In between working full time, teaching myself to draw by sketching every single day for the year (which, FYI, is looking more and more like sketching every day for the rest of my life because I'm too stubborn to let my draw count reset), attempting to have a social life, and continuing the very necessary habits of binging Netflix and hibernating to reconcile my sleep deficit from the week, it's hard to keep up with posting on here. I'm slowly catching up but it's more difficult than I'd like to find the time. But I will get there, so without further ado...

Samhain, pronounced SAH-win or SOW-in, is an ancient Celtic festival celebrating the end of the harvest season and the start of the 'darker half' of the year. Each Halloween, the Beltane Fire Society perform a living, dynamic reinterpretation and modernisation of the ancient Iron Age Celtic ritual in central Edinburgh, complete with full costume, acrobatics and pyrotechnics. It was crazy impressive to watch. So much time, effort and dedication goes into the performance and the event is entirely run on donations!

In Celtic mythology, Samhain causes the veil between worlds to weaken, allowing faeries and spirits to cross over into this one. Performers are split between the faeries who belong to the court of Summer. They're covered in flowers and greenery and interact with the crowd by speaking about perfect weather and how wonderful the Summer King's eternal reign will be... while the followers of the court of Winter hiss and screech and celebrate the long-awaited coming of the Winter King. The main performance shows the kings and their courts fighting one another and Winter emerging victorious, ready to usher in the colder months.



While utterly otherworldly in person, Samhain was a huge challenge to photograph. It was raining like nobody's business, so cold I could hardly feel my hands, and the lighting was so strange with the general darkness from Parliament Square and the bright fire. I had to give up on my SLR (i.e. protect it from the elements!) and rely on my phone camera, which I have to say I was actually very impressed with.

Another exciting thing about Samhain for me was that one of my photos of the performance made it to the shortlist of a photography competition run by the Scottish Parliament! Super exciting and I was honoured to be selected for week six!

At Samhain, the veil between worlds draws thin and the spirits gather close to bear witness as the courts of Summer and Winter battle for control of the seasons.

A post shared by Emma C Simpson (@travellingquill) on Oct 31, 2016 at 4:30pm PDT

Long time, no post! I feel I've been neglecting the blog lately but it's only because I've been so busy and tied down to my course. Fourth years (apparently) don't have the time to go gallivanting off into the wilds of Scotland and instead have to be good little students and stay on campus managing a triple-weighted module (gulp).

That said, I can't complain. My wide windowsill in my palace of a room is home to my succulents and orchid as well as my little souvenirs from Bali, Tanzania, and Western Canada to remind me of all the travelling I did last year. Four separate continents in one year is an incredible feat.

A significant portion of my time is spent preparing for and carrying out my dissertation research. Psychology students get to produce their own original research in fourth year and I'm very pleased to be able to say I am working in the area of evolutionary psychology, something I find unendingly interesting, and on a project that should hopefully produce some significant results (I promise I will talk about it later!). 

I also got to help out with the Science Grrl fair that was hosted by the university. The reason this was monumental and worthy of mentioning on my blog is not in fact because I inspired the next generation of female scientists but because after we were packing everything up, I was able to try out the Psychology department's Oculus Rift set up. And oh man, was it fun! It's still very much in the beginning stages of its applications and graphics but I seriously cannot wait to see what the future will bring for VR. Partly due to the gaming possibilities but mostly due to the psychological significance.

When I'm not hounding people to participate in my study, I'm at yoga classes. I rejoined the gym this semester with an eye to get back on the elliptical (because I wouldn't have made it up Kilimanjaro without that beautiful machine, it really deserves more love) and tried out the inclusive yoga and pilates classes as well. I enjoy pilates a lot and had tried it before but it was my first time doing yoga and I absolutely fell in love. I already know my new year's resolution: to keep practicing until I can do a full backbend!

With the end of October comes Halloween of course. We got some pretty successful pumpkin carving done in our flat...

I spotted a gorgeous and suitably dramatic sunset from our floor...

And I made a very good vampire if I do say so myself! Please excuse the terrible Snapchat-quality but I had to show off my contact lenses! They worked so well!

Anyway, I am truly very sorry for the radio silence! Fingers crossed I get a bit of travelling in here and there but in the meantime you can find me on an assortment of social media. I do have some more local posts planned for November so watch this space!