My Safe Haven

Posted on 19th February 2025 by NomadWarMachine

Today’s Daily Create asks us to make a collage of my safe havens. Most of mine are in the West of Scotland, either on or within spitting distance of the Isle of Mull. I grabbed a few from my albums to make a collage, I could have chosen hundreds.

I was brought up in the Peak District, which is stunningly beautiful. With a Cornish father I spend yearly holidays in Cornwall, which is God’s own county. I moved to the Isle of Wight as a teenager – and though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, now I see how lucky I was. But Scotland has my heart. Glasgow is my home and the Scottish scenery wins hands down for me.

Here’s some pics from Mull, with Strontian bay in the middle.

Mull and Strontian

Mull and Strontian flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in DailyCreate, DS106, Photos, Scotland | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Silent Sunday

Posted on 16th February 2025 by NomadWarMachine


45/365 Sir Walter Pigeon

45/365 Sir Walter Pigeon flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in Photos, Scotland, Silent Sunday | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Silent Sunday

Posted on 9th February 2025 by NomadWarMachine

38/365 Dusk at the Three Craws
38/365 Dusk at the Three Craws flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in Photos, Scotland, Silent Sunday | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Anti Spam Poem

Posted on 7th February 2025 by NomadWarMachine

Today’s Daily Create asks us to visit Kevin’s blog and make a poem out of the anti-spam words that you need to enter in order to post a comment.

Amusingly, Kevin has moved his blog to a new home over the last few days, and the new blog doesn’t ask for these words. So I stayed with the old one and refreshed the page a few times to get this:

Felt chop?
Pleats do.
Bidder ha?
Shrews mew

Well, that’s better than some of my own attempts to rhyme!

Posted in DailyCreate, DS106, Poetry | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Silent Sunday

Posted on 2nd February 2025 by NomadWarMachine
Winter sun


Winter sun flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in Photos, Scotland, Silent Sunday | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Easy Writing

Posted on 1st February 2025 by NomadWarMachine
Nearly there


Nearly there flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

People often tell me that they wished they found it as easy to write as I do – because, they think, it’s obvious that writing comes naturally to me. And, actually, they’re right – I do find writing easy. Whether I’m typing at a computer or (more often) writing with one of my many fountain pens, I don’t have a problem getting words onto paper.

What is much more difficult is letting go of those words. Often, once I’ve written a blog post I don’t think it’s worth publishing – because I write in order to understand what I am thinking, and once I know I don’t need it any more, and I don’t think anyone else will find it interesting. Other times the words I have written don’t feel like the right words to publish – probably because I was ranting to myself as I was writing (which is good, as it helps me to write the frustration and anger out of my head).

So, yeah – writing’s easy. But writing the right words – that’s harder.

Posted in Learning, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Silent Sunday

Posted on 26th January 2025 by NomadWarMachine
The Trossachs from Ross Priory

The Trossachs from Ross Priory flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in Photos, Scotland, Silent Sunday | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Burns Night

Posted on 25th January 2025 by NomadWarMachine

Burns night
Burns night flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Burns Night tonight, so that means haggis, neeps and tatties. N is cooking, and we’ll break with tradition and open a bottle of red wine to go along with it. Slàinte Mhath!

Some Folk hae meat that canna eat,
And some can eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
So let the Lord be Thanket!
Selkirk Grace

25/365 Slainte Mhath
25/365 Slainte Mhath flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Posted in Scotland | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The KISS approach to blogging

Posted on 24th January 2025 by NomadWarMachine
Tiny clanger

Tiny clanger flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Reading Jim’s recent blog post earlier got me thinking. I half typed a comment, but then Teams started lighting up with notifications and before I knew it I was engrossed in the day job. Anyway, I digress.

While I admire those who can write long, complicated blog posts, as Maren says, and Taylor notes, it’s fine to post short blog posts. So to add to the slogans for our bloggers anonymous self-help group, I’m suggesting the KISS approach to blogging. Readers will no doubt be familiar with the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid – or Keep It Simple Stupid) and this approach riffs off that. I suggest that when starting out blogging, or trying to kick start your practice, you use the KISS approach. What does this stand for? Well, when I first had the idea, this slogan came to mind:

Keep It Small, Stupid

But, of course, there can be variants. Maybe you’d like to think of it as:

Keep it Stupid Small

or maybe you prefer:

Keep It Small (and) Simple

Whatever. But just remember, small is beautiful.

Posted in DS106, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Nomad Blogging Machine

Posted on 22nd January 2025 by NomadWarMachine

Well, it’s official – I’ve got the badge.

Blogging badge

Now I’d better keep on blogging. Inspired by Alan’s plugin I started to think of quotes about writing that I could use to explain why I blog and my thoughts turned, as ever, to Laurel Richardson.

“I [blog] because I want to find something out. I [blog] in order to learn something that I did not know before I [blogged] it. I was taught, however, as perhaps you were, too, not to [blog] until I knew what I wanted to say, until my points were organized and outlined.” (Richardson, 2000, p. 924)

And then I remembered a passage from Virginia Woolf – how perfect is this?

“So long as you [blog] what you wish to [blog], that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.”
Virginia Woolf, A [Blog] of One’s Own.

To be continued …

Richardson, L. (2000). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923–948). Sage.

Woolf, Virginia (1935). A Room of One’s Own. London: Hogarth Press p 159

Posted in DS106, Writing | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments