Tomato Haul

Oct 3, 2020Sep 26, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / Leave a comment

We have been in the house we are in at the moment for less than a year, and are still getting to know our garden. Earlier in the year we bought a poly tunnel and put it in the corner, but we found we had too many tomato plants so we put some out in the beds.

It was all a bit of an experiment, and it turned out that our tomatoes liked to be outside. We had almost no tomatoes from the plants in the poly tunnel, which I think doesn’t get nearly as much sun as we thought it would. The ones planted outside, however, took off during the hot spell we had in August.

We bought in our the tomatoes from our outside tomato plants last weekend as the weather is turning cold. Many of them are still green, so we’ll ripen them inside now. But Didn’t we get a good haul?

Thank you for reading. I also make art and films. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Finding (or not finding) my flow: art in the time of parenting

Sep 26, 2020Sep 25, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 6 Comments

Hello Magpies!

I am sorry that I missed last week’s post. My brain feels like a sack of porridge at the moment.

I have been thinking a bit about creativity and the stop start nature of artistic work when you are also a parent of a young child. While it took me a while to adjust to having a young son, I feel as though I have got to a place where I am fitting in art, writing or film making every day at the moment. Baby Magpie’s naps have got slightly more predictable, and I’ve also found some time some evenings to do stuff.

So the logistics are beginning to work themselves out, and I am pleased with myself for that. But for me there is a second element to creative work that is really important, and that I’m having a bit less success with. I can have a plan, and follow the plan. I can do 200 words a day for example, but are they good words?

I struggle to find my flow when I am squeezing in work into twenty minute chunks here and there. Flow is a psychological concept, described by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, that describes that really enjoyable mental state where everything is working together, your focus is aligned with what you are doing, and time passes by unmarked. If you are interested in reading more, I think this book is good.

I find that it is in this state that my best ideas for my art come to me, and I find it hard to completely enter that state when I also have one eye, or one ear on the baby. Has anyone else experienced this? if you have, and have tips on how to manage this pleased let me know in the comments below.

Thank you for reading. I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Thought custard

Sep 13, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 4 Comments

It’s been an interesting week here at the Magpie nest. Baby Magpie has slept through the night several nights in a row. Like most new parents we were waiting for this moment with great anticipation, believing that it would usher in a return to a blessed state of getting several hours of unbroken sleep.

That’s not actually what happened. Instead, Baby Magpie has slept soundly, and I have woken at the times of the night when he normally wakes, and then spent several minutes gently prodding him to make sure that he was still alive. I’m definitely doing better for sleep now, but it’s still pretty broken, and not the step change in my mental resources that I was hoping for.

I was trying to think of something more intellectual for this weeks blog, but I find instead that I have thought custard. My ideas just aren’t running as smoothly as I would like them to. I have found it easier to work on artistic bits and bobs. The paper cut above is the first bit of animation work I have done since Baby Magpie was born, so I am pleased to have managed to get back to that. It’s a little bit of progress, but it will do me for now.

This month on Pram Cam: interesting books and chatting about art.

Sep 5, 2020Sep 13, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / Leave a comment

Just a short post today as I am struggling a bit for time at the moment. I have been continuing my experiments with YouTube and have uploaded a new video.

In this video I experimented with a different filming set up, chatted about some books I find inspiring, and talked a bit about how all my different projects fit together.

To find out more, please have a watch here:

Scraping together time for art.

Aug 29, 2020Aug 29, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

It’s been a busy few weeks here in the Magpie Nest. I was finally able to take Baby Magpie home to spend some time with his grandparents, which was great but exhausting. We also have quite a lot of jobs that need doing on the house, and the day to day jobs involved in looking after a small person.

With all of this going on I have been finding it hard to fit in time for creative things at the moment, as Baby Magpie is reaching an age where he is interested in everything, and beginning to be able to move himself about the place just a little, but not quite enough to satisfy his curiosity. It is difficult to find the kind of quiet alone time that you some times need just to think a bit of creative work through.

One of the little projects I had in mind was a card for Mr Magpie, as it was his birthday recently. I have given him hand made cards for his birthday every year since we’ve been together and it’s one of the little rituals of our relationship that I don’t want to let slide. I had a design in mind but found it difficult to just sneak away and put my design onto paper, which began to make me very anxious.

In the end I was able to manage it by pretending I had another piece of work I wanted to do and getting Mr Magpie to sit with him for a while for a while. It wasn’t the best solution, it would be better if I could find ways of managing my time better, but it worked as a fix at the time.

Baby Magpie is just beginning to take regular naps reliably, so I am hoping to be able to concentrate more on my projects during that time. Thus far I’ve not demonstrated a particularly strong ability to put boundaries around my time, or be disciplined at the opportunity arises, but this is something I plan to work on. I will let you know how it goes.

