And I'm on my way!

Hello ‘Fiona is travelling’ fans, new readers and 'passing trade'

I’m writing this on my last day of a two week return to Cleire Goats, my friend Ed’s goat farm on CapeClear Island in the Republic of Ireland.

It’s been a pretty momentous two weeks - with four births - three twins (one little goat didn’t survive but the other six are doing ok) ... one little kid separating from the herd and getting lost - we looked for him till it went dark the first day, and all morning the second day, till our opposite neighbour called to say he’d heard a strange bleating noise in his garden!

one of yesterday's twins

the little escapee

I’m exhausted and elated from working on the farm since I’ve been here - it’s still completely beautiful , you get to see the sea and the mainland on the walk from the farmhouse to the goatsheds and the light and colours change every hour.

 

I was in bed this morning listening to a gale blowing outside ... let’s hope the ferry runs tomorrow and everything will work out for my return home.  

Since my last blog I’ve been kind of settling back at home since travelling - but I don’t think anything will ever be the same again. The day before I came here I took the last car load of stuff from the storage unit to our local Oxfam shop. After having had a table top sale, and given lots away, I’ve drastically reduced the amount of ‘stuff’ I’ll have to cart around with me if I ever move again, or if I ever want to pack my stuff away again to go travelling. It is mainly very satisfying: I might have regrets about some of my favourite novels but a) I wasn’t going to read them again b) it’s interesting to see whether any of my ‘things’ are calling me in any way and c) I can always re-acquire the books if I’m desperate.

I don’t know what I’ll do about travelling this year - it might be a train trip round France in August seeing friends and hopefully some sailing ... and maybe a trip to Eastern Europe in the autumn - there are two workshops taking place in Warsaw that I’m quite interested in, with a fortnight between them - so if I can find a cheap place to stay in between, that might be a plan. Ideas/suggestions welcome.

November to February has seen both a fantastic Hannah Frank 110th Birthday Art Exhibition at Glasgow Uni Chapel , 

AND the launch of the Book of my Phd - ‘Candles Conversions and Class - five generations of a Scottish Jewish family’ which is published by the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre. We launched the book at the university chapel - my aunt, the artist Hannah Frank (who died ten years ago at the age of 100) married into the Hoppenstein family , the family I researched for my PhD, so there were lots of connections . No less than NINETY people came to the launch ! - with six members of the Hoppenstein family there, and gorgeous speeches from Kenneth Collins, chair of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre , Eileen Yeo my PhD supervisor , Ivor Kallin one of the Hoppenstein family, and writer/broadcaster Billy Kay - who had written a speech looking at the whole history of immigration to Scotland to mark the occasion.

I held a ‘podcasters networking morning’ a few days before I came here and now have a small ‘podcasting mentoring group’ set up which is what I was hoping for from the event. I still haven’t published my podcasts from last summer properly ‘out there’ though you can still hear some of them on the website here  — I have loads more waiting to be edited and published , but now the book launch and art exhibition are out of the way I plan to have time to work on them. So look out for ‘Fiona’s Travels - fascinating conversations and traditional music’.... out there soon I hope.

This time I have ‘wares’ to sell -

• a set of six postcards from Cleire Goats on Cape Clear Island for 10 euros or £8.60... (I’m leaving 830 a.m. Thursday 7th so I can bring them wirh me if you tell me on Weds 6th  that you want them!), all profits to the farm.

• a special offer on Hannah Frank signed prints . They are for sale on the website at between £100 and £400 each depending on scarcity, but there’s a limited offer available now - four signed prints for £100 - see the prints available and how to order at this link. All income goes to help keep Hannah Frank’s name alive and in the public domain.

• and finally you can buy a copy of ‘Candles, Conversions and Class: five generations of a Scottish Jewish Family’ for the reduced price of £10 (and also if you wish reserve a place at the London launch on the evening of Monday 8 April) at this link      ( “This book is an important addition to the increasing literature on the history of the Jews in Scotland" - Kenneth Collins, Scottish Jewish Archives Centre).

Thanks for being there for me!

Fiona