Doom and gloom - no thank you

Now is the time I would find an image of two fingers useful, but you can remain calm, I am not going to look for one. Hold the image in your mind however, for I am becoming increasingly fed up with all bleak foreboding on the news and in the press. The labour party is falling apart at the seams, Robin Harper is retiring, package holidaymakers are indeed having the time from hell and the pound does not go as far as it did last week - and yet we are all still here. The sun does shine and plans are being made for Festivals to come. This weekend sees the Folk Festival in full throat, Keith Ingham's exhibition has been very favourably reviewed in the Scotsman and Elisabet rarely sees the light odf day as preparations are made for Traces of Light. Tickets for the Linlithgow Book Festival, which does not happen until 31st of October to 2nd November, are selling well already, with the Christopher Brookmyre event all but sold out.

I think it is time to take a deep breath and stand back from the chaos a little. Things are not good, but there is a great deal that is going well - and, if we work at it, we can make a whole lot a great deal better. That is how I see it anyway, and I refuse to think otherwise.

Gail