Thank you for reading. I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Stop looking at your phone Mama Magpie

Aug 17, 2020Aug 22, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 2 Comments

I have been at my parents house in the countryside this week with Baby Magpie. He is getting to spend some much deserved quality time with his grandparents, and we have left Mr Magpie back in London to do a few of the many little jobs needed in our eccentric house.

In the day Baby Magpie plays with his grandparents and I try to film little bits of him sitting on the swing and that kind of thing on my phone to send back to his dad so he doesn’t completely miss out. In the last few days I have noticed that Baby Magpie will stop smiling or laughing when I get the phone put to film him, and instead looks at me with a serious expression as if to say ‘mummy you are not paying attention’.

A while ago I blogged about being present as a parent, but from the perspective of how it might affect my mental health. I spend most of my time with him at the moment, but the quality of that time is very different depending on whether I’m trying to do something else at the same time or am just able to concentrate on being with him. Often there are things that just need to be done, but I also find myself picking up my phone or computer when I don’t really need to, because it’s become a reflex in modern life to do that. Babies are very clever. He can tell if I am present in the moment with him.

Recently Baby Magpie has been reminding me that putting a phone, even for goodish reasons, into the middle of my relationship with him tells him something about what is important. It’s when I put the phone down and concentrate just on him that he begins laughing and smiling again.

Experiments in creativity: Pram Cam!

Aug 15, 2020Aug 13, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 2 Comments

In the novel I am working on at the moment one of the characters is a YouTuber and I had been thinking about having a go myself, partly for research and partly to get back into film making. However I was finding it difficult to know what kind of films I should make as I didn’t think the sitting and talking to camera format would work for me.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the YouTuber and psycho-geographer John Rogers and how I had been finding his videos inspiring. His videos involve a narrated walk and while I would not be able to replicate his kind of carefully researched walks as I don’t have time, I did think a kind of ‘walk and talk’ format would be worth trying. Walking and thinking has been part of my creative process for a long time and this feels like something that fits with the work I’m already doing.

I have since bought myself a cheap sports camera (a Dragon Touch 4K – this is the model if you are interested (affiliate link)) and have been experimenting with ways to attach it to my pram. So far I have managed to go for a walk with the camera at South Norwood Country Park, which I know relatively well, and have edited a film out of that footage. It includes a kind of rambling narration which combines thoughts about the location, a bit about me personally and some thoughts about my novel.

And so (drumroll please!) I bring to you Pram Cam! I have set up a YouTube channel under the umbrella of Magpie at Midnight Films, and my first film is now up. I think I’m going to be able to put up about one film a month, which isn’t a great deal of content by YouTube standards, but realistically all I have time for at the moment.

I would really appreciate it if you would have a look at my video here, and consider subscribing to my channel:

Edits, doodles and my Patreon

Aug 8, 2020Jul 14, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

Over the last few weeks I have begun to edit my novel on a hard copy print out. I’ve have found that I particularly enjoy doodling on the margins of the ‘book’ which I hadn’t necessarily expected. Other writers out there – is this something you like to do too? Eagle eyed followers of this blog will have noticed that in my signature I’ve added a link to a Patreon page. It’s actually been there for some time, but I never did a proper ‘launch’ for this as I struggled for quite a while to work out what kind of ‘extra’ I could offer anyone who followed me as a Patreon as opposed to what I have here on the blog. Now I think I have something to offer.

I have not quite worked out yet if I’m going to publish independently, or if I’m going to try to get an agent and sell the book commercially. I have been doing a lot of research about different types of publishing, and actually feel like there is a lot to recommend independent publishing. I produce art work and have been working on a film as an independent creative, so in some ways it feels like bring the novels under an independent ‘portfolio’ fits well for me.

However I do feel like there could be a lot to learn by going down the traditional publishing route. I particular I feel like I could really benefit from working with a developmental editor, but I don’t have a budget for that at the moment.

For the time being I think I’m going to offer anyone who wants to follow or support me on Patreon a glimpse of my working edits and doodles. If I end up going the independent route then I will also give advanced views of things like the art work and cover design. This would be along with other, behind the scenes stuff from my creative work. So if you would like to follow me over atPatreon here, I would really appreciate that, and I now have something a bit different to offer.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Reasons to be grateful: surprise flowers in in garden

Aug 1, 2020Jul 14, 2020 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

When we moved to our new house in December the garden was in hibernation mode and the most we could see was a series of twigs and branches in various parts of the garden, some of which we were not even sure were alive. Then spring arrived and the garden began to bloom. Given we have been living these last few months through a lock down, I have been especially grateful for these surprises.

For example we have found that the previous occupants of the house have left all sorts of wonderful surprises, like this rose in a pot.

And these Forget Me Nots, which feel a bit symbolic as they are the flower that the design for my engagement ring is based on.

Perhaps the surprise I have enjoyed the most has been the discovery of the hibiscus bushes that line our fence. When we first moved in they looked to me as if they were a bunch of dead samplings that would need to be removed. But we didn’t get round to it. Now, well into this British summer, they have rewarded out inactivity by beginning to bloom.