Looking at my blog post, it is 3 years since we last visited the harbour at Cove (history) which is 9 miles/14.5k along the coast from Dunbar. We have never been down to Cove a) in the spring and b) when the tide is fully in. There were quite few gatherings of daffodils and primroses on the slope going down to the sea, as we walked towards the harbour, passing the dark tunnel which takes you to the beach and the holiday accommodation there. The photo below shows the harbour and the beach, looking down from the path. The rockface on the right hides the exit from the tunnel below. In the enlarged photo, you will see how the high, rocky slopes sweep down to the water and, if the wind is in the west or southwest, they provide shelter for the beach. When the tide is out, the beach extends across to the little harbour. The holiday accommodation is at the bottom left of the picture. On our last visit, a firm of plumbers was barrowing material through the tunnel and along to the holiday house – a strange sight.
High tide at Cove harbour
There are still some creel boats which fish out of Cove Harbour and the photo below shows one of them on the water, looking back from the piers. Behind the boat, you can see quite a large cave and when the tide is out, even a bit, you can walk inside the cave and admire the sandstone – see video below. On the rockface, you can see the many layers of sandstone, an unusual geological structure. This walking site tells us that the Cove path is also following the route of part of the James Hutton Walk. James Hutton was an 18th century physician and geologist renowned for coming up with the modern day theories of geology and deep time. This part of the coast was instrumental in forming some of his ideas as he saw bands of different ages of rock sandwiched between each other and exposed at the base of the cliffs which made him realise the earth was much much older than people had previously thought. You can read more about James Hutton, who challenged the establishment and particularly the religious part of it, here.
Boat and cave a Cove harbour
The harbour itself (photo below) features two piers, one of which you can see here. At the end of the pier, there is a set of steps and if you climb these, you get views out to sea and along the coast, past the sloping rockfaces and some standalone rock structures, one of which has a cave which is open at both ends. The stone path along to the steps is quite narrow, but the fisherman in the boat on the right, to whom we talked, had reversed his car along to the side of the boat. When we asked about this, he said that it was more hazardous in the winter dark at 6am! The larger boat is the Rachel May and this boat can go further out to sea than its neighbour in search of lobsters, crabs and langoustines. Neil, the owner of this boat, lost many creels in the storms of last autumn, as did many of the fishermen at Dunbar harbour. Some of the lobsters landed at Cove and Dunbar, are kept alive in special boxes in the harbour and then transported to Europe. In some cases, lobsters from this area end up being served in Japanese restaurants, where customers can pay over £200 for a lobster. This is obviously environmentally questionable.
Cove harbour and piers
I took this video 3 years ago, when the tide was out.
The Dunglass Estate, now a wedding venue, is not far from Cove Harbour. My colleague at Dunbar and District History Society, Dr Pat Simpson, has done research on the estate and you can see some of the slides (with text) from a talk she gave to the Society here. We have been to Dunglass before but, as with Cove, never in the Spring, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see the plethora of daffodils around the estate. The photo below shows one group of daffodils in front of the historic church – now a ruin but one you can walk through. The Collegiate Church has a long history, dating back to the 1440s and has some fine sandstone carvings inside. There are also many mature trees on the estate and you can see some of these – as yet leafless – on either side of the church.
Daffodils and Dunglass chapel
The estate includes large areas of farmland and the photo below shows – behind the daffodils – a field with sheep in it. The estate looks out to the north sea and in the enlarged photo, you can see a buzzard which is floating above the sheep and no doubt searching for food. The Woodland Trust (good photos) tells us that Buzzards are opportunistic predators and can take a wide variety of prey. Small rodents such as voles and mice are commonly eaten, but they can also take prey as large as rabbits or as small as earthworms. They will also scavenge on road kill. This flexible diet allows the buzzard to survive in a variety of habitats. It was a very pleasant walk around the estate, passing sheep and lambs in the field and going behind the wedding venue to a vast area of daffodils stretching across a whole hillside. If you are in the Dunbar area, put Dunglass estate on your list of nearby places to visit and you won’t be disappointed.
