Hello. This is me. I live in a small corner of western Scotland, just outside Wigtown, which is our National Book Town.

A famous book shop in Wigtown.

This is perfect for a someone who likes to write, like me, because there are always ‘writerly’ events going on and a whole circle of published and unpublished writers to meet up with and compare notes.

I was born in Calcutta, India, and lived there with my Scottish parents until I was fifteen, when we moved to England.

Me with my father and brother on the banks of the Ganges in India

After I left school I worked in Publishing and Printing for a while, and shortly after I got married I moved to the Far East, to Singapore for eight years and to Hong Kong, for two years.

Hong Kong – our home for two years

I had been writing most of my life but it was here that I found the time to write and publish non-fiction articles and later, a series of non-fiction books.

Our house in Singapore where we lived for eight years

When I returned to England I began teaching literacy and creative writing, as well as writing and publishing my first short stories. A decade on, I moved to Scotland and began writing and publishing poetry.

My husband and I had quite a lot of adventures in Scotland before we found the perfect house and garden that we wanted to call home. We lived and worked in a castle for a while and on two landed estates.

The courtyard of Megginch Castle near Perth where we worked for a year

I had a couple of difficult years after the death of my parents and then, quite suddenly, I didn’t want to write any more. I know that doing something else creative can help the healing process. I joined Pinterest and became excited about art and illustration, as well as the patchwork, quilting and embroidery that I used to enjoy when my children were young. I thought I might take it up again.

I have started writing a little again recently, mostly poems to accompany the work of artist, or a bit of fast fiction, nothing very long because the EPP bug seems to have taken over.

At first I wanted to try so many things that I began in the wrong place, or in other words, not at the beginning. I started by making things that were too difficult for me.

A ‘card’ for my brother-in-law’s wedding

I began by making houses, as well as birthday and wedding ‘cards’ for friends and relatives with messages on the back.

A ‘card’ for my husband’s birthday, which is also Valentine’s day

They took ages and somehow they turned out OK but I want to do so much better.

I decided that I needed to serve an apprenticeship of sorts and to begin at the beginning, with simple squares and rectangles.

My blog is my record of what I made and learned from this point onwards.  I hope that some of you will accompany me on that journey and that perhaps you will share some of what you know, too : ))