BurnedThumb

There has been a glitch in the arrangements for our book launch, and it is going to be rescheduled. Pleae watch this space – I’ll let everyone know as soon as we have the new date.

Also I’m registering the blog with Technorati (VKSKVKQB45VZ) to make it easier to find.

I’m really busy just now:
choosing poems to read at No Sleep at Bristo, the Poetry Marathon organised by Kevin Cadwallender, which will take https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifplace in the Forest Café over the 11th and 12th August. I’ll be reading at 11 o’clock on Friday morning.

deciding which of the many poetry events I’ll be at in Edinburgh on 16th August. There are at least five happening (you’d think there was a festival on or something), but all I know is that I’ll be starting at Courtyard Readings which is hosted by Anne Connolly.

updating the Burnedthumb web-site and getting ready to check the proofs of my book. It’s really all happening now, and Wherever We Live Now will be launched at Blackwells Bookshop in Edinburgh on September 13th. It should be a brilliant night, as books by Anne Connolly and Marion Montgomery are being launched at the same time. Pictures later, as soon as we are organised!

Probably no-one needs any introduction to the
Peatbog Faeries, but I picked them as this weeks artists because of the title track from their album Faerie Stories. It has a backing track of swifts flying round a house in Nice belonging to a friend – very timely just now with swifts everywhere. I was trying to find a clip of it to link to so you could hear it but I wasn’t able to. There are some tracks on their web-site, though – enjoy

The marigolds are subbing for the sunshine which is currently lacking in our garden. We’ve had about 70mm of rain this week, and it’s only Thursday!

This weeks artist is the Edinburgh based but Shetland-born poet Christine de Luca. She writes in both English and Shetlandic, and you can find my review of her latest book North End of Eden, which was published by Northwords Now

here.
You can also hear her reading at the School of Poets Courtyard Readings
on 16th August.

This week’s artist is the singer, story-teller and folklorist

Margaret Bennett.

As well as being a wonderful performer in her own right, Margaret is a gifted teacher. In 2009 she was teaching Gaelic singing to a class on Luing, and a blackbird joined in. She stopped the children so they could listen to it, but the blackbird stopped too, waiting for them to sing again. maybe blackbirds sing in Gaelic?

A quick reminder that the Spokes and Spades Renewable Garden tour starts at my garden tomorrow – if you want to join it, be at the Village hall, South Street Cambuskenneth at 10.30.

The garden is full of sun today, so I thought I’d let you see how things are growing and flowering.
We started digging the early potatoes last week, but these need another week or two.

The sweet peas are just hitting their stride. I got the oldfashioned mix for their scent, but the colours are amazing too. At the end of the season I’ll be saving seeds for next year.

These cranesbill geraniums seed themselves all over the garden, but the bees love them.

The gallica roses are over so fast but the scent is rich and wild and heady. I love it.

I usually find modern art challenging. I like it to be naturalistc and I have a preference for beautiful – which makes me fairly illiterate, I know. So Cy Twombly’s exhibition at Tate Modern a couple of years ago was really challenging. But when I got it – I really fell for it. I was sad to hear of his death this morning, and post this poem in tribute to his “Poems to the Sea”

Poems to the Sea by Cy Twombly

Twenty-four slabs of white on white
blue constant horizon paint splashes
faint wisps of pencil

Mediterranean white white white
and when the sun comes up
becoming a lighter white

wave current ripcurl swell
weed flotsam bubbles spume
implicit goddess

painting the process of water
flows and falls of cloud
rain meeting ocean

painting the process of poem
words aimed shifted retracted
mind meeting paper

scribbles arrows overlays
the shape it takes on the page
the reveal in the process

Richard Ashrowan is based in the Scottish borders and makes films of intense observation of the natural world. My favourite (so far) isLament,https://www.ashrowan.co a study of the landscape where he lives and which he describes as ‘odd and empty’. It is brooding and atmospheric and reminds me of the muckle sangs and the battle-scarred history of that part of the world.

Posting may be scanty for a while. We have major family stuff going on, which may result in a change of emphasis in my work. I’ll be keeping up with everyone on line, as far as I can, but possibly not be very active myself.

There’s exciting stuff happening in Stirling.

First is an exhibition of photographs by my friend June Waley – beautiful details of landscapes and natural forms, sometimes standing alone, sometimes put together to create composite pictures – stunningly beautiful.

Then on July 16th Towards Transition Stirling have organised the Spokes and Spades tour of interesting gardens – not beautifully planted, elegantly maintained show-gardens, but gardens for people who want to be a bit more eco-friendly, a bit more neighbourly or a bit more self-sufficient – or maybe just have a bit more fun with their outdoor spaces.

It’s starting with mine – I’m ‘early permaculture’. Maybe I’ll see you here.

I was reminded of Carry Akroyd’s work yesterday by a prompt from the Scottish Poetry Library about this event at the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens.
Carry Akroyd is an artist and printmaker, who is inspired by nature and landscape, and especially by the work of the poet John Clare (one of my favourite Romantic writers).