a .Mac web gallery and keeping that up to date.

Click here

But wee Ellen. It's the usual eating, sleeping and emptying by the usual methods. Other than that she hasn't actually done anything yet so no funny stories apart from this morning's projectile poo. Aye, poo! Fired it 10ft across the bedroom. Well, I say fired but sprayed is more accurate. Actually, "hosed" probably best captures the force, concentration and fluidity of it. Didn't get a photo of that but I'm sure you can conjure up a picture.

Still, happy first month to Ellen. Happy New Year to everyone.

Egg Roll

Aye, the wee man's taken charge of a wee digital camera and has started producing his own works of art

Actually, this one is entitled "Flat Egg". It's a statement about the place of man within the universe. "Flat" is, of course, a reference to the ancient flat earth understanding of the Earth as a flat circular plate. The runny yolk of the flat egg, waiting to be punctured, is clearly an analogy to the sun, centred on the earth and providing light and warmth.

In this image, the bap represents the universe, placing the flat egg in a pre-Copernican universe, where Earth (and Man) were at the centre of a universe created by God. Being wholemeal, the speckles of grain represent the millions of stars lighting the night sky, floating in the doughy dark matter that makes all those quantum physics things work.

The "egg" is, of course, a reference to the true nature of the earth as an oblate spheroid. The contradiction in the concept of "flat egg" is sublime, at once calling back to our primitive understanding and yet also acknowledging the true nature of existence.

The Robots plate, clearly looks to the future. What's that, more wine? Yes please.

New Hope for the world!

Aye, in these days of environmental degradation, war, famine, pestilence and general rudeness, it's good to add to the over-population.

Just in case you thought the reference to the imminent arrival of a No.2 was talk of jobbies, let me make it clear - Baby No.2 is on the way! Actually, it'll be along in just 5 weeks.

Of course, there's lots of talk of names. In fact, that's where the new blog name comes from - Ewan - suggestions are Banjo Cannon and Saskia Sparkley.

Banjo Cannon at least is a real boy. Star of The Runaway Dinner - here he is chasing Melvin the sausage and some other bits of dinner.

The Blog is back!

Aye, after nearly two years of no updates, and faced with the imminent arrival of a number 2, the blog has been caught up in a tidal wave of indifference.

Terrible so it is. The novelty wears off and the wee man's blog is left to rot in the field, wither on the vine, dry up in the sunshine (that's enough - ed). I'll add the old ones and you can read back and see how much enthusiasm there was. No excuses. Lost interest. Sorry.

But we're back and not by popular demand. I mean, it's not like I've been inundated with requests for an update and some photies. No siree. Your own fault really.

Here's what the wee boy looks like. An amazing transformation in just two short years, don't you think?

But really he's a wee sweetie. Here he is with a mucky face after doing big drawings on the patio with barbecue coals. Aye, he's grand at the drawing and I'll include some fine examples of his scribblings. Like this fine creature.