Glean Oct/Nov/Dec 2015

glean

Read the D.I. Dylan Series from RC Bridgestock

Welcome...

After careful consideration, I am sad to announce that this will be the last issue of Glean for now.

The magazine has been running for two years and has been real labour of love. Unfortunately I have not been able to get an income from advertising to allow the magazine to continue and am now looking at other projects.

I am currently working on writing and illustrating my new children’s book Rabbits and Their Night-time Habits which should be out early 2016. To keep up-to-date with my art, please visit either www.splotdesigns. co.uk or www.facebook.com/ Splotdesigns if you are on Facebook.

Finally, I would like say a huge thank you to my existing advertisers and of course the lovely people who have provided images and articles for the title. As I have said before, without you there wouldn’t have been Glean!

Goodbye for now...

Claire

Claire Sells Editor

Contributors Art Direction, Marketing, Graphic Design, Features and Advertising Claire Sells gleanmagazine@outlook.com Proofreading: Melanie Archer Contributors: Maggie Currie, Fiona Trowbridge, Melanie Archer Photography: Front cover image kindly supplied by Holly Cade Photography www.hollycade.co.uk Social Media links: www.facebook.com/ gleandigitalmagazine https://twitter.com/GleanMagazine Website www.gleanmagazine.co.uk If you would like to get in touch with any of our column writers please do so via the email address provided, with their name in the Subject Line

PRINTS NOW AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE!

illustration and graphic design www.splotdesigns.co.uk

Contents HEALTH Get out of your own way by Maggie Currie (Maggie Currie Coaching) ENTERTAINMENT Book review of Elizabeth is Missing (Emma Healey) and Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn) by Melanie Archer

FEATURE Wood Sculpture by Paul Sivell TRAVEL A City Break in Reykjavik by Fiona Trowbridge

1

2

4

5

HEALTH

Get out of your own way

by Maggie Currie, Maggie Currie Coaching When you are facing obstacles that seem to be blocking you from achieving your goals, try not to get discouraged. It is so easy to feel “stuck” or that “life” is creating obstacles preventing you from getting what you want.

It is also easy to look at everyone else for the problem, perhaps even wanting to “get rid” of that person we may feel is blocking us. Often the best course of action to take is to look inside ourselves first.

It is amazing how often we can get in our own way without even being aware that is what we are doing. Even though we truly want to succeed, there are many reasons why we may sometimes block our own efforts. It may be that we are afraid to succeed, so we subconsciously create circumstances to keep ourselves stuck. Or it may even be that we are afraid that we will succeed, so we block ourselves by making the achievement of our goals more difficult than they really are. We may even approach our goals in a way that keeps creating the same unsuccessful results.

If you believe that you’ve been getting in your own way, you write down how you’ve done this. Write down the choices you’ve made that have hindered your efforts and the fears that may have prompted you

to make these decisions. Take note of any thoughts and feelings that arise. It is important to be gentle with yourself during this process. Don’t blame yourself for getting in your own way. When you are finished, throw the paper away while setting an intention that you are getting rid of any obstacles you’ve created to block yourself. Start again with a clean slate. Doubts and fears are going to be natural, but with this new awareness, you should be able to prevent yourself from subconsciously thwarting yourself. Besides, now that you’ve decided to get out of your own way, the part of you that has always wanted to succeed can allow you to do just that.

1

BOOK REVIEW

Elizabeth is Missing - by Emma Healey & Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Reviews by Melanie Archer - The Reading Chestnut For this edition of ‘What I’ve been reading’ I have looked at two different books with one thing in common; hype, and I have read these to see whether in my opinion whether either one of them is deserving of this build up.

Elizabeth is missing is a book that had everyone raving earlier in the year and I purely bought this on a whim as I saw it advertised in the Waterstone’s book club. I am so pleased I bought this book. I love to feel an emotional connection with anything I read and this is no different, leaving me with a mixed emotional state at the end yet still feeling fulfilled, this is one book I would recommend highly to anyone looking for their next literary fix.

Maud knows one thing for certain and that is that Elizabeth is missing, this thought is firmly set in her mind and she has notes all over the place confirming this for her. However noone seems to care about this and is forever telling her to shut-up, be quiet and forget about it, so Maud knowing she is right vows to get to the bottom of this.

A gripping detective story with a twist, a long forgotten mystery, known only to forgetful Maud. She makes endless cups of tea and forgets to drink them, she goes to the shops and forgets why she’s

there, has a thing for toast and tinned peaches and some days she doesn’t recognise her own daughter and grand-daughter. Yet somewhere in Maud’s mind something is battling its way to the surface and she is determined to see it through and sort it out one way or another.

This is a hauntingly sad, heart-breaking, yet warm, tender and a funny story of an elderly lady beginning to battle dementia, yet even though some parts of her mind have gone she knows her friend Elizabeth is missing. Easily switching between past Maud with her sister Sukey, Sukey’s husband Frank and her parents and their lodger Douglas who have their own tale to tell; and present Maud where her muddled mind just may have the key to a seventy year old unsolved mystery.

This is a book that digs deep into your heart and will nestle there and find a home. Full of poignancy I feel that this will soon rank highly with other modern day classics such as ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’ by Mark Haddon. The words fall off the page, melt in your mouth and linger. I genuinely could not put this book down and I want to read it again, soon.

To feel this book is to read this book.

Outstanding, beautiful yet unsettling this is a rare gem of a book, one 2

you won’t forget and you will always remember that Elizabeth is missing.

Secondly I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, I feel that I am a little late coming into the fold of this popular book, in fact there’s already been a film made and the book was claimed to be the thriller of the year by The Observer, so I settled down to read with high expectation. I was looking for a story with a little bit more grit than what I have been previously reading and I hoped that this would satisfy that need.

In general I enjoyed the book, however I would not describe this as ‘thriller of the year’, although good it was not amazing, and I have read finer works of crime thriller fiction, and I question whether the hype surrounding this book is just deserved or has the hype made it more than what it was ever meant to be.

Seeming to be cleverly written in places with twists and turns throughout keeping the reader

guessing, but only for the most part, when you ‘click’ the book you just want to get through it as quickly as possible.

Written in the first person from the viewpoints of Nick and Amy Dunne. They have gone through a tough time, both losing their jobs and moving from New York City to Missouri, Nick’s home-town, to look after his sick mother, and there they begin to craft a new life for themselves. Set to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary Amy suddenly disappears and the police soon suspect Nick, it’s always the husband isn’t it? Suspicions continue to form when Amy’s friends reveal that she was scared of him, and then there are the unexplained credit card bills on his credit card, unexplained possessions and mysterious calls to his mobile phone. It doesn’t look good for Nick. So what did happen to Amy? Both Amy and Nick are characters that you can both like and hate at the same time, masters of themselves and each other, allowing the reader to be drawn in to their tale and become submerged with who they think they are. With an intriguing premise, and some well thought out characters all set to play a game, it must be a sure fire non-stop page-turner, I wanted to love it and rave about it with all the others, but disappointingly I only liked it. This was not for me, and I love a good crime/thriller book.

The second half of the book is an improvement on the first which I felt lagged a bit and did not grasp my

full attention. The middle section had me hooked after a a swing in the direction of events and had some real dramatic moments. The end however again dragged, it was too easy to read, too easy to sense where the story was going; with some tightening in places and losing the some of the unnecessary ‘fat’ of the book and quickening in areas for dramatic purposes, it could have been improved.

Despite the language used, words chosen, and a story full of promise and possibilities , by the end I was left wanting; wanting a bit more of something, a bit less of something else, and felt no real emotional connection with the book, which to me the joy of reading is to feel.

Of the two titles I would recommend reading Elizabeth is missing as it presents a much more satisfying read for the dark nights setting in.

3

FEATURE

Wood Sculpture - Paul Sivell

What do you like most and least about working with wood as a medium?

I love the tactile qualities of carved, worked or sanded wood.

I specialise in large scale works and often this means that the first 2 or 3 days are spent doing physically hard, noisy, dirty, dusty and potentially dangerous work before even the first basic shaping can take place. I don’t enjoy that stage.

How much does the Isle of Wight influence your work?

The Isle of Wight influences my work when I’m on the Island, but I always try to be influenced by the local environment or culture whereever I’m working. I recently carved at a festival in Siberia and I won a prize for “the best sculpture in the Russian tradition”.

Have you always been involved in wood craft?

