Iain Houston

So, I published my first book. Set in Portpatrick, Vacancies is a story of loneliness, loss, and the struggle to grow up in a world that is slowly ending. You should buy it. You’ll definitely like it. amzn.eu/d/gwow3A0 #WritingCommunity

I don’t know if I believe her.

30 years ago, when I was young, I was on a date with a girl who was at art college. We were in a cafe on Kilmarnock. Suddenly she pointed behind me and said, “That painting is the wrong way up.” On the wall behind me was this painting, upside down.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. I’m hearing her great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather betrayed fellow Cossacks to the Russian Tsar prior to the battle of Poltava in 1709. Appalling. MI6 have questions to answer.

Dumfries wildlife: saw an otter down at the Nith!

If you are towing a trailer, make sure it has lights if it is obscuring your indicators. Otherwise this kind of thing can happen when someone tries to overtake. Luckily my brakes work.

My son’s jacket was smiling at me. #pareidolia #facesinthings

Seems a bit of a drastic response.

For any aspiring writers who are wondering if it is worth paying an editor, I just want to make you aware that I have just read a book containing background information copied from a story in @WhispersNewsLTD. It’s never money wasted.

Following last night’s criticism of Timo Werner by Ange Postecoglou, I noticed this incredible example of a quadruple(?) negative. “I don’t think Timo Werner will not be unhappy and I think that is unfair.” I have now read it five times and still can’t work out what it means.

Abigail did beta reading for my books and I thought she was excellent. Very honest and helpful. I’d recommend her to anyone.

Well…this is a delicate one. Can anyone in #Genealogy #ancestry #FamilyHistory…or just @june_gemmell help? This child died in 1882, at just one year old, of Tabes Dorsalis. This was the mother’s sixth child. She also also died in 1882, of phthsis (which I assume is phthisis pulmonalis - TB) which she had for two years. Everything I’ve seen says Tabes Dorsalis means degeneration due to syphilis. But it usually takes decades to develop in adults. Can’t find much about it in infants, although I know there is such a thing as congenital syphilis. Could it be a misdiagnosis/mean something else? Could it be related to the mother’s cause of death? Is phthisis here definitely TB? If so, could the syphilis have made her more susceptible to it? And she had five other children: (1857, 1869, 1871, 1873 and 1875) and they seemed to be unaffected, although the 1871 child died at 11 months of measles/dysentry. Wouldn’t they have been affected as well? I’m not a doctor, or any kind of medical professional. Does anyone know?

This is a kind of awesome #Genealogy #ancestry #FamilyHistory find.

American cars don’t have WHAT? How did I not know this?

Badgers. I will be taking no further questions at this time.

So we got two brioche rolls shaped like a loveheart. So blessed. Actually, now I look at it, it looks a bit like an alien. Makes you think.

Dumfries is such a grey, grim, soulless, urban desert.

Read a book to my daughter tonight and have spent the last hour trying to work out what kind of bizarre regional accent I would have to have for “cork” to rhyme with “talk”.

This old fire pump @summerleemuseum just wishes, somehow, things could have been different. #pareidolia #facesinthings