On a recent visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh (good photos) I went up the stairs and through to the Modern Portraits (many examples) exhibition. The first portrait (photo below) is of the globally acclaimed author Denise Mina (biography). This realistic, almost photographic painting was done with oil on canvas by Gerard M Burns, a well known portraitist. There is much to see and admire in this work of art. Denise Mina is shown in what looks like an impish mood, smiling at us and drawing attention to her spiky hair and staring eyes, in a pose suggesting that she is just about to go cycling or has just come back from a cycle ride. Another intriguing part of this painting is the partially shown painting in the upper left section, where we see a black pot next to a bowl of (perhaps) soup, suggesting domesticity and maybe the need for sustenance after the cycle. I particularly liked the inclusion of the back wheel of the black bike, with Mina herself in black, matching the pot. This is a very happy portrait and is the first one you see on entering this part of the gallery.
Denise Mina with bike (click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
The second portrait (photo below) is another lively looking painting. The subject is the internationally known musician Nicola Benedetti (good photos) and the artist is Calum Stevenson, an award winning portrait painter. The first thing that drew my attention to this painting was the use of the colour yellow, shown not only in what looks like a church’ stained glass window, but also on the violinist herself. In the enlarged photo, you will also see that there are daubs of paint – of different colours – on the player’s top but also on the leaded curves of the window. This is also a portrait of concentration, with the musician’s eyes firmly on her instrument. I also noticed the blue on her right hand, her jeans and the reflections from the window. What is Benedetti playing? A lively piece of classical music or a Scottish slow air – it is up to the viewer to decide. This painting was commissioned after the artist won the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the year in 2021. It is worth while to spend time looking at this work for quite a while, to appreciate all its disparate elements which add up to an astounding portrait.
Nicola Benedetti and her violin
My third choice – from a huge range of impressive works – is entitled Poet’s Pub and was painted in 1980 by Alexander Moffat (examples of work). The information board tells us that this is a romantic vision of some of the major Scottish poets and writers of the second half of the twentieth century. The poets and novelists include some of my favourites – George Mackay Brown, Edwin Morgan and Norman McCaig. The background is a composite of parts of the Edinburgh pubs where the poets used to meet – Milne’s Bar, the Abbotsford and the Café Royal, which is featured on this blog here. There is some lively conversations going on here by some of those portrayed, while others are depicted as deep in thought. It is a very colourful scene, particularly with the many shades of blue in the jackets of the attendees. Interestingly, given the pub setting, only one writer is shown with a drink in his hand.
Scottish poets in the pub
The Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh is a fine, stone building with a wonderful entrance hall and many galleries, as well as an excellent café, so put it on your list if you are in the Capital City.
Last Saturday, Storm Kathleen hit the UK with gale force winds, especially on the west of the country with 70-80 mph winds battering coasts. Over here on the east of Scotland, we were spared the worst but still experienced winds with gusts of 55mph. On Sunday, it was slightly less windy, with gusts of 47mph. We went along to the Knowes Farm and walked down to the bridge, where the River Tyne was near to overflowing and speeding down under the bridge on its way to the sea. The photo below was taken from the end of the path leading to the ford and the bridge. When the river is much lower, cars can drive across the ford which you can see in the photo, but it would have been madness to try and cross the ford that day. The strength of the wind can be seen in the sapling on the left of the picture, bent over, as it points across the ford. The rapids at this point in the river are at their best shining white. The surrounding trees are still mainly without leaf and are bending in the wind. A river in spate like this is a wonderful sight, although the sound of the rushing water was often drowned out by the wind gusts.
River Tyne in spate
I took this video from the same spot as on the photo. I had to take out the wind and add a voice-over, using the video editing software Animotica. A previous blog video, taken from the bridge, can be viewed here.
After crossing the bridge, there is a path leading to where the old mill was situated to the right. It was here that we came across some attractive blackthorn blossom. The photo below shows a close up of these delicate but beautifully formed flowers which appear each April, to be followed in May by the hawthorn blossom, knows at hawes. Blackthorn has the splendid scientific name of Prunus spinosa and the RHS site describes it as A small thorny deciduous tree with dark green, ovate leaves, and small white flowers in early spring, followed by ovoid, bloomy black fruits 1.5cm across. The small, scallop-shell shaped flowers have several anthers reaching out to attract pollinators. Until the flowers, which are not long lasting, appear, the bush is an unattractive mass of thorns and it is hard at that point to think that it will produce such a superb display of shape and colour. You need to appreciate the blackthorn while you can.
There was a recent article in The Guardian newspaper, which I get delivered Monday to Saturday, with the headline Sagrada Familia in Barcelona ‘will be completed in 2026’. The article notes that it is 144 years since the first stone was laid in Antoni Gaudi’s architectural piéce de resistance in Barcelona. Many people doubted that Gaudi’s cathedral would ever be completed and the article quotes the poet Joan Maragall who described the building as the poetry of architecture … a temple that will never be finished, that is constantly becoming. The basilica has always been controversial, with people either adoring it or hating it. The article refers to Orwell’s opinion that it was one of the most hideous buildings in the world. The report sent me scurrying to search the blog and here is an extended version of my 2013 blog post.
I am sure that for many, many people, the main reason for visiting Barcelona is to see the various buildings and structures designed by Antoni Gaudi. The first visit was to the Palau Guell (good photos) which is a good introduction to Gaudi’s extravagant designs and it has a magnificent interior. The photo below shows part of the façade of the building, with its stylish and eccentric (typical of Gaudi) metalwork below and between the arches. The facade is actually three storeys high and you can see the magnificence of this building in the site above. The interior has rooms which are lavishly decorated and a visit here is certainly worth the entry fee. Booking is essential if you want to avoid long queues.
Palau Guell designed by A Gaudi (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
The largest and most famous of Gaudi’s work is the Sagrada Familia (many photos) This amazingly complex building was started in 1882 and many different architects have been involved to follow Gaudi’s plans. It is like something that you have never seen before. The outside of the building has, in some respects, the shapes and structures of other cathedrals butwhen you look at some of the spires, you see Gaudi’s unusual designs. You can see a chronological history of how the basilica has been added to, up to 2023 here. The photo below shows the elegant and graceful (to some eyes) exterior of the building. There are so many different aspects to look at here and you need to stand for quite a while to take in all the various elements. The cathedral is one of the most famous buildings in the world and I found it completely amazing. It is even more important to book online if you are visiting as there are extremely long queues (up to one hour) throughout the year. Gaudi’s cathedral is not to everyone’s taste and you have to decide for yourself whether you like the architecture.
The intricately designed exterior of the Sagrada Familia
The YouTube video below is well worth watching on full screen as it wonderfully captures the interior of the basilica.
The RHS (good photos) describe téte a téte as A dwarf daffodil to 20cm tall, with 1-3 bright yellow flowers 5-6cm wide in early spring, the perianth segments slightly reflexed and lighter yellow than the cups. I had to look up perianth segments as it was a new phrase to me. It means the circular, inner part of the flower and the outer petals. The photo below shows some of the flowers in a pot (at our front door) with a variety of other Spring flowers. The bright yellow heads of the téte a téte contrast nicely with the dark green stems and the wide open centre pieces look as if they might be trumpeting out orchestral sounds which we humans cannot hear. The photo was taken after earlier very heavy rain and you can see the raindrops still lingering on the green stems and leaves – enlarge for a clearer view. You can also see some polyanthus at the bottom of the photo and an emerging hyacinth on the right hand side. This means that, after the téte a téte fade, we will still have a stunning display.
Téte a téte in a pot
The photo below shows another pot on the other side of the garden from the one above. This photo is predominantly green and the graceful and aesthetically pleasing yellow flowerheads stand out. The green comes from the tulips which will come later and you can see the large, beautifully shaped tulip head on the left hand side. In the background (rather blurred) are a mass of grape hyacinths. So after a long winter, Spring is definitely here and the garden is a dotted with colour again.
Téte a téte and tulip leaves
While on a visit to Morningside Park in Edinburgh, with our basketball loving seven year old grandson, we could see a display of téte a téte on the grassy area beyond the tarred basketball/football enclosure. The first photo below shows the triangle of the flowers that has been created by the park’s gardeners and this fairly recent addition adds to the attractiveness of the park, particularly for adults. There are many trees of different kinds in the park and the trees surround the play areas. In the middle of the photo, you can see one of the recently planted trees and this one is protected by a wire fence to keep out rabbits and particularly foxes, of which there are many around here. The second photo below shows a close up view of the flowers growing amongst the grass which is shining in the sunshine.