I used to whittle with a penknife as a boy, but I started my working life in forestry and although I was working

with wood it wasn’t in a creative way.

It was several years before I realised that I could whittle on a much larger scale with a chainsaw!

What started your interest in wood craft?

As a young boy I spent much of my time playing in the woods, building camps and making bows and arrows and I guess that started an interest, but I was always interested in art too although at that stage sculpture seemed very daunting.

Is there any particular artists you admire?

The first sculptor that caught my attention when I was very young was Elizabeth Frink, but my all time favourite sculptor is the Italian Renaisance artist Donatello ... his “David” is unbelievable!

The hare at Arreton on the Island has always received a lot of attention, how did it come about?

The hare was carved from a fallen Leyalnd cypress tree about 7 years ago. I was commissioned by Ian Boyd who at that time was director of the Island 2000 Trust. It was his idea to carve a hare, but the design was mine. The shape and the angle of the stump suggested a moongazing hare and as there was still some spare wood after I marked out the hare I added 2 magpies to make it more 4

interesting.

What have you always wanted to build/sculpt with wood?

I would like to build a wooden house.

What object do you enjoy crafting the most?

I always enjoy a new challenge. I’m often asked to carve the same things many times over and I can carve squirrels and owls with my eyes closed, but I prefer to be taken out of my safety zone.

What was the first object you crafted out of wood?

I made my first sculpture when I was about 9 or 10. I found an interestingly shaped piece of driftwood which I wax polished and mounted on a black painted cork base.

Is there anything you would really like carve out of wood that you havent done yet?

As I said previously I do like a challenge and although I normally don’t copy other peoples ideas I would like to attemp either Rodin’s “The Kiss” or Donatello’s “David”.

Where can our readers find you? www.thecarvedtree.co.uk

TRAVEL

A City Break in Reykjavik

by Fiona Trowbridge Perhaps not the most obvious place for a city break but with a flight time of only 3 hours from London you could find yourself in the world’s most northerly capital city, Reykjavik in Iceland.

As I entered room 705, my eyes darted past the mini bar and flat screen TV, they paid a cursory glance at the clean white bed linen and en suite before resting on the view from the floor to ceiling window.

The view was of the majestic Harpa concert hall on Reykjavik harbour. It was beginning to get dark and red, gold and green lights danced across the geometric shaped, coloured glass panels which covered the building and reflected in the mirror-like water below. Beyond that, the outline of the mountains above the glacial carved fjord, Kollafjordur, was just visible in the fading light.

By morning, the water had a different reflection. It looked cold. The Harpa flags blew energetically in a strong easterly wind while little waves broke in the bay and snapped at the harbour wall. The dark moody mountains were draped in cloud which effused from their glacier flattened tops and halted at an imaginary line a few hundred metres

above sea level.

By the time we left the hotel after breakfast, the wind had died down and the sun was highlighting the peaks. But we’d been warned about Iceland’s changeable weather, so we carried windproof and waterproof layers along with sunglasses and sunscreen and used them all before lunchtime.

Reykjavik is small enough to explore on foot. The Downtown area around the Harbour is the place to go for restaurants selling the freshest fish of the day including one that claims to have the best lobster soup in the world. We tried it and liked it but never having had lobster soup before, we couldn’t comment on whether it was the best in the world.

In town the restaurants had a more varied menu and international flavours too, like Nepalese, Thai and Italian but despite the growth in popularity of our national dish, I never saw anyone tucking into a plate of fish and chips.

The colourful streets of Reykjavik were a medley of boutique shops painted in blue, red, yellow or green with a contrasting coloured roof. Most Icelandic buildings are constructed from concrete and corrugated iron 5

and few, if any, had been left in their original colours. In winter, that must bring a welcome cheer in the long hours of darkness.

The highlight for me was seeing puffins for the first time. The superfast colourful little seabirds have a long breeding season in Iceland and can be seen until the end of August dashing backwards and forwards to their nests in the cliffs with beaks full of sand eels.

Puffins, along with Vikings and trolls, are big business in Iceland which means that puffin souvenirs are abundant. We saw them on tea towels and china mugs, soft toys and key rings, in felt and on T-shirts but the funniest one we saw was dressed in a Viking helmet holding a shield and sword in its wings.

8