Yarn in Barn

Here’s me talking to a gathering of young and not-so-young in Dublin lately. The event was held in a barn and everyone sat on hay bales.


Thanks to Aoife of Children's Books Ireland for the photograph

It reminded of when, as a boy, myself and a friend slept a night in a barn of a local farm. My friend told his parents that he was staying in my house and I told my parents that I was staying in his. We learned that, if you’re going to sleep in a hay barn, you should bring lots of water as all that straws dries out the air terribly. Our throats were dry as deserts by morning. For provisions, all we brought with us was a block of marzipan.

Dublin Events

Bookworms Invade Airfield on 14 August. Airfield is in Dundrum, Dublin. I will be having book events in the Grey Barn at 11:30am, 1:15pm and 3:00pm. The events will be suitable for 9 years and up.



There’s plenty of other things happening on the day in Airfield, click here to take a look.

Paper Monster

Top this. An origami kraken made from a single piece of paper 25 inches across. No cuts, just folds. The creator remarks (and I quote because I love the specialist terminology,) that the “sails are formed using trapezoid molecules.”


Kraken attacks!


The crease pattern shows where all the folds are.

You can see more of Brian Chan’s origami work at this link.