A plethora of téte a téte in EdinburghClose up view of downward looking téte a téte
On a recent visit to Scotland’s capital city, I was doing some research in the National Library of Scotland and when I came out, I looked down the street and though that some photos of the buildings here would make a good blog post. This site (good photos) tells us that The bridge that spanned the Cowgate was to be named after George IV. The bridge was completed in 1832 as part of the Improvement Act of 1827. George IV Bridge was built to connect the South Side district of Edinburgh to the New Town. The photo below shows the view looking south down George IV Bridge. This is a street with many tall, elegant buildings, constructed with solid stone and stretches down towards the university area. The building at the end of the street is now The Bedlam Theatre (good photos) but has a long history, as it was built in 1848 as the New North Free Church (1848–1900). It then became the New North United Free Church (1900–1929); the New North Church of Scotland (1929–1941); and the University of Edinburgh Chaplaincy (1957–1975). The Bedlam Theatre is so called as there used to be what was then called a lunatic asylum on the site. When I was a history student at the University of Edinburgh in the 1970s, I remember a big sign indicating that this was the University Chaplaincy.
Looking south on George IV Bridge (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
On the left of the photo above is the National Library of Scotland (NLS), where I researched my honours dissertation as a 4th year student and which I now regularly use for my local history research. The photo below shows the impressive upper face of the building. This site states that Designed by Reginald Fairlie in 1934-36, with construction commencing in 1937 and the building completed in 1958 (after work had been suspended during the Second World War). It is an imposing national library in a classical-Modern style with stylised bas-relief and sculptures by Hew Lorimer. The NLS blog (good photo and architectural drawing) relates the story of Lorimer’s design for and work on the sculptures and quotes the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch in 1954 thus: While he chips away with his chisel the rest of the work on the building goes on round him. The rickety noise of cranes. The sharp rattle of drills. The clattering of bricks. And the clang of steel girders. The figures have been darkened by the Edinburgh chimneys nearby but are still imposing and worth looking up for from across the street.
Hew Lorimer sculptures at the NLS
The first photo below shows the entrance to the NLS and from here, you can visit the exhibitions on the right, the café further to the right, with tables and chairs to the left, or the Reading Room at the top of the double stairs seen in the photo. The current exhibitions include The Treasures of the National Library of Scotland and in this you can see one of the Hyakumantō Darani (good photo), described thus: In AD 764, the Japanese Empress Shōtoku commissioned a million miniature wooden pagodas containing Buddhist prayers, called darani, printed on scrolls. They are among the earliest known printed works, and the scroll is the oldest printed item in our collections. The pagodas measure about 20 centimetres tall. Also in this exhibition is – 2nd photo below – Scotland’s First Atlas compiled in 1654 by Joan Bleau and the NLS site tells that This landmark publication was what is now known as Scotland’s first atlas. It presented a flattering, detailed, and visually stunning view of the country in 49 maps with accompanying written descriptions. The photo shows the earliest map of the Lothians. So this exhibition is worth visiting many times.
Directly across the street from the NLS is Edinburgh Central Library (photo below). The Cockburn Association tells us that Edinburgh Central Library is a beautiful Victorian building, designed by the 19th century Scottish architect, George Washington Browne, in French Renaissance style. The library is one of a number of public libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie and was built on the site of a former mansion. The motto Let There be Light was one of Carnegie’s favourite phrases and it can be seen on most of the facades of public libraries across the UK. Carnegie provided funds to local authorities This site informs us that The first of over 2500 Carnegie-funded libraries opened in his hometown in August 1883. The library was funded by an £8,000 grant provided by Carnegie and the rest was raised by taxation through the Public Libraries (Scotland) Act.
Andrew Carnegie was famous for being an industrialist and a philanthropist. He was born in a working class are of Dunfermline in Scotland in 1835 and emigrated to the United States as a teenager. He went from being a messenger boy in a telegraph company aged 14 to become one of the richest men in the USA because of his vast empire of businesses such as steel works. He sold his steel works in 1901 to J P Morgan for $480,000,000 and resolved to give away his fortune during his lifetime. He funded many charities in the USA and the UK. There was another side to Carnegie, who was a ruthless businessman who bought other businesses and closed them down. He was also very anti-trade union and the Homestead Strike by steel workers – sometimes known as the Homestead Massacre – ended in violence with several worked killed by the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency. So there are two sides to Carnegie – the generous philanthropist who funded many public libraries and helped with the education of many people – and the ruthless business man, who cut workers’ wages and violently ended strikes in the USA. The strikes usually happened when Carnegie was in the UK, being lauded as a generous funder of good causes.
