Butcher's Dog, Newcastle

Flying back to Edinburgh from Ireland, via Newcastle stop-over, for the launch of Butcher's Dog launch,edition 5, a feisty wee magazine edited by co-editors, Amy Mackelden and Andrew Sclater with guest editor, Carolyn Jess-Cooke.  Delighted to have two poems selected: 'Love Song to Pelagic Fish' (a strange love object and why not?) and more seriously 'Tetanus Infantum or the Eight Day Death' about the tragic infant deaths on St Kilda which was one of the main reasons that forced the islanders to ask to be evacuated.

The launch was held in the Live Theatre, formerly a coopers, which retains much of the original brickwork and  timbers inside. (See Live Theatre ). It's  alongside the river with a view of the 'armadillo' the silver concert hall -I love the contrast of new and old in Newcastle.

The fabulous 'armadillo' Newcastle concert hall.

Kittiwakes on the bridge.

And not least, catching a glimpse from the Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art of the kittiwakes nesting on the bridge, a bird I usually associate with the Northern Isles, not a city centre (though northern.)  The kittiwakes are fast disappearing from Shetland and Orkney - global warming killing off their food, sand-eels and also the predator, the Giant Skua ('bonxie').