ILLUSION OF GRANDEUR

The next issue of the yacht club newsletter is finshed and ready to go to the printers. Being somewhat stuck for a masthead I cobbled this together using Photoshop.

Iain took the photo of the mountains behind Loch Leven, and the Ballachullish bridge. There was no boat in the original photo. I used a photo of this lovely ship, taken by D Beaton, a yacht club member, and scaled it down. Then I dragged and dropped it into the water placing it against the faraway shore. Wonderful fun this technology!

BURNS CEILIDH 2: HARRINGTON MANN MURALS

The ceilidh was held in a Victorian building in Alexandria. Built to house girls who worked in the Turkey Red Dye Factory in the late 19th century, it was turned into a Masonic Hall in the 1920's and still functions as that. The original building is of red sandstone and has much fine stone carving, many of which are sayings exhorting women to lead a virtuous, hard-working life.

What is of greater interest are the murals. They line the entrance hall and are above the west (very large) fireplace. Here they are.

They were painted by this chap: Harrington Mann. He is a Glasgow born painter who studied art at Glasgow School of Art, and at the Slade School of Art in London. He lived from 1865-1937. I think the date below is 1891. He seems to have done a lot of portrait work later on especially of children. He died in USA.

I cannot find out much about him except that he figures in James McNeill Whistler's letters (another Glasgow artist) and that his (Mann's) mother tried to get Whistler to help her sell some of her son's paintings.

Here is the central part of her letter:

"I have taken in hand to raise 400 guineas by the sale of an album of sketches - & I fear that I won't succeed unless I get a few very important names - Will the Master deign to give me a few [p. 2] strokes from his magic pencil & then I will be safe?

I take the liberty of sending you by same post, a booklet - newly published - the joint production of my son & myself. It takes only one hour to read & tho' the Scotch may puzzle you, even tho' you be a McNeill, I hope it will amuse you, sometime [p. 3] perhaps when travelling."

THE HINGE OF FATE

Today is Monday which means it is Granny Duty Day. Having arrived at 8:15 am I parked my car in its usual place on the hard standing.

However, just before 10 am Ishie and I had a visitor: this 'runaway' white van rolled down the hill from its parked position up at the top of Carseview Drive where building work is going on, and lodged itself on the fence between us and the next door neighbour!

I was inside the house sorting Ishie's hair when heard what I thought was a ladder falling. I looked out to see this van in extremely close proximity to my car!

That it did not roll farther, i.e. into the front door of No. 14 is due entirely, it seems to me, to the fact that the fence, designed by Iain and built by Mast and Rigging, is 'Clyde Built' and did the business!

A tangled mess of horizontal rigging but not a scratch on the car! With some difficulty they extricated the van and cut away the damaged stainless steel.

The bang and the mess didn't shake me; what might have happened did. Ishie and I were all dressed to go out to Tesco's and the library. I got as far as the porch when - the hinge of fate? - I turned back because I decided to tidy Ishie's curls which were falling in her eyes. I did not go up to the car at that particular moment .... I try not to think about it.

So how was your day?

BURNS CEILIDH 1 - THE DANCE

We had a great night in the Masonic Hall in Alexandria on the occasion of the Scottish Mountaineering Club Burns Ceilidh. Curly Ross is crucial to the staging of this event as well as to the culture of it!

He and his band - Glenhoulachan Midgie Club Ceilidh Band website here - were in great form and are on the stage in the background. (Unfortunately photos of Curly & Co. are unusable!)

The pick of the bunch is Andrew and Louise half-way down the hall in the Orkney Strip-the-Willow!

The Canadian Barn Dance with Iain and Maggie in the right foreground. May I say, in case you didn't know, this is a dance that has never seen the light of day in Canada. Why the name? I have no idea, but it is an all-time favourite. (It is very embarassing for Canadians, especially Canadian visitors, as they get dragged on to the floor, absolutely clueless as to what to do!)

There's no show without Punch, as they say, and here he is in the hall warming up his pipes for an Eightsome Reel as the penultimate dance of the evening.

This Eightsome circle, with Iain on the stage in the background, has one figure in it of interest to me. It's the young lad in the pink tie. As a kid he was always brought along on weekend meets by Mum and Dad. He was the youngest of 4 (I think). Anyhow, my memory of him is on the occasion of Iain's last Munro in 1993. He was about 9 years old. As usual, our Intrepid Leader (and on this occasion, everyone else) were ahead. He and I found ourselves as Tail End Charlies approaching the top of Ben Fhionnlaidh. [See here. Click on the blue mountain symbol and also the satellite link!]

Anyhow, where was I?! The others (50 or so) must have been near the top as this lad and I made our way up snow steps. More's the point: there was not a soul in sight. (That is a situation I do not like...) And, as usual, my thoughts were once again ... "Don't think about it .... Just one more - or maybe a hundred? - 'steam pudding' hump(s) to get over; the top had to be up there somewhere!"