Raven Appreciation II: A Year Living Together

♡ A Year Living Together ♡

It has now been a year since Raven and I moved to Scotland together. Our 1 year anniversary of living together was on the 20th of this month.  Nobody's been killed, the apartment building hasn't been suddenly replaced with a crater and there have been no major arguments: I call this a resounding success! I must admit I was really nervous when first moving up to Scotland; it was a new city, a new country, a new job, a new life with the man I love... a new everything! Yes, I was made redundant within a month of taking up my new job, and ended up unemployed for a while, but those are the risks of a recession, and Raven has been hugely supportive of me during that time. On the whole it has been a wonderful, wonderful experience. I have fallen in love with Scotland, and fallen even more in love with Raven. 

Tugging Raven's jacket off him. My old music corner, April '10
Photograph by Raven.

Raven and I have been together as a couple for a few years now, and I still love him as much today as I did when we first got together. It is a cliché, but I love him more each day than I did the previous, and will love him a little more the next. He is worth waxing lyrical about (read ::Raven Appreciation I::), but I'm not very good at that sort of thing and it always seems strange gushing like that in public. 

Oh, here I go anyway... 

Raven is a very kind, thoughtful, loving person; the sort of person that is always considerate of others and who worries about everyone (even though we're all fine, really!). He's hardworking, diligent, and sees "above and beyond" as the standard. He's a romantic (lower-case 'r') who sends flowers, hand-written letters, and adorable notes. He knows when I need chocolate. He is exceedingly patient, and manages to cope with my bouts of irrationality and over-emotionalness (is that even a word?) and my delving into obsession with my topic-of-the-moment. Raven is outdoorsy and adventurous; he thinks ideas like touring Europe on motorbikes and climbing random mountains are good ideas, and doesn't think that foraging for wild food in the autumn is strange. Raven is creative, and supports me in my creativity. He is, altogether, a wonderful human being. 

Dear readers, please extricate yourselves from that mass of sticky sap before I end up glueing you all together.  

Later Note:

I am entering this blog post for Victorian Kitty's monthly theme of "Someone Special" over at Sophistiqué Noir, as Raven is certainly someone very, very special to me. Victorian Kitty's blog is a very interesting fashion blog focusing mostly on her work attire, and is very well put together (as are her outfits, consistently) and she certainly deserves the title of "Corporate Goth Style Icon".  Check out her blog, and those of the other participants in this month's theme. 

Raven Appreciation ♥

I do not live alone, but together with my wonderful partner Raven. "Raven" is a pseudonym in a similar manner to "HouseCat." Raven is absolutely wonderful to live with, and is an excellent housemate as well as an excellent partner. I could go on at length about his personal attributes, but this would a) bore my readers b) embarrass him and c) have me run the risk of being terribly sappy. Also, I am inherently biased in the matter ;-) . He has supported me and been by my side and been a huge help to me and I adore him dearly and hope to be as supportive and kind to him as he is to me. 

Jabots make men more dashing. 

Raven and I met over the internet in 2009, and first met in person on February 2nd 2010. For a long time we carried on a distance relationship as we lived in separate countries, but summer last year we both moved to Scotland, he in early July and I in late August. We're hoping to eventually get married.

Looking somewhere between 'Gentleman' and "A Clockwork Orange'

Raven also helps me with my blog by photographing things when my skills fall short (he is a semi-professional photographer and runs ::Chance Photography::) and by reading through my drafts and pointing out typographical errors and other mistakes, and also giving me feedback on content.  He is also helping me become better at taking photographs in my own right and supports me in my hobby of photographing architecture, statuary and monuments by coming with me to graveyards and driving me to places too far to walk. He has also helped considerably with the up-coming recipe posts.

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I would like to thank him publicly for the contribution he makes behind the scenes on this blog!

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A friend described this pose as "Posh Vampire"

He would not describe himself as a Goth, despite the fact he occasionally wears Romantic Goth fashion and has a few Gothic interests, but is probably better described as a something of a combination of Metalhead, Industrial/Rivethead and Cybergoth, with a wide taste in music but especially liking heavy metal and various forms of industrial, dark techno, aggrotech, power noise, E.B.M, etc.  I am not entirely au fait with the genre distinctions of that sort of music (Raven has tried to educate me, but I fear that it is like trying to educate a brick.), but basically what I call "the stompy, angry and beepy stuff". He is himself, and that is more important than what subcultural ties he has and does not like to categorise himself as part of any one subculture. I'm not in love with him because he's  oh so dark and spooooooky, I'm in love with him because he's a wonderful person.

Myself, later that afternoon

The photographs in this blog post were taken in March, in Wallingford, Oxfordshire where Raven and I were both in Romantic Goth fashion and appreciating the castle grounds and beautiful architecture. His hair is slightly more golden than it appears in these photographs, maybe a consequence of I having taken them towards dusk on a grey English spring day.