Two cream cushions printed with black and grey traditional-style illustrations, one of a bearded man in profile with a tear and one of a woman with roses and a polka dot headscarf.

Bearded man and woman cushion designs

Traditional · Black and grey · Flash

Two cream cushions sit on a dark sofa, each printed with a bold black and white illustration in traditional tattoo style. The left design shows a bearded man in profile wearing a jacket and tie, with a single tear below his eye. The right design shows a woman in profile with rolled hair, a polka dot and striped headscarf, three flowers including a large rose, and a small heart with an arrow on her chest.

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Marguerite, the tide tables came back from the printer's this morning and I have pinned them above the kettle, so you can stop pretending you do not check them. The Ardmore boat will not run again until Thursday, which means the crate of hairpins you ordered from Glasgow is sitting in a shed in Oban with a label that says NOT FOR THE SALVAGE MEN. I have written to complain. I have also written to say that Fenwick's new van has a cracked windscreen and he wanted me to tell you he is sorry about the goose.

Keep reading

The lamp was lit at dusk as usual. Wilfred climbed up to check the glass and found a moth the size of a ticket stub caught between two panes, wings open as if it had been reading. He would not let me sweep it out. He said it had come a long way to look at the light and the least we could do was let it finish. I have started to think he is more sentimental than the ships. You would laugh at the way he stands at the rail when the fog comes in, twisting the end of that ridiculous moustache, pretending the sea has not made him cry.

I kept the spare bulb in my pocket all evening, the brass one with the chipped collar, because I meant to give it to you when you came across on Saturday. The weather has other plans. So I am posting this instead, and the bulb is wrapped in a hat you once left on the stove, and if the postman drops the parcel in the harbour, at least the gull will have a decent evening.

Come when the sea lies flat. The rose on the cottage wall has opened early, and the lamp needs someone steady to hold the ladder while I climb it.

Yours, always, Elspeth

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