Personal | Frances Bell

Frances Bell

home at last – for all the mes

Archaeology of family life

Diving through the layers of ‘stuff’ in our home office that was virtually unusable because of all the ‘stuff’, I found this lovely artefact in my late aunt’s Scrabble set. It is a diary that reveals two layers. The diary dates from 1965 My aunt Celie was a civil servant and she had acquired this…

Ice Bucket Challenge – the woolly liberal version

I suppose it’s almost inevitable that once you comment on people doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, you have raised your head above the parapet and should expect to catch a bullet. In my case it was my dear sister-in-law Moira Richardson, a recent entrant to Facebook, who challenged me. Although I am rather too old…

Strong as silk

Silk is natural, light, prismatic, gossamer. We know no fibre stronger than silk. One cocoon yields over 700 yards of filament. Silk can be reeled, spun, woven, sewn, knitted, patterned by weaving, printing, stitching, piecing, made into beautiful artefacts, to wear and to enjoy. Silk is beautiful and multiple. Silk can be chiffon, organza, crepe,…

Wonderful Women I follow on Twitter

To celebrate International Women’s Day, I trawled through those I follow on Twitter to create a list of women I follow on Twitter, then create a composite image of their avatars. This was quite a labour-intensive task but was time well spent as it made me think about these women. I am impressed -they are…

A sorry tale of wood-burning stoves and miscommunication

A morality tale This is a morality tale for those who have or intend to purchase a wood-burning stove to help bring down their energy bills, and those who are crafting home grown gifts for family and friends. If, like us, you fall into both categories beware the hidden dangers. The excitement On Friday, I…

Learning more about WordPress

My timing for going on the WordPress Intermediate course at Madlab was excellent – just as I am recreating my online presence as I left Salford. This will be one of my last posts here but I’ll be re-directing everything to the new site. Madlab has lots of really cool courses , and Mike Little who…

Identity under re-construction

moocardproof, a photo by frances bell on Flickr. I leave the University of Salford on 31 January as a member of staff, continuing as a student for 6 months as I complete my PhD by publications. Although my usual workload has gradually declined, I am very busy with the ‘work’ of re-constructing my identity. (I…

Listen to the mother’s voice

IMG_9388, a photo by frances bell on Flickr. This blog post is a bit of a departure for me – it is intensely personal and provoked by the tragedy of the death of Savita Halappanavar in a Galway hospital following the miscarriage of her 17 week foetus. I don’t usually post on personal issues but…