Edinburgh Central Library’s motto
Edinburgh Central Library is certainly worth visiting, either for reading or research, or to see the various rooms such as the Reading Room. The video below gives us a tour of the library, showing the various departments.
For my annual post on snowdrops, we revisited Smeaton Lake (good photo) which is about 6 miles/10k from Dunbar. The site above states The delightful water’s edge path, provides access to explore some of the 8 hectare woodland, and its many unusual trees, especially some of the conifers. The lake was excavated in the 1820s by the Hepburn family and you can read more of the history of the lake -and more photos – here. The photo below shows the plethora of dazzling white snowdrops, with those at the top of the photo almost covering their beautiful green stems. The bare trees behind keep your eyes on the snowdrops, whereas you might be distracted by the fully-leaved trees if it was summer. Snowdrops – scientific name galanthus – are described by the RHS (good photos) as Sheathed in strappy, often arching, bright green or greyish leaves, thin stems dangle bell-like white flowers, outer petals flaring to reveal shorter inner ones touched with green. Some have double flowers. The word galanthus is derived from the Greek gala meaning milk and anthos meaning flower. The Royal College of Physicians articleWhite here, white now: the medicinal power of the dainty snowdrop tells us that snowdrops contain an element which is used in treating Alzheimer’s disease across the world. It also notes that snowdrops have ancient origins, stating that Extract of snowdrop was noted by the ancient Greeks for its powerful mind-altering effects. Historically, the first evidence for the mind-affecting properties of galantamine come from Homer’s Odyssey, where, some scholars argue, Homer describes Odysseus using the snowdrop to clear his mind of Circe’s bewitchment: ‘the root was black, while the flower was as white as milk; the gods call it Moly.
Spread of snowdrops at Smeaton Lake (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
When I posted a a blog (good photos) on Smeaton Lake on 2nd March 2021, our late February visit was to snow in the trees, some of it covering the snowdrops, and a solid frozen lake. This time – photo below – the lake was ice free, as was the surrounding ground and forest. There is a lot to see in this photo (best enlarged), with the snowdrops reaching down to the edge of the lake and presenting us with a whitening and a greening of the soil, which would otherwise have turned to brown and unattractive mud. There was a brief show of sunshine on our walk and you can see the sunlight on the branches of the trees, although this looks like frost. The sun is also putting a streak of white on the water. At the bottom right, the moss covered log will be home to a myriad of hibernating insects and beetles.
Lakeside trees and snowdrops at Smeaton
The site on the history of the lake tells us that the lake was excavated to the north of a volcanic ridge and the snowdrops extend from the lakeside to the jagged stone ridge, as shown in the photo below. The snowdrops here must have emerged later than in the first photo above, as they appeared fresher, whiter and greener. The flowers surround the solid trunk of the tree on the right and the green-leaved branches of one of the evergreen trees look down on the galantine show. Wordsworth’s poem To A Snowdropcelebrates the arrival of the flowers – Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend/ Whose zeal outruns his promise! …. Nor will I then thy modest grace forget, /Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring, /And pensive monitor of fleeting years! So the snowdrops are not only graceful in shape but the poet sees them as being chaste and having modest grace.
Stretch of snowdrops below the volcanic ridge at Smeaton Lake
As noted above, Smeaton Lake is known for its special collection of trees and it is part of the National Tree Collections of Scotland and the link above notes that the trees include sycamore, lime and oak and some ash and Norway maple. The photo below shows a view across the lake and you can see the trees on both sides of the lake. The water also shows elongated reflections of the trees on the far side, reaching across to the snowdrops, log and saplings on the nearside. From the side of the lake from which this photo is taken, the path skirts the lake, providing superb views all along. The path on the far side is further away from the lake, with limited views. So it is very worthwhile walking all round the lake to appreciate, the snowdrops, the trees and the still water.
