I’ve been rereading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and as ever when reading these wonderful books I try to guess what form my daemon would take. If you haven’t read the books: do, because they are exquisite. If you have read the books, then you’ll know that in the fictional world of HDM, people take the form of two connected entities, a human being and an animal daemon which evokes the person’s innermost nature.

I imagine that my daemon would be a cricket. Last year I crafted a new blog, The Necessary Game, and left behind the cricket icon on my previous site, The Claypit’s Hearth. It felt like the right thing to do at the time, but I didn’t appreciate how much I would miss my cricket.

Meanwhile I have decided to move here into this yet again new space, and to reinstate my wee cricket while I’m at it. I don’t know why I keep creating these iterations of web identity. I like playing with WordPress, and tinkering with it behind the scenes; I even like the puzzles presented by html and css. In any case, I’m enjoying myself immensely. David Bowie crafted a good life dipping into a toybox of personas so I’ll just take my cue from him.

Thanks are due. My friend Susan Moir Mackay gave me the nudge I needed to take this next step, and I’m so grateful for her encouragement. (And check out her beautiful artwork!)

So: welcome!