PRESTIGIOUS GATHERINGS & TIME TO COME ACROSS AN OLD FRIEND

Prestigious events are a bit like Glasgow buses: there are never any for ages, then they all come along at the same time.

Iain has been very busy preparing a speech for the Royal Society meeting in Edinburgh yesterday  The occasion was a day conference entitled

 

Celebrating the Genius

and Legacy of James Clerk-Maxwell

Friends and family were able to watch the talk being Live Streamed from the Royal Society lecture hall.  It was wonderful technology ... really very well done!

These 3 photos are screen shots of his presentation.

His input to the day was to talk about Maxwell's experiments and thinking in the field of what is today called Structural Mechanics.

Always mindful to keep a difficult subject alive, he uses models to explain how structures behave and how certain mathematical equations came about in this field.

He was very honoured to meet people from science, engineering and astronomy who gathered to talk about Maxwell's contribution in their particular field.

 * * * * *

And on a completely different note, today he was involved in a Graduation Ceremony.  He needed his academic gown for this.  

Handing me a crumpled gown and hood which has been in the loft or some other not very ventilated place, I decided to revive it by hanging it on the line and letting the (days' long) rain do its work.

That was a good move.  The gown, made by Forsyth's of Glasgow in, probably, the 50s, ironed beautifully as the fabric is very good cloth. It is a PhD gown of Glasgow University, with the lovely red panels down the front.   "Doctors of Philosophy (Ph.D.) wear as Undress Black silk or stuff, with a collar falling over the yoke and full sleeves half the length of the gown. on top of this there are facings of crimson silk."  I wonder what "stuff" is...I have a feeling it is 'grosgrain' as described below.

The hood is an old friend!  I made it. The year must have been 1969 or 70.  I bought the black cloth and seem to recall it was barathea.

I found this:
BARATHEA: [neckties]. 1. A silk, rayon, or manufactured fiber necktie fabric with a broken rib weave and a characteristic pebbly appearance. 2. A fine, dress fabric with a silk warp and worsted filling, woven in a broken filling rib which completely covers the warp. 3. A smooth-faced worsted uniform cloth with an indistinct twilled basket weave of fine two-ply yarns.

GROSGRAIN: A heavy fabric with prominent ribs, grosgrain has a dressy appearance and is used in ribbons, vestments, and ceremonial cloths.

I simply copied another hood, bought some crimson silk material (actually I think it is taffeta) to match and sewed it on my Singer machine.

And it is still going strong!

AUTUMN AT ROSS PRIORY, LOCH LOMONDSIE

A walk around the garden and grounds of Ross Priory were a joy at this time of year. Where there is often a wedding taking place at the weekend, it was practically deserted.  The early morning showers put off the golfers and the visitors, but ...hey ho! ... the sun came out and the place was washed in autumn colours.

I had a go at trying to take a panorama shot on my iPhone.  It is quite good in high resolution on my big computer screes; it is not good at the above low resolution.  For example, you cannot see the rainbow on the loch mid-right.

SNOWDROPS ON THE LOCHSIDE

The snowdrops are out at Ross Priory on the south end of Loch Lomond.  

Here they are today with Ben Lomond snow covered in the distance.

 Blue skies between the showers!  Time to catch the sun before it disappears!

MEETING AND GREETING MUSINGS

End of winter at Ross Priory, Loch Lomond.  Though still a bit early in the season, there were just the beginnings of the rhodys and spring bulbs coming up.  Everything was dripping as I made a tour  around the garden, umbrella and camera in hand. 

I was there for the soirée - dinner followed by an evening of music; this month with an Irish theme.  Being too wet to spend long in the garden I fairly quickly retreated indoors to the fire and glass of Merlot with the other guests arriving for the evening.

I happily go along to these events on my own; Iain finds himself "otherwise engaged".  Reporting back on the evening I ... well, we both ... chuckle at the recurring pattern: nodding to people (his former colleagues) who, upon seeing me hove into view, always warmly greet me with "Hello-Barbara-And-Tell-Me-How-Is-Iain?" 

Reflections in the area of the walled garden.

 Helibores dripping, dripping, dripping.

Looking on to Ben Lomond in the distant mist and the water of Loch Lomond.

AS WALTER SCOTT MIGHT SEE US

The season for celebrating the memory of Robert Burns can last a good few weeks mainly because speakers, venues get squashed into this time of year and there is always a need to spread things out.  To that end we attended at most pleasant Burns Evening at Ross Priory (Strathclyde Univeristy's country residence) on Friday night.  We stayed overnight so were able to spend some time before and after getting out in the country air and having morning coffee with our hostess who lives locally.

 

The location is the very south end of Loch Lomond.  This photo shows the area which is now designated as a reserve for birds.

There had been a lot of storm damage to the trees.  The shore area was pretty water-logged anyhow so a lot of shallow rooted trees came down.  The clean-up goes on in the cold afternoon when I am sure the men with chain saws want to be getting home. 

  * * * * *

The building of Ross Priory used to be owned by various people including in the 1800s the Leith-Buchanans.  (This is Buchanan country.)  They used to entertain visitors and inside the present building is a framed article from the Scottish Field magazine.  It talks about how Sir Walter Scott visited and on one particular occasion the host thought Scott would enjoy meeting one of the local people:

"Among the guests invited to meet him [Walter Scott] at dinner was Mr Macfarlan, minister of neighbouring parish of Drymen, better known after as Principal of Glasgow University.  The talk had been of antiquities and traditions of the neighbourhood.  Mr Macfarlan ventured to quote, as a curious relic, a folk rhyme referring to a place in the parish. When Rob Roy appeared some little time afterwards [it was published in 1817], Mr Macfarlan found his curious folk rhyme at the head of one of the chapters."