View across Smeaton Lake
I recently finished a crime novel by the Norwegian writer Gunnar Staalesen, entitled Mirror Image (review). This was a new author to me and was one of three books I chose because I did not know the authors. Staalesen is highly praised in both the review above and in the book’s blurb. The protagonist is a private investigator Varg Veum who seeks to solve two apparently different crimes. One theme is the possibly mysterious disappearance of a well known lawyer’s sister and brother in law and another is the unknown cargo of a ship approaching the Norwegian coast. Veum follows various leads by interviewing a number of characters related to the couple’s disappearance and a possible connection with a double death thirty six years previously, when a couple drove themselves over a cliff. As the review above states, there is a slow start and I found the interviewing of people one after another rather ponderous, with little actually happening until Veum is pushed in front of a car. The novel speeds up rather too dramatically, in my opinion, near the end of the book, with both mysteries solved. One reviewer calls Staalesen A Norwegian Chandler and Veum has some Chandleresque quips, such as The look he gave me was like a gale warning.
I would rate Staalesen as a bestselling but middle order crime crime writer, similar to the UK’s Ian Rankin or Peter Robinson. This is more of a holiday read – which many people obviously enjoy – and if you like your crime novels as stories rather than literature, this one may be for you. It comes highly recommended by many critics.
The National Museum of Scotland (good photos) is once again hosting a fabulous exhibition of wildlife photography from across the world. The museum tells us that Wildlife Photographer of the Year is the most prestigious photography event of its kind, providing a global platform that showcases some of the best photography talent from around the world for nearly 60 years. This exhibition is so good and unique that I am devoting the whole blog to it. The exhibition, on loan from the Natural History Museum in London, dates back to 1965 and this year’s competition attracted nearly 50,000 entries from many countries and features work by people of different ages. The exhibition focuses on wildlife but also on threats to these land and sea-based creatures from climate change and habitat destruction.
The first photo (below) shows a reef starfish in a spectacular setting. Reef starfish (good photos) are found in the ocean around New Zealand and play a key role in controlling the spread of green-lipped mussels, which if not restricted, could affect the health of other species. The photographer D’Artagnan Sprengel (many photos) was highly commended in the 15-17 year old category. The vibrant colours of the starfish (10-12 legs) contrasts well with the black mussel shells seen nearby. The cascading waves provide a variety of blues and whites and the motion of the sea is very well captured here. The waves look as if they might have been painted. The photo was taken at the attractive Sunset Beach (good photos) in Port Waikato in New Zealand.
Reef Starfish by D’Artagnan Sprengel (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
The second photo (below) shows The Golden Horseshoe by Laurent Ballesta who is an underwater photographer and marine biologist. This photo won the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year and is a stunning portrayal not only of the horseshoe crab itself but also of its companions, three delicately striped fish called golden trevallies. The chair of the competition jury, Kathy Moran, stated To see a horseshoe crab so vibrantly alive in its natural habitat, in such a hauntingly beautiful way, was astonishing. We are looking at an ancient species, highly endangered, and also critical to human health. This photo is luminescent. The tri-spine horseshoe crab (good photos and video) has been on this planet for over 100 million years but is now endangered. There is a touch of surrealism in the photo, as if some alien spacecraft, featuring spines and a tail, has appeared in one of the earth’s oceans. Who knows what or who might emerge from its inner chambers? It is an intriguing photo and worth standing next to it in the exhibition and taking in all its aspects. Laurent Ballesta has won this prize before and you can read about his work (and art) here (good photos).
The Golden Horseshoe by Laurent Ballesta
The third photo (below) from the exhibition is Bobcat Delivery by Vishal Subramanyan (good photos) who is an undergraduate at the University of Berkeley in California and has, despite being only 21, taken some astonishing photographs, particularly of bobcats. This Californian government site tells us that Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are small, robust cats that inhabit much of North America, including all of the United States, most of Mexico and southern Canada. Bobcats inhabit a wide range of natural habitats as well as the fragmented habitat along the edges of human development. There is some danger – from roads, domestic animal diseases and pesticides used to kill rodents – to the bobcats, which need large areas to live and hunt in, typically 3 square miles for a male. In this image – gruesome to some people maybe – we see the bobcat after a successful hunt, with a tree squirrel in its mouth. What makes this photo different is that it is taken in what looks like on old, windowless building, with the wooden frames encasing the bobcat’s head and prey and allowing the animal to casually put one paw over the lower frame. The bobcat’s eyes are firmly fixed, as if to warn possible rivals or humans, that this is his/her catch. It has beautiful fur around its sleek body and there is a grace and elegance about the bobcat.
Bobcat Delivery by Vishal Subramanyan
The fourth photo (below) grