[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-soggy-cedar-refuge":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Possibly my worst tree drawing so far, but I'm determinedly posting it anyway. When I went out in the rain this morning, I knew a certain cedar in the flower garden section of Greenwich Park where I could shelter, and I thought it would be fun to make a sketch sitting \u003Ci>inside\u003C/i> the tree. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/grnwichpk_8nov10-f4363fae70.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIt didn't really work. I didn't feel wet, but the occasional Big Drops falling on my sketchpad started to add up after awhile, and I had to quit when my pencil stopped making marks and was actually lifting off bits of paper. So the picture didn't capture the tree's snug darkness, I'll have to try again when the weather's a bit drier. \\r\n\\r\nThe cedar wood smelled nice and homey. I come from the Pacific Northwest where cedar played a huge part in the daily lives of the Coastal Native Americans, providing everything from dugout canoes to longhouses to clothing. But the carved cedar masks used to scare me senseless, I've only been able to appreciate them in the last fifteen years or so.\\r\n\\r\nToday I went to Highgate to meet up with writers \u003Ca href=\"http://www.candygourlay.com/\">Candy Gourlay\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"http://wheniwasjoe.blogspot.com\">Keren David\u003C/a> (both longlisted for next year's Carnegie medal, hurrah!). We're speaking together on a panel called \u003Cb>\u003Ci>Social Networking: a blessing or a curse?\u003C/i>\u003C/b> at the \u003Cb>Winter Conference of the \u003Ca href=\"http://britishscbwi.org\">Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators\u003C/a>\u003C/b> this weekend, so we pooled our knowledge of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and all that. Candy and Keren love Facebook, Keren's really into Twitter, and I'm still a LiveJournal homebody; it's my comfortable Internet base, while the other bits are more of what I do to make sure my blog doesn't go totally unread. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/kerensarahcandy2-5be72120b5.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Keren David, me, Candy Gourlay\u003C/i>\\r\n\u003C!--more More under the cut-->\\r\nOn the way back, Candy and I spotted a little painted piece of chewing gum on the pavement, possibly made by artist \u003Ca href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/rahid1/sets/286517\">Ben Wilson\u003C/a> or someone who's doing the same thing:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/candypavement-4065ce28b1.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd I snapped a couple photos of \u003Ca href=\"http://www.shardlondonbridge.com/\">The Shard\u003C/a>, a newly emerging massive building next to London Bridge Station. If a building can be said to look fierce, The Shard looks mighty fierce.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/london_shard1-60a72d6e3f.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nPaired with Guys' Hospital, the buildings look like a strange, robotic Sphinx and pyramid of sorts.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/london_shard2-2d243abb61.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\\r\nHey, and guess what! \u003Cb>Neill Cameron\u003C/b> turned up at \u003Cb>Philip Reeve\u003C/b>'s son's school on Dartmoor last week, and the first Philip heard of it when Sam came home very excited about \u003Cb>Mo-Bots\u003C/b>. Here's \u003Ca href=\"http://philipreeve.blogspot.com/2010/11/mo-bots-in-widecombe.html\">Philip's entry\u003C/a> about it, and \u003Ca href=\"http://neillcameron.blogspot.com/2010/11/tiger-ballerinas-spotted-on-dartmoor.html\">Neill's blog post\u003C/a>. \\r\n\\r\nMore soon about last weekend in Oxford, but I left my notebook at home.","2010-11-08T17:59:00.000Z","soggy-cedar-refuge",[],"soggy cedar refuge",1776628719068]