My email is currently very unhappy. If you've tried getting hold of me that way this week, I'm not ignoring you, I just almost certainly haven't received it. I can post out OK but I'm getting very little inbound mail despite knowing that there's plenty mail out there (LJ, WordPress and Flickr comments + tons of stuff from my Yahoo groups). Of course, the damn spam can still get through!

Goodness knows what our stupid email provider is playing at - my resident geekboy is trying to sort it out with them but in the meantime, if you need to get hold of me urgently you can try leaving comments on this post. I'll be checking back here occasionally.

Hi folks, you may notice a few changes in the look of the blog over the next few days as we do some tweaking. We're not doing much, just widening the screen size so we can add the links and the archives to a sidebar. I thought it was a bit daunting to have to go all the way to the bottom of the page before you found the archives, plus it just makes more sense to have the links with the rest of the blog. Apologies to anyone still using a small monitor, I know it's annoying to have to scroll sideways but Steve, my designer, is keeping the actual blog text to a size that ought to still fit on your monitors without any scrolling.

Things may occasionally look a bit weird as we shift stuff around, so please bear with us. I'll let you know when we're done and then if it still looks strange to anyone, you can let us know.

Also, I'm going off to Leeds tomorrow and probably won't get a chance to post until Monday. It's my youngest brother's wedding on Saturday, so it's fancy new shoes and smart hat time! I'm doing a reading in the church - wish me luck!

We had the first barbecue of the year, it's been too wet until now. I hadn't realised how much I'd been missing it until this evening. I was so happy just being in the garden, making fire and eating fresh food with my fingers. I need to spend a certain amount of time out in the garden every day or I get a bit cross but it's been so hard lately with all the rain.

I loved the way the grill looked afterwards with the contrast of the white ash beneath the blackened metal.

A close up of the dying coals, taken in the dark with the flash, you can just see the wisp of flame.

The same coals without the flash, I adore the colour on this shot. I tweaked the levels very slightly to brighten the image but this is basically the same colour that the camera captured.

It was so wonderful to stand outside in the dark taking photos with the warmth of the fire under my hands and the smell of the smoke in my hair. Then as I was coming back inside, I saw a bat, which always makes me very happy. I felt quite renewed and emotionally nourished by it all.

Oh, and the food we ate was extremely delicious too!

And we're live! I'm excited and may have to go and do a little dance around the kitchen whilst making a celebratory cup of tea (ah, the wild life of the bohemian artist!). Of course, I know that no one's likely to visit at this time on a Sunday night but that's OK, I'm just relieved to finally be finished.

And the blog has a name too - Up All Night Again - kindly suggested by my partner and picked because it pretty much sums up my art practice. Other suggestions that didn't quite make the cut:

Super Wanky - I wasn't being serious when I came up with this one
Look At Me, I'm Fabulous - Steve said that all blogs could basically be called that but oddly enough no one seems to have used it yet
Oh Bugger - can't remember whose bright idea that was but it made us all laugh, not very professional though!
The Bemused Muse - this was the only other serious candidate

I think you'll agree that I made the snappiest choice, although I'm still perversely fond of Look At Me, I'm Fabulous!

Wow, a brand new blog. After years of blogging in the comfy seclusion of Livejournal, it's more than a little strange to be out here in the wider internet. Right now I feel as though I've just moved house: after months spent painting the walls and moving the furniture around, now it's time to settle in with a cup of tea and make myself at home.

The site has been designed by my lovely friend Steve Taylor, who's done a smashing job with both the design and putting up with me changing my mind at frequent intervals. The boy deserves a medal!

You'll notice that there are no links on this page, we decided there just wasn't room so we've got an old-fashioned links page instead.

Anyway, I hope you'll take a look at my art and then stay around for the blogging. I'll be talking about my own art, posting photos, linking to art stories and highlighting interesting work by other artists.