CHRISTMAS 2024 - PREPARATIONS

Tea with Angela:

Wedding china (1967 Wedgewood 'Belle Fleur')

Spoons from MacLeod family complete with (wedding gift?) tag "from the MacKinnons"

Leftover Norwegian Kransecake

Canadian Mac apples, only seen at this time of year.

2 Christmas cards from the same person...which me laugh as it seems I'm not the only one who gets forgetful.

(Later: Also....received one this year from person who didn't know Iain had died.)

* * * * * *  THE GRANDCHILDRENS' PRESCENCE IS FELT * * * * * * * 

AFTER OUR USUAL SUNDAY EVENING MEAL/GET-TOGETHER

Ishbel's violin

She's  away at uni now but home for holidays...lovely...and she's a real helper e.g.  splitting logs.

Harriet and Ellie: something to keep them occupied in front of the fire

Alastair: helping to tidy up after dinner...leaves his 'footprint' of ketchp (his staple condiment) in the fridge (as he would normally do at home).

* * * * * * * * * * AND WHILE WE'RE HERE * * * * * * * 

Ishbel was in the attic and found Kenny John's violin. He was Iain's father's youngest brother. Self-taught he played with friends in the Achiltibuie area often going to join folk with the instrument in its case strapped on to the back of his motorcycle.

CHRISTMAS SEASON IS UPON US - THE LIGHTS ARE ON

In the northern latitudes it is a joy to see people lighting up for the Christmas season.  In Scotland there is an increasing habit to put lights in your house window maybe in the form of (battery operated) candles or strings of small white lights.  I see the Scandinavian normal practice of doing this is now influencing this part of the world.

It seems more and more public places are being lit up too. And buildings get illuminated with images in the form of son et lumiere. 

1. 

I was in Edinburgh last weekend for afternoon tea with the Canadian Ladies.  My goodness has Princes Street ever improved!  No more jack-hammers,  barriers of fencing for holes being dug and rails being laid. Gone is the dust, the rubble and the noise!

View overlooking Princes Street and up to Edinburgh Castle

View out of the window of Level 1 of the National Gallery for Scotland (west side of Princes Street)

V&A MUSEUM IN DUNDEE VISIT AND NORWEGIAN KRANSEKAKE

I am back from my Saturday visit to Dundee and still ‘recovering’.  I say that because I found it all rather overwhelming…so much on display and so colourful and detailed!  By the time I got to the mannequin room I was feeling that I simply wanted to go out and come back another day!  

I have always found this sort of thing e.g. going around an art gallery or in a clothes shop.  For example, when browsing through a rack of blouses don’t give me 50 from which to choose; give me 5 and I can make a decision!

Also what I would have liked to see more of was the actual construction. That's because I sew and might try to make one; the hard part is going to be finding beautiful fabric!   

I simply must read up on the topic.  I found the stories of how the garment related to social class, occasion, time of day quite fascinating.  Which did I like the best? The male garments!

* * * * * * * * * * 

On another completely different topic I attended the Norwegian Julefest of my friend Inger on Saturday.  It’s a sort of craft fair with lots of Norwegian food for sale.  They held a raffle and … wait for it… I won the main prize! 

Here it is; it was baked by a lovely Norwegian lady, Ragna, who lives in Milngavie.

I can think of a few occasions when I might share it.  At the moment, it is in my freezer, at Ragna’s suggestion.  

[photo is not what I won; just an image from the web]

REMEMBRANCE DAY GLASGOW 2024 - BUTE HALL, GLASGOW UNIVERSITY SERVICE AND MACLEOD FARRIER PHOTO

It is Armistice Day 2024. Photos: 1916 and 2024

This photo is from the MacLeod family archives.  It is of Iain's father, Donald, back row third from left, in the Farrier Regiment, 1916 "somewhere in France".

This is him in Gairloch. No date given.

* * * *  2024 at Glasgow University * * * * * 

A Remembrance Day service was held in Bute Hall. The Last Post was played (beautifully by a music student), we sang and thought about "those in peril on the sea" [the old hymns are the best ones] and the Choir sang from the gallery opposite the wonderful sounding organ. 

