Happy 11th Blogiversary To Me!

So apparently I registered with WordPress 11 years ago today!

I used to celebrate these ‘Blogiversaries’ regularly, but since I’ve been a Bad Blogger for the last few years I do feel a little bit of a fraud. 😉 However, I have at least been blogging again semi-regularly recently, so I’ll allow myself a cake:

I thought I’d look back and see what my most popular post was over these 11 years. Clearly, this struck a chord with a lot of people:

Things I Can’t Do Now I’m Over 40

Since I’m now over 50, just double all these and add some. 😀

The good old days – ah, how I miss them. Yes, that is soon-to-be-long-suffering-hubby with his head in his hands…

And my most popular page is, perhaps unsurprisingly, about the spooky witchy stuff:

The Logie Witches

Logie Old Kirk, Stirlingshire

I still love those witches.

One of the things I’m most proud of was this achievement from last year:

So this happened…

I finally did it!

So what’s next?

I fully admit I’m still struggling to get into a writing routine again, the way I did in those early years of blogging. 😦 However, I will keep trying, and hopefully you will see:

Some more spooky short stories and blog posts

Some history – including a fascinating family history I have started to uncover

Some photos of flora and fauna – oh, and cats, of course

And maybe…MAYBE: a lot of grumbling and complaining IF (and it’s still an IF) I start my Master of Arts in Creative Writing with the Open University this autumn. You have been warned!

Karen xx

Kisses from me and Smudge

Writing About History is Fun: the Story of John Witherspoon

Most of you know that I work in a medieval castle in central Scotland. Yes, it is a very cool job.

I have recently had a chance to start writing some pieces for my company blog. These will often have a connection to Doune Castle, where I work.

Here’s the first one. It’s about a man who narrowly escaped a sticky end in Scotland due to the foolishness of youth. He then went on to travel halfway across the world, to eventually be part of something of great importance.

Many of you will also know Doune Castle’s connection to the hit TV show Outlander, with its story of the Jacobite hero Jamie Fraser and his adventures in the American colonies. But did you know that the truth is every bit as exciting as fiction? Click below to meet:

John Witherspoon!

Do head to the Historic Environment Scotland blog above and find out who he was. I hope you enjoy reading about him – I certainly enjoyed writing about him!

Portrait of John Witherspoon by Charles Willson Peale, c. 1790

Doune Castle at sunrise, taken by me

The Resident Overlords (er – I mean, cats)

Due to being a Bad Blogger (I promise I’ll stop this self-flagellation soon, maybe once I’ve consistently blogged for a bit), it occurs to me that you in the Blogsphere have never been properly introduced to our two current residents. May I present: Socks and Smudge!

Socks

Smudge

We adopted these two in January 2022. (We had lost cats to old age over the last couple of years, and decided it was time to give a home to some new friends).

Socks and Smudge are sister and brother, and they are currently around 13 years old. We decided to adopt two older kitties who were together, and might struggle to find a home due to age and being a pair.

They had ended up in the shelter because sadly their owner had gone into residential care, due to a diagnosis of dementia.

Socks was very friendly from the beginning, coming right up to us (and everyone else!) and demanding attention and strokes. She is that rare thing, a cat who likes her belly rubbed and it’s not a trap!

Smudge was much shyer at first and a bit shut down. But he has slowly but surely come out of his shell, first with us and now with other people. He is still much shyer than his sister, but he now comes to meet people after a short while, whereas previously he just hid the entire time.

Here are two recent photos and important information 😉 :

Socks: sassy tuxedo shorthair. Special skills: biscuit-making, Christmas tree-climbing. Likes: her Dad, chicken, throwing toys around. Dislikes: the vacuum cleaner, being turned upside down and called a baby.

Smudge: refined black and white plushy. Special skills: purring loudly, sleeping upside down. Likes: snoozing with his Mum, all food including human food. Dislikes: strange noises that he’s not making, cheeky birds on the bird feeder.

Socks is a Daddy’s girl, Smudge is a Mummy’s boy:

Socks and her Daddy, also known as Long-Suffering Hubby

Me and Smudge. There are lots of photos like this – he likes to sit on me at all the most inconvenient moments

We are so glad we gave these two a second chance. Like all cats they drive us bonkers sometimes but we love them to bits. They have quite distinct personalities, and like all brothers and sisters they have times when they get on and others when they appear to be trying to kill each other! Mostly though they snooze the day away, waking up when a human goes into the kitchen. 😉

Feel free to post pics of your own cats/dogs/hamsters/lizards/whatever in the comments!

The Cat Owner’s Guide to Preparing Christmas Dinner

Christmas Eve: Remove turkey from freezer. Herd cat out of way with foot as you place turkey to defrost in oven – the only catproof place in the house. Leave note on oven in large capital letters reminding family DON’T TURN OVEN ON.

Christmas Day: Remove defrosted turkey from oven. Remove cat from kitchen counter. Take turkey out of packaging and prepare. Have to remove cat from counter so many times it’s easier just to shut the damn creature in another room. Finish preparing turkey to the tune of wailing sounds akin to someone being murdered.

Get turkey back into oven. Let cat back in, find it has begun a tunnel through the kitchen door in the meantime. Sweep up wood shavings. Remember you didn’t put turkey packaging in bin. Remove cat from plastic packaging, where it is suffocating in a happy way amongst turkey juices.

Christmas Day, 2 hours later: Start to prepare potatoes, vegetables, and other accompaniments. Cat thinks all these things might be of interest. Remove cat from various pots and pans. Give it a sprout to eat. Cat rolls it around floor instead. Oh well, at least it’s distracted.

Remove turkey briefly from oven to do final seasoning. Cat crosses kitchen in 0.0001 seconds and sticks head in roasting tin. Remove cat, check for hairs on turkey, return turkey to oven.

Christmas Day, 1 hour later: Rope in family to set table while doing finishing touches to cooking. Laugh maniacally at family’s efforts to lay out table with cat helping.

Serve up dinner to hungry family. Pretend not to notice that everyone is feeding cat bits of turkey under the table.

Finish dinner. Roll now very fat and comatose cat into its basket. Clear up, wash up, and join cat in happy stuffed-ness.

Merry Christmas!

Love from Karen, her long-suffering hubby and her two naughty cats. xx

(First published 23/12/2014, and still true every year)

So this happened…

Hello the blogsphere! As you all know, I’ve been a terrible blogger over the last couple of years. I could make excuses: work commitments, pandemic, blah blah blah. But this last year I have been concentrating on something in particular, and the concentration has paid off. So…

For as long as I’ve had this blog, my ‘About Me’ page has included the following line:

‘I am also studying for a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing with the Open University.’

But on Tuesday 18th July 2023, this happened:

Yay! I finally have my degree!

It’s been a long time in the making. I started in October 2013. Yes, 10 years ago. To be fair, I didn’t intend to do a degree at the beginning. I just wanted to do a Creative Writing course to improve my skills, and the OU had a good one. However, after completing that course, I decided to turn it into a full Bachelor of Arts degree.

I have worked full-time for the duration of my studies. The degree, done part-time as I did it, takes 6 years. However, I took years out here and there, for various reasons, the last ones being during the Covid pandemic, when I found I couldn’t concentrate on studying at all. Hats off to anyone who studied through it, and also to those who do their degree while they act as carers, or bring up children, or any number of harder things than just working alongside studying.

So I do feel very proud to have completed this degree. I could not have done it without the support of long-suffering hubby, frequently mentioned on this blog over the years. Big hugs for him.

A few weeks after I got notification of my degree online, this nice thing arrived in the post:

To complete the experience, I booked a graduation ceremony. The Scottish ones were already full, so hubby and I took a wee trip to Harrogate in Yorkshire, to the Harrogate Convention Centre. It was great day, and rounded off all the years of hard work nicely.

To anyone thinking about doing a degree with the OU, I can highly recommend it. I know not everyone will have the same experiences, but overall I had great support from my tutors, especially at Level 2 and 3 (years 3-6) where it really counted, and I found the online and written study materials really good.

If you had asked me even a couple of years before I started this, I would have emphatically said that I would never return to University. Now, don’t get me wrong, I had a GREAT time at Uni when I attended straight after my school years, but NOT because of the course I was doing. 😉 Anyway, my thinking was: been there, done that. And here I am having completed 6 years of remote Uni learning, and having gained the degree I probably should have done the first time around.

In fact, I’ve had such a good time that I’m seriously considering next doing…a Master of Arts degree! In Creative Writing! WTF?! 😀 Not for a while, though – I’m taking at least a year out first. Watch this space. And also, hopefully, watch this space for more regular blog posts in the future again.

Anyway, I’m off to change my ‘About Me’ page. ‘Bye folks!

Karen xx

Strings – another weird little tale for Ladies of Horror

Hello all! Here’s another flash fiction story for the Ladies of Horror Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge. For those who may not know how this works, every month I and the other participants receive a picture-prompt. This could be any one of usually four photos chosen by the organiser of the challenge. We write a piece of fiction or poetry inspired by the picture. With me, this is always fiction – I love to read poetry, but don’t enjoy writing it. 😉 The piece is a maximum of 750 words. It’s a great exercise in writing concisely! The pieces are then posted on the blog, and it’s so interesting to see the different directions everyone takes with their writing – especially those with the same picture-prompt as me.

Anyway, follow the link below to the full piece – and enjoy!

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Karen Soutar @kaz_ess @Sotet_Angyal #LoH #fiction

A Return to Spookiness

Well hi, everybody! Long time, no write! So where the heck have I been?

I am pleased to say I have finally completed my degree in English Literature and Creative Writing, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few months. Just awaiting final results now!

So now I’m aiming to get back to writing for fun. First stop, Ladies of Horror on Spreading the Writer’s Word. Here’s a lightly spooky piece for my return to writing creepy fiction.

Hope to be here a lot more going forward, with my usual mix of fiction, cats, castles, fiction involving cats and castles…you get the idea. In the meantime, hope you enjoy this one!

Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Karen Soutar @kaz_ess @Sotet_Angyal #LoH #fiction

The Cat Owner’s Guide to Decorating the Christmas Tree

(I’ve been a very bad blogger recently, but here again is a post I originally wrote eight years ago. Having just put up our Christmas tree, I was reminded that this will always be relevant. 🙂 )

Bring in Christmas tree from boot of car. Go back to close boot. Remove cat from boot.

Set up tree base; fill with water. Stop cat from drinking the water.

Place tree in base; get husband to hold steady while screwing in fixing bolts. Push cat’s nose away from bolts. Cat decides to climb husband’s leg instead. Tell husband to stop jiggling around and moving the tree.

Cut mesh surrounding tree and throw to one side. This distracts cat for 0.0001 seconds.

Tree springs into shape. Cat springs into tree.

Remove cat from tree. Get Christmas lights from box and start to unravel. Cat tangles them up from other end as you unravel them.

Start to rope lights around tree. Cat unropes them faster. Distract cat by throwing a non-breakable bauble across room. Finish arranging lights.

Repeat as above; this time with tinsel.

Start hanging baubles. Continue to distract cat by rolling them. Realise there are 50 baubles all over the living room floor, leaving you with 4 to hang on the tree.

Give cat a scrap of tinsel to play with. Hang remaining baubles. Switch on lights. Step back to admire handiwork.

Get a well-deserved glass of wine from kitchen. Return to find cat in tree. Spend evening playing slightly drunken game of ‘catch the bauble’ as puss chucks them off the branches. Decide it’s quite cute, really. Go to bed.

Get up to find naked tree and highly decorated living room floor. On entering kitchen, find sparkly poops in litter tray.

Decide it’s not too early to start the wine again.

Our tree, before cats. It may not look like this now…

(First published December 2014, and still true…)

Next week: The Cat Owner’s Guide to Preparing Christmas Dinner. 😉

Happy 8th Blogiversary To Me! A Year of Lockdown…

Well. A whole year in lockdown (most of it, anyway). What a strange and sometimes scary situation. Big hugs to everyone out there.

As usual, I didn’t get as much blogging (or writing) done as I’d hoped. I’m one of those people who have found it hard to be creative in these times. But I did get some things done! So here’s a mostly pictorial summary of what I got up to during this past year:

The Gargunnock Hills, Stirlingshire

Flanders Moss peat bog

The River Teith at Old Kilmadock

Stirling Old Town Walls

As you can see from the pics above, I discovered lots of new places to walk (photos are captioned). I’m so lucky to live where I do.

Peacock butterfly

Red fox

Red squirrel acrobat

Above: I also took lots of photos of wildlife. And I bought a trail camera, and discovered that we have foxes (pictured from the trail cam).

In August, Historic Scotland managed to get my castle open (for a while, at least)! With some excellent new signage, as you can see.

Doune Castle, famous filming location since the 1970s

Hubby and I did manage a short break in September. We visited the Peak District, Yorkshire, and Newcastle. Mostly using a tent. 😉

Carsington Water, Peak District

Whitby Abbey

Hubby with his favourite train in the National Railway Museum, York

Newcastle and the River Tyne at dusk

I had my 50th Birthday in January – aargh! One of my presents was a ‘proper’ camera, ie: not my phone. The shots featured below are some of the ones I’ve taken with the new equipment. It’s much better for photographing wildlife, especially birds!

Reflections on the River Teith at Callander

The Falls of Dochart, Killin, Stirlingshire

Site of Pictish burial ground, Craighead

The Wallace Monument and the River Forth, Stirling

Majestic Mr Swan

Great Spotted Woodpecker

A rather ruffled crow

Goldfinch

As you can see, nature has played a big part in getting me through lockdown. I’ve also learned to cook a few new dishes, read a lot of books, and discovered I really don’t care for working from home – I miss my castle and my crazy workmates! With getting back to work and possibly some sort of normality now on the horizon (I’ve also had my first COVID jab), roll on summer 2021!

Karen xx

Long Shadows (Silver Lake Series 5) is out today!

Hi Folks!

My good friend and fellow rock chick Coral has a new book out today! This rock star romance joins our Silver Lake family after the events of Book 4.

Jake and Lori return to Rehoboth Beach to pick up the threads of family life.
As they look forward to Jake’s first solo tour with Garrett, the album launch and the arrival of the new baby, life is looking good but then a cruel twist fate casts Long Shadows over the Silver Lake family.
Will life ever be the same?

Not going to give away any plot points here! BUT you WILL need tissues. As always, Coral knows how to keep you turning the pages, and crying and smiling in equal measure. Read the book to find out what happens, and if you don’t know Jake and Lori’s story so far, catch up with the rest of the Silver Lake series too.

To get your copy, follow the links below. Happy readin’ and rockin’!

There is also lots happening on Coral’s Facebook author page – just click here for a day of events to launch Long Shadows.

To buy your copy:

Long Shadows UK Edition

Long Shadows US Edition