"O Baron o'Buchlyvie
May the foul fiend rive ye,
And a' to pieces drive ye
For biggin'sie a toun
Where there's neither hourse meat,
Nor man's meal,
Nor a chair to sit doon!"

Scottish Field magazine, August 1906, page87.

 * * * * *

The countryside, the mountains and loch would be much the same as when Walter Scott visited with farmers moving cattle about (mud everywhere on the narrow roads) and all the trees bare of their leaves.

The photo above is the village of Gartocharn from the village hall car park.  Take away the  modern houses in the foreground I doubt that the country would be much different after 200 years. I wonder what he might have written had he visited now?

View of Loch Lomond from Kilmaronack Churchyard, Gartocharn  (Time: 4pm).  

 * * * * *

So to turn some  lines from Burns's ending of his poem To A Louse

from

O wad some pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us....

 to

Here's some scenes the camera tae gie us

To see for ourselves how Scott might see us.

CHIAROSCURO

Scotland in March can have clear days which are lengthening but it can be very cold. However, these 'shoulder months' of the year are good when it comes to the nature of the daylight and shadows (especially at this latitude) so I made a point of walking around the garden and down to the lochside (Loch Lomond) with the camera thinking light and dark i.e. chiaroscuro.

This photo is "as is". It is Ross Priory about 4:45 pm.

The light is going but I just had to take a photo of Ben Lomond in the distance, still with snow on top.

This is an arty shot of snowdrops beyond the garden gate.

The first rhododendron is now flowering. These huge trees were planted 100 to 150 years ago and there are flowers most months of the year.

Twilight. The light is going. The sky was getting pinker with the sun going down. The golfers were heading in for the bar and I was heading in to join an evening of music after some food and wine.

I will leave the last word ... image ... to Rembrandt, the master of chiaroscuro in painting.

LA SOIRÉE BON ACCORDION

It was late before I got home last night from a soirée out at Ross Priory (Strathclyde University's country residence on the shore of Loch Lomond). Every month throughout the winter they are held and I do enjoy meeting and greeting old colleagues of Iain's and their wives many of whom I know from my days of Strathclyde University Overseas Wives Group.


Various folk gather for a a meal and then an evening of music. This month it was a Serbian accordion player, Djordje Gajic. He started off with Bach's Toccata in D minor (phew!) and played for an hour after our meal. Certainly a handsome fella who could fairly produce a big sound from the bellows of that instrument (especially in the left hand)!

I arrived early in order to spend some time in the garden. The gardeners are clearing some diseased trees (and I think the results are for the better which is not what I would normally say)! On entering the Lady Curran walled garden I came across this barrow outside the glasshouse.

Being the end of the day the light was not great but just for fun here is a cut-out of some glasshouse foliage. I would love to have fabric with all these colours incorporated.

ESSENCE OF ART

This week Iain and I attended a memorial service for this lovely gentleman, Stephen Newell. Like so many services nowadays the event was very much a celebration of a life fully lived. Everyone in the Barony Hall at Strathclyde University had their memories of this man, a great enthusiast whatever project he was promoting but who Peter West said "If they wrote a book on tact and diplomacy, it would be rather small!"

We, indeed, have our stock of memories, one being of our visit to his and Gaye's island on the west coast. We arrived in Seol-na-Mara, rowed ashore in the dinghy, and were met by him on the beach. Off we set with him driving his golf-cart type vehicle bumping us over the grapefruit sized stones back along the beach to the farmhouse.

Presently, Iain and I had to pile into this Ronald Regan-esque vehicle and roar up the hillside to look at his dam. He needed an engineer's eye to inspect a weak bank. That done, we set off on our return journey, all downhill, at break-neck speed scattering sheep in every direction as we bumped over the lumps of bracken and into ditches and ruts. I was sitting in the front next to him with my feet up on the dashboard, hands on the roll-bars, shrieking my head off! "Eaghghghgh! Stephen! I'm going to fall out!" Of course, he just threw his head back and laughed uproariously. (Yes, you guessed it ... he was getting exactly the reaction he had hoped for!)

We miss him!

However, he was a grandpa to some lovely lads who were neighbours of ours for many years. Number 3 of 3 was my Little Philosopher Friend; we spent a lot of time together! They grow up but still, it's nice to be left with some chips of the old block!


What interested me however, as I sat with the order of service in my hand, was this wonderful, accurate portrait of Stephen. I felt (and not everyone agrees with me) that the artist caught the cheeky, cheery smile exactly. "Yes!" I thought, "That's him!" I pondered: how could an artist who probably did not know the man, achieve this 'essence' in a series of 2 hour sittings.? Who was the artist? There was no name nor acknowledgment given .... :-(

However, at the tea afterwards, I lamented this fact to Peter (who probably was in charge of the printing ... ooops!). One sees it so often in the music world and here it was in the world of art. "Ah, but the artist (and his wife) are with us today."

So I met the gentleman who painted the portrait and also his wife. His name is Barry Atherton and he painted the portrait 18 years ago. It still hangs in the University. On looking him up on Google I see both he and his wife are portrait painters in Glasgow. At the moment, the best way to find out about him is to go to her website called, Linda Atherton, Portrait Painter. She has painted her husband's portrait. It is, at present, the last portrait in the 4th row of her Recent Work.

So it was a most satisfying day giving us things still in our midst: memories, chips and talent!