I have a friend in the Choir ... Observation: more members of the Choir turned out than the Academics....

Assembling on the south side of the Quadangle for the March Past lead by the pipe band playing 'Highland Laddie'... nice!

In the middle-ground are the Army cadets marching by (followed by navy and airforce cadets). Another observation: the cadets were all noticeably of 'average height', i.e. a handful were 6 foot or a bit over but not what I would call 'tall'.  I say all this because over the years I use to notice that Iain's students were getting taller, i.e. I looked into the backs of their heads in a room, not over the top. Not so today.

The Choir ... now dispersing.

WAVERLEY HEADING DOWN THE CLYDE - SQUINTY BRIDGE

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The Waverley approaching the channel opened at the Squinty Bridge (at Transport Museum) on the upper River Clyde. 

The bridge returning to its walkway position.

PHOTOS - BIRTHDAY BOY AND CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

As it was Don's birthday recently I came across these photos included here.

On his bike, aged about 12 years old (1957) in front of one of the flat deck trucks

[left] me, then Don, Beverley Pipe. Fluffy dog was hers; the dachshund is Rex Mears family pet (who lived next door to the Pipe family) Year: 1957 or 58

In Canoe Boat Basin with Les Treat.  This boat was fibreglass, olive green and the very latest thing, i.e. fibreglass. Year would be about 1960 I think.

* * * * * *

This photo must be about 1950 when I would be 6 and Don 5 years old. The line-up is [left] Don, then Donald MacLennan, Marcella MacLennan* and me.

We are sitting on a toboggan or else a sledge of some sort.  The bush in the background is a lilac bush, one of 2 that were outside the front door of our house in an area which was a flower garden.  Why do I remember all of this? Because one day, when my mother was asleep having worked night shift (which she did fairly regularly) my father bulldozed the whole lot to out to make space for the 'boys' (drivers and swampers) to park their cars every morning upon arrival for work.  When she woke up to find what he'd done... she was furious...throwing  crockery across the kitchen smashing all on the cupboard doors above the sink!

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*  I believe they were from Barra.  The dad was a social worker.

A MUSICAL MOMENT: JAEDEN IZIK-DZURKO UK PRIZE WINNER

On Friday I was listening to BBC Radio 3, as is my habit. It was the Leeds Piano Competition for under 30 year olds. It's a very high calibre, international line-up, held every 3 years.  I noticed that one of the five semi-finalists (Jaeden Izik-Dzurko) was from Canada.  I looked up his bio details and was astonished to find he was from my ‘hometown’, as they say in America, i.e. Salmon Arm, British Columbia.  It’s a small town in central B.C. built on the Canadian Pacific Railway line.

As it happens I am on the committee of the Milngavie Music Club who hold monthly concerts of international artistes of various types. The President sent out a circular to everyone giving the Head's Up about the final concert coming up (Saturday) because one of the artistes who played last year (pianist Junyan Chen from China) was going to be playing as she was one of the 5 semi-finalists.  I responded in the circular email stating that I intended to listen and mentioned that I had happened to find this chap in the list of 5 and why he stood out for me. (I’d never heard of him!) 

A couple of hours later…lo and behold… he won!…. and Junyan came second.  Such a coincidence and quite delightful!

GOODBYE TO JEAN

Our Nursing Class of 1967, University of British Columbia, has lost a dear lady.  Jean Streight died August 27, 2024 and will be missed by family and friends. A memorial service was held in Vancouver yesterday, September 10th.

Going into our second year Jean joined Alice and I in Alice's grandparents' house on 4th Avenue where we lived together for 3 years until we graduated and left in 1967 to go our separate ways.

1964: first year UBC nursing students - Jean, myself and Alice

(L) Kit Taylor, Jean, Kit's mother and Anon in background (Steve Taylor?) probably at the Taylor's cabin, Redroofs (north of Seschelt) where we spent the occasional weekend. 

* * * * * * * * * * *

To finish the triangle....  Graduation photos 1967

Alice

Barb (me)

 

RYAN CORBETT - AWARDS, REWARDS AND ONWARDS

Ryan has now graduated from The Conservatoire, Glasgow having completed his Masters.  He also received the Principal's Prize for 'outstanding contribution'.

Ryan's mum and dad and I attended the concert in Paisley Abbey where Ryan was the solo artist in the evening concert with the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra.  He is due to play with them on 2 occasions at the Edinburgh Festival so this was a 'test run'.... so much better than Edinburgh which is always hellishly crowded and held in inferior halls.

It was a lovely warm summer evening (goodness... we have not had many of those)!  Also I had wonderful memories of being in Paisely, the Town Hall and the Abbey when Iain was in the Civil Engineering Department in the late 1970s.  

Paisley Abbey filling up before the concert.

One lasting memory I have is attending the Christmas dinner dance of the students (forget which year).  I was in the foyer planning to head into the big hall where the students were gathered for the dance.  I had been chatting to Reverend Morrison of the Abbey.  He and I approached the entrance to the hall together. As we stepped into the hall we were assaulted with the most horrendous wall of sound coming from speakers the size of doors on the stage at the other end of the hall.  We grabbed on to each other and simply retreated into the foyer... where we spent the rest of the evening discussing the Reformation (which I was studying for an Open University course at that time).

CLERK-MAXWELL IS WEARING WELL

Just passing through.... to say James Clerk-Maxwell is still sitting at the east end of George Street in Edinburgh. Whenever travelling through from Glasgow by bus I am in the habit of passing him sitting there on the other side of the bus station across St Andrews Square.  I was spending the day in the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh (RBGE). I did my 'tour guide' bit telling my friends how he came to be there and why he is in the seated position.

Why must I give a nod to this most famous of Scotland's 'thinkers'?  Back in the day, he was little known in Scotland so Iain and some others, including Prof Leslie Barr, mounted a campaign to have a statue made to recognise his contribution to science.  Alexander Stoddart was commissioned to do the job and it was unveiled in 2008.  We travelled through from Glasgow to attend the ceremony and afterwards the reception at the Royal Society across the road.

I am glad to see he is wearing well. I notice that there is a plague now placed in the setts at the foot showing Maxwell's Equation (for electro-magnetism). This mathematical contribution proved to be hugely important, and a turning point in scientific thinking.  (Einstein said he stood on the shoulders of Clerk-Maxwell... who, it could be said, stood on the shoulders of Isaac Newton.)

And later in the month, Harriet, 11 years and Alastair 16 years in Edinburgh with Ellie and and Mairi to celebrate Alastair doing so well in his University Clinical Aptitude Test (test for secondary school students who are thinking of applying to study medicine somewhere in the UK). [They look at verbal reasoning, decision making, quantitive reasoning, abstract reasoning.)

LORD KELVIN 200th ANNIVERSARY in GLASOW

The University of Glasgow is gearing up to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of one of its most distinguished researchers. William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, who was born on 26^th June 1824.

The images above come from the Project Gutenberg EBoook of Lord Kelvin, by Andrew Gray.  I am starting to read it as a friend is preparing a lecture the subject of Kelvin.  He was a graduate in Kelvin's department and recalls some of his belongings on display there.  One item he mentioned was his French horn!

Kelvin's presence is in many places in Glasgow and also in the language to do with his many instruments, inventions, scientific calculations and theories.

Here are some examples taken from my experience of running across him, so to speak, over the years living in Glasgow.

River Kelvin flowing through the city and on through Kelvingrove Park.

This is a statue of him in Kelvingrove Park which is adjacent to Glasgow University where he was Professor of Natural Philosophy for 53 years (1846-1899).

There was a spell in the 1990s when I was often passing this statue when I used the steep stairs to the right of the photo which led directly up to the Rankine Building where the Mechanical Engineering Department was.  I was in and out of there as I head to deal with boxes of Cleanroom Directories. (Actually I had to use the car to deliver these boxes.  It was a nightmare; there was never any place to park and worse still, the 'martinettes' at the Porter's box wouldn't lift the gate or kept you waiting while they finished reading their paperback.)

