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
Linlithgow, or rather we who live here, will sometime in the not too distant future have access to allotments. A society has formed and an application is on its way to the Council, who may provide a bit of land. Well done! all the folks who have worked hard to get it off the ground! I roped in friend and went along to join up. We have both done more than our fair share of meetings and are slightly jaded when it come to the points - points of rules, points of interest, points of order, points of procedure and finer points. We do acknowledge that that is not a sentiment shared by everybody, and that some meetings can resemble marathons, where everybody but everybody has to air all the buts and ifs. And there are always reasons not to do anything at all. I am forever reminded of a Chinese proverb someone slapped me on the back with when I was dithering "A man can stand on a hillside with his mouth open for a long, long time ... before a roast duck will fly into it." Because there is nothing easier than doing nothing, thus restricting any action and killing initiative.
Someone will inevitably stumble on their pitchfork, get mud on their finest boots, the bees will surely sting someone and the poultry may - but should not - escape and peck on the agapanthus seedlings. To be sure. But most people still die in their beds, and one still meets and awful lot of people regretting more the things they didn't do than the things they did. So get on with it take a risk, say what you think and treasure life!
Elisabet
Someone will inevitably stumble on their pitchfork, get mud on their finest boots, the bees will surely sting someone and the poultry may - but should not - escape and peck on the agapanthus seedlings. To be sure. But most people still die in their beds, and one still meets and awful lot of people regretting more the things they didn't do than the things they did. So get on with it take a risk, say what you think and treasure life!
Elisabet
Where has it gone?
As I sit in the gallery and see the blazers, ties and dark trousers parading the High Street, lunch in hand, it strikes home that the summer is almost over - and I seem to have missed it. Most years we are able to have pots of flowers outside the door, a bench for weary travellers and water for thirsty dogs. Everything was prepared this year- the pots planted up, the bench cleaned - and there they sit yet, forlorn and unloved. Oh for an Indian summer ...
However - there is a threat of dry weather this weekend, so I shall think about that instead. The pond is flourishing, all of the plants have produced new shoots, so they must be happy, and the fish seem to have made it their home with little difficulty. It is wonderful just how much time can pass when watching fish. I think it must be a kind of meditation. That is my excuse anyway!
Gail
And still it rains ...
That, I hope, is the weather out of my system. I won't mention it again.
Things have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. Photographer Keith Ingham, recent resident of Linlithgow, has a major exhibition of photography Urban Echoes opening at the Collins Gallery at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow on Friday August 23rd. (The exhibition runs until September 27th). We have assisted with framing the photographs, some sixty plus of them, and are delighted that our work, in a small way, will be on show to such a large audience too! Do go along and see the work - bright, colourful, intriguing and with a quirky approach we think you will enjoy.
The Edinburgh Festivals have been in full flow for a couple of weeks now, and Linlithgow has had quite a number of visitors who have spread their wings just that little wider. It is always good to hear new languages in the gallery, and it can be quite a challenge to discuss paintings or other work when neither party has a verbal language in common. Often, however, we do reach a good understanding - the language of the artwork itself can somehow speak to us all. And very reassuring that is.
Today is the day the dogs return home. They have been 'on their holidays' with a friend for the last week, and will have had a fine time of running about in a large garden and enjoying themselves as they saw fit - it will be good to have them home, however. Somehow an excited and energetic welcome can be just what the doctor ordered.
G
Things have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. Photographer Keith Ingham, recent resident of Linlithgow, has a major exhibition of photography Urban Echoes opening at the Collins Gallery at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow on Friday August 23rd. (The exhibition runs until September 27th). We have assisted with framing the photographs, some sixty plus of them, and are delighted that our work, in a small way, will be on show to such a large audience too! Do go along and see the work - bright, colourful, intriguing and with a quirky approach we think you will enjoy.
The Edinburgh Festivals have been in full flow for a couple of weeks now, and Linlithgow has had quite a number of visitors who have spread their wings just that little wider. It is always good to hear new languages in the gallery, and it can be quite a challenge to discuss paintings or other work when neither party has a verbal language in common. Often, however, we do reach a good understanding - the language of the artwork itself can somehow speak to us all. And very reassuring that is.
Today is the day the dogs return home. They have been 'on their holidays' with a friend for the last week, and will have had a fine time of running about in a large garden and enjoying themselves as they saw fit - it will be good to have them home, however. Somehow an excited and energetic welcome can be just what the doctor ordered.
G
