Cat McLaughlin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️

Some thoughts on Edinburgh College of Art's decision to ditch teaching of craft-based disciplines at undergrad level. As a textiles graduate myself, it's so incredibly sad to see an org like them choose to do this when they could be championing these skills. catmcl.substack.com/p/creative-e...

Catching up on #31DaysOfGraves Day 26: Accident. Mungo Park was a Selkirk-born explorer of West Africa in the late 1700s/early 1800s. This memorial at the Gala Aisle burial ground says he “perished in the interior of Africa in 1805 aged 35.” (Believed to have drowned in a Nigerian river.) #35mm

A late entry... view from the platform at Dundee train station. 🛤️ #BlueskyArtShow #Transportation #Scotland

#31DaysOfGraves Day 25: Tree. Saw some lovely cherry blossom at this ancient auld kirkyard in Selkirk back in April. 🌸 #ScottishBorders #Alba #Selkirk #Scotland #CemeteryWandering

#31DaysOfGraves Day 24: Contrast. 🪦 Scan of a print from 35mm Kodak black & white film, a photo I took circa early 2005 with my dad’s vintage Cosina camera. (I really do miss that camera, it was *so* great!) #Galashiels #Scotland #ClassicMono #35mm #FilmPhotography #ShotOnFilm #Analogue #Kodak

Walking back along the River Clyde after a gig in Glasgow this August, I happened upon the Waverley. She’s pretty iconic, as the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer left in the world, built in 1946. Day trip highly recommended! #BlueskyArtShow #Transportation #Glasgow #ScottishHistory

View of Scotland’s capital city from the passenger bridge over the tracks at Edinburgh Park train station. 🛤️ #BlueskyArtShow #Transportation

We need humanities more than ever in the age of AI ft.trib.al/SDdQK9q | opinion

#31DaysofGraves Day 23: Wings. 🦋 Found this butterfly (or moth!) carved into a headstone in Galashiels. Only on closer inspection did I realise it's encircled by an Ouroboros! 🐍 Both symbolic - the butterfly = beauty, fragility & ephemeral nature of life; ouroboros = eternal cycle of life & death.

🌟 Creative studio spaces available in Edinburgh Printmakers' cultural hub! Join the creative community at Castle Mills and work in a treasured historic building in Fountainbridge, an evolving area of Edinburgh. https://f.mtr.cool/qwoxgjceqz

Some colour on a dreich day. ☔️ #Bloomscrolling

'Pastoral, Morning Glass' (2026) -- Beach Hill Road, Outer Freeport, ME #Scape ✨ #ForestFriday ✨ #BWFri ✨ #StunDay ✨ #PaintByWords ✨ #BlueSkyMonday ✨ #TidesOutTuesday ✨ #BlackAndWhite #Monochrome #ClassicMono #ECK #JayceeCrawford

Something to be aware of, for anyone with a WordPress-based blog or website (or one that uses PHP to function in general).

This airy spot on Gala Hill remembers local poet, Roger Quin (1850 - 1925). Apparently he gave up regular employment to become a busker and poet. There's some information about his life and work here: war-poetry.com/roger-quin/ #31DaysOfGraves #ScottishBorders

Perhaps somewhat tenuous for the #fire prompt of #31DaysOfGraves - but I think of the fiery red poppies & red sandstone. 🥀 This is a memorial in Ancrum, a village in the Scottish Borders, commemorating the men who lost their lives during WW1 1914-1918 (aka "The Great War"). #LestWeForget #Scotland

#31DaysOfGraves Day 19: Water. This fallen headstone (which is in the cemetery at Gala Aisle in Galashiels, Scotland) was looking pretty with a frozen puddle embedded with leaves. 🍂 📷 January 2022

#31DaysOfGraves Day 18: Earth. A view of the Jedburgh Abbey (or what remains of it) and the old graveyard surrounding it. #Jedburgh #ScottishBorders

Belatedly realised I actually *do* have a photo for the “music” prompt for yesterday’s #31DaysOfGraves! 🎶 This one was in the RC Cemetery Buitenveldert / RK Begraafplaats Buitenveldert in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

One last wall for today, this one serving as a backdrop for some gorgeous roses. 🌹 #Walls #BlueskyArtShow #Bloomscrolling

The #walls were full of reclaimed neon signs at the Buchstabenmuseum (Letter museum) in Berlin - heaven for a #typography lover like me! 😍 #BlueskyArtShow #Neon #Signage

This is a mural in Galashiels, a town in the south of Scotland (where I live) celebrating its industrial textile heritage. I actually designed the logo for Galashiels, which is on the wall, and incorporates a traditional woven Sheperd's Check - a pattern which originates here. #Walls #BlueSkyArtShow

A tiny little world within the #walls. #BlueskyArtShow

After some searching, we found this old graveyard in Dumfries where some of my paternal ancestors were laid to rest. It was tucked away, but to my surprise we did find a headstone belonging to a relative & it was just over the wall from the Rabbie Burns mausoleum! #31DaysOfGraves #Dumfries #faith

Good morning. Currently I am running mainly on caffeine, fumes and seasonally-appropriate snacks. 💀

The grave of a family named Meuer zu Schlochtern, Berlage at the Roman-Catholic Cemetery Buitenveldert / RK Begraafplaats Buitenveldert in Amsterdam Zuid. 🇳🇱 A German surname, with "pax" (peace) in Latin, and the rest of the inscriptions in Dutch. #31DaysOfGraves #Amsterdam #Netherlands #Language

A memorial stone at the tomb of Scottish romantic writer Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), in the north transept of what remains of Dryburgh Abbey, Scotland. #31DaysOfGraves #ScottishBorders #FamousScots

On a visit to Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders, I encountered quite a few of these (rather weathered) headstones featuring what appears to be a person reading a book! 📖 Oddly, many of them look like they have also sunken into the earth... #31DaysOfGraves #Scotland #cemetery

A more unusual headstone for today's #31DaysOfGraves post - this large gothic revival style one, circa the late 1800s, bears some resemblance to the Scott Monument in Edinburgh. Very much of its time! Spotted in Selkirk, Scotland at the site of the Auld Kirk (Scots for "old church"). 🪦

🦇 Despite autumn being a quiet time for bat activity, Halloween means bat decorations are everywhere. We think this is the perfect time for bat lovers to celebrate bats and raise awareness! Learn more: www.bats.org.uk/support-bats...

A fairly ordinary headstone for today's #31DaysOfGraves post. This one is from the 1800s, and has fallen from its original position. The grave is located in the auld burial ground in Galashiels, Scotland.

🌟900 Stories in Print🌟 Call for Submissions! https://f.mtr.cool/cvsgxsm9up We're compiling a book and we need your stories of Fountainbridge and the neighbouring areas! Stories can be told through words, audio, visual art, or film.

A wintery view of Gala Hill and Meigle Hill on a snowy December day in 2022. ❄️ #BlueskyArtShow #Weather #Galashiels #Scotland #ScottishBorders

Some traditional Scottish #weather for #BlueskyArtShow! 🌧️

It was so windy today that I actually had to hold the stalk of these dahlias to get a photo that wasn't a *total* blur! 🌼 #BlueskyArtShow #weather

#31DaysOfGraves Day 10: #Missing This is a headstone with the most beautiful copperplate-style inscription, I love the colour it has taken on through weathering over time. It's at the Gala Aisle graveyard in the town of Galashiels, Scotland. Some graves there date back to the 1600s. #ShotOnCanon

Another one for #31DaysOfGraves Day 9: #Lettering I was particularly charmed by the monogram on this headstone I saw at Dryburgh Abbey in the far south east of Scotland. It marks the grave of Noel Jessie Haliburton Wilson, Countess of Mayo - she lived to be 101! (b. 25th December 1890 - d. 1992)

A very personal one from me today for #31DaysOfGraves. I visited my great-great uncle Bernard’s, and his wife Julia’s grave in the Eastlands Cemetery, Galashiels, which is close to where they lived (their former home was only a couple of streets away). My dad has always spoken fondly of him. ❤️

The way I just "whooped" when I *finally* got a an actual CMYK vector logo in my email inbox at work just now, not just a shitty tiny PNG file... Gotta love conference season, haha! 😅 #GraphicDesignerLife

#31DaysOfGraves Day 6: Weather. A frosty December day back in the winter of 2023 at the (very) Old Burial Ground, Galashiels. The building on the left is not a church, but Gala Aisle, the family burial vault for the lairds of Gala, built in 1636. #Scotland #cemetery #Galashiels #ScottishHistory

Following on from my earlier post, this is a photograph of Gala Aisle itself - or at least the windows, which presumably once had glass in them, a long time ago. #31DaysOfGraves Day 3 - Glass. #ShotOnCanon

Day 2 of #31DaysOfGraves - Urn. Taken on a walk this evening around the Old Burial Ground, #Galashiels, in the south of Scotland. The #graveyard has headstones dating back to the 1600s + includes Gala Aisle, the family burial vault for the Lairds of Gala, built in 1636. #3rdPlace #BlueskyArtShow

Evening sunlight at the Eastlands #Cemetery in #Galashiels. 🥀🪦 Just spotted #31DaysOfGraves & this feels fitting for day one's prompt, flower. I also quite like graveyard walks, so I herby submit it as a #3rdPlace for this week's #BlueskyArtShow. 📷 April 2025, Galashiels, Scotland. #ShotOnCanon