This is a current publicaity photo which happens to show the bust of Lord Kelvin on the very lefthand side. I remember that bust.  It was very heavy.  Why do I know all this?  Back in the 90-00s I was involved with the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow.  One of my jobs was to help set up the lecture theatre for the monthly lecture.  When it came the month of the annual Kelvin Lecture I offered to collect the bust of Lord Kelvin from the Thurso Street 'stores' where it was kept.  With a furniture trolly I wrapped him in a tartan rug with elastic cords to secure and wheeled him out of the building and into the back of my Volvo estate. Then I did the reverse of this by wheeling him into the McCance lecture room at Strathclyde University and got help to lift him on the to the desk.  

Sculptor:  Bronze bust,  Archibald McFarlane Shannan, Glasgow, 1896

IAN STIRLING - MEMORIES FROM THE 1960s - GARIBALDI

I was saddened to hear that a chap I knew at university has died. He was one of the people we looked up to in the Varsity Outdoor Club at UBC [University of British Columbia, Canada] when I was there in the 60s. He was a couple of years older than me and was very much a highly respected member of the Club.  I have many memories of him as a fun-loving fellow who had a good head on his shoulders.  * Memorial service information below.

He studied Zoology and I got to know him a bit more as he and my friend Dave King (with whom I am still in touch) shared an office when they were studying blue grouse. Dave went on to spend his life in Wildlife Managment in northern BC; Iain devoted his life to the study of polar bears.

Throughout my life I have had occasions where I have been very grateful to someone who 'made a difference' to me in some way or another.  Mostly it was in relation to people e.g. teachers, old boyfriends, people in my social circle).  I have never had to be rescued in any dramatic way but there was one occasion at university when I had to be helped out of a difficult situation and it involved Ian!

VOC had planned at trip into Garibaldi Park in the Easter Holidays in 1965. (Garibaldi Provincial Park is near Whistler ski area. Needless to say, there was no Whistler ski area in the 60s!) It was a ski-mountaineering trip and the lodge (Diamond Head?) was booked for VOC use. The route in was by a 9 km trail from (Rubble Creek area) up the road from Squamish.  However the day I was due to hike in there was the offer of a lift in a helicopter which was taking in supplies at the beginning of the holiday.  I took up that place and so was spared the day long, very uphill, hike in, on skis, with a back-pack.

After several days there I was faced with skiing out. Well... it was a huge undertaking and I simply had no idea what was ahead of me! Deep powder, pack on my back, miles of snow through trees.  Ian came to my rescue ... a perfect gentleman.... he simply led me out, snow-plowing all the way down... miles and miles of it! Such a decent fellow!  I will never forget how bad I felt having ruined his great ski out!

What should have been this...

was more like this...

* * * * * * * * FROM THE ARCHIVES * * * * * * * 

A year later...

I found this photo of Iain and I (with Erling X? on the left and Bob Cuthbert on the right) which would be the winter of 1966, just a few months after Iain had arrived in Vancouver.  And, oddly enough, this is Garibaldi Lake. We four hiked in and camped for one night near the lodge at Diamond Head.  

(The only reason I remember where we camped is because we visited the couple who lived in the lodge. Wedged in behind a conduit pipe at the back of the stove in their kitchen was a very large hand-carved wooden spoon.  Bob made me a similar one and gave it to me that Christmas!)

This photo was also in the mid-sixties but taken in Larch Hills near Salmon Arm where they had made a ski-touring trail.

Finally this is one of a  solitary ski-mountaineering figure was taken either by Dick Culbert or possibly Alice: 'Waddington in Winter from Bravo Col'.

          _______________________________________

Garibaldi photos credit:  Josy A. 'A Walk and a Lark' website (2018)

https://www.awalkandalark.com/garibaldi-lake-trail-whistler-hikes/

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* From email of May 23 from Darlene of VOC:

A memorial service will be held Thursday, June 6, starting at 2 p.m., at Connelly-McKinley Funeral Home, 10011 114th St. N.W., Edmonton. To live-stream the service, find the link under Ian Stirling's event information at connelly-mckinley.com