Carrie (Not The Kind of Girl You’d Marry) has a husband.  His name is Garry.  Carrie and Garry.  Garry and Carrie.  We rhyme.  From my chatter here and elsewhere in this little online circle, you might know him best as  ‘Beardy’.  He was unaware of his psuedonym until he was greeted by lots of strangers with friendly faces at the London BUST Craftacular with excited squeaks – “Are you Beardy?  Pleased to meet you!”  A perplexed Beardy looked at me, one eyebrow raised – “Am I Beardy?”  In the background, I nodded.  “Yes. Yes you  are.”

Yesterday morning, Beardy strolled on in to the kitchen, sloped onto a chair and joined me at the kitchen table.  There was nothing particularly strange about this, afterall,  our kitchen table tea and chatter session is a daily ritual.  A fairly recent addition to our routine, I feel a little bit out of kilter if Beardy and I don’t start our day with a little rundown of our respective plans over a cuppa.  Small talk, big talk, silly or serious – it doesn’t really matter.  Teapot?  Check.  Teacups?  Check.  Plate of warm toast?  Check.  However, yesterday, something wasn’t quite right. My perpetually fuzzy faced husband was no longer fuzzy faced!

Look ! A beardless Beardy!

These past weeks have been a touch on the crazy side for ol’ freshly shorn Beardy (I have decided, beard or no beard, Beardy is an online nickname that’s sticking.  I’m presuming it will only a matter of time before everyone’s – well, MY, favourite Grizzly Adams makes his fuzzy return!).  I thought, just for a change, I might share some of his news since it’s much more interesting and exciting than mine*.

Having spent much of last week in his home village of Brora busily completing an epic photographic project with subject and family matriarch, Mary Fielding (aka Grandma), Beardy returned home just in the nick of time to accept a last minute photography job on behalf of the guys and gals at The Yoga Barn in Pollock Park.  I was called upon to act as photography assistant and was pleased to be asked – not just because I’d heard a lot about the barn and wanted to see it for myself, but having been on my tod for several days on a trot, I didn’t much like the idea of yet another afternoon home alone, pacing the living room carpet and wringing my hands like a crazy person.  Talking of trotting…

Why the long face? (Boom boom). I took a shine to this fella but was a bit scared of his giant feet.

I did not care for these ladies. I really should have recorded a quick video clip for full effect. Yap! Yap! Yap!

The barn is set in the most beautiful grounds in The Dumbreck Riding School in Pollock Park. This is just a little nook of the pretty garden.

As beautiful as the barn is (I must admit I spent the greatest portion of the day reimagining the space as my dream home), my first stint as photographic assistant turned out to be pretty tricky and just a little bit stressful.  I know! Who’d've thought a day out surrounded by friendly horses, green, green grass and tweeting birdies could be so intense? For instance, much hopping around and squealing ensued when I realised we were being eyed up by a gaggle of jumbo wasps mid-shoot. (Do wasps have eyes?  If they do – I’d poke ‘em in them).  This was troubling – but even more troubling since I already had midgies stuck in my tights AND amidst the wasp attack, Beardy was balancing precariously on a wooden staircase while wrestling with a stubborn tripod and swearing quite a lot.

Having recovered following  a few moments of dual-tetchiness and successfully escaping the wasps (the running away of course further aggrovated the midgies that were trying to set up home in my waistband – and also, it came to light later – in my collar) Beardy attempted to lighten the mood by pretending to canoe home.  Or at least that’s how he frames the episode now.  I was there and I think this was actually some sort of momentary mental breakdown.

Beardy row, row, rows his boat gently over the concrete floor in a bid to convince me that life IS but a dream...

Once we’d snapped our way round the barn, it was time to leg it across town to Schnapp(s) our way round The Rio Cafe at Beardy’s band Schnapps’ single release and album playback party. Rock’n'roll excitement in the Maclennan house!   If you haven’t heard Schnapps, you oughta.  You can buy new single ‘No Contact’ from iTunes here.  The album will be released later in the summertime. I do enjoy my rock’n'roll wife status. Since I have barely any social life of my own to speak of, it’s quite fun once in a while to dress up, see some real people, chat a bit and enjoy a tipple or two – you know,  “outside”.  Mortified, since on this occasion there was no time for dressing up, I had to attend the party with scruffy hair, a shiny face and smelling a little bit like manure.  No one seemed to mind.  Or at least if they did, they were polite enough not to bring it up (to my face).

So – thus far I’ve covered Beardy completing a BIG photo book project about his Grandma, his mental collapse in a canoe, the launch of his band’s single…  Um – what else?  Oh!  Yes – this week also marked the beginning of Beardy’s latest online exhibition.  Sometimes it’s called ‘Unknown’ and sometimes it’s called ‘Backstage’. he can’t make up his blinkin’ mind.  I call it ‘Backstage’.  The idea’s pretty great.  You know those people – those people you see around?  On the street, in bars and clubs, on the bus, in the post office queue… You’ve seen them so often over such a long period of time that you feel you kind of know them? It gets a bit awkward sometimes because you wonder if they recognise you too and you think that maybe you should say hello.  Or at least nod in their direction.  Well – the concept of this exhibit was sparked by THOSE people.  Beardy initially set out to photograph some of ‘em.  Then – the idea grew a little bit and he decided to photograph them in a way that made them appear slightly less recognisable (if that even makes sense).  The idea grew a little bit  more again and the exhibit now also includes stark portraits of  all sorts of familiar characters some of whom you may know through their work or their role in aspects of Glasgow life, art & culture but have never seen in person.  Or at least, you’ll never have seen them like this. Every few days, Beardy publishes a portrait on his exhibition blogsite.  The rolecall of participants is super lengthy already but the project is set to rock on for a long time yet.  Three portraits have been published so far…

Ian Crawford: Backstage (YHFphoto)

David Shrigley: Backstage (YHFphoto)

Emmylou: Backstage (YHFphoto)

You can see the exhibit unfold each week here.  Only Beardy knows whose faces might pop up!

Beardy has one more chunk of pretty exciting news.  On Wednesday, he boards the trusty Megabus once more and heads for London Town for the second time in as many months.  I’m not going.  That don’t impress me much.  While Beardy works on his craft book commission and swans around snapping at The Camden Crawl on behalf of BUST Magazine, I’ll be here with Smokey Cat – eating minestrone soup and contemplating regrouting the bathroom tiles.

*My “news”

1.  I made a tasty fried rice dish for dinner the other night.

2.  Having spent an evening discussing world politics with my Chinese fashionista friend, we came to the conclusion that we’re all doomed.

3.  I went to town with the firm intention of buying a pair of £8 patterned jersey harem pants (yes, really), but instead bought a pair of £10 deck shoes and a £2 straw visor.

3.  I cooked with artichoke hearts for the first time.  I shan’t be hurrying to do it again.

4.  I have realised there is no safe way for me to wash the window frames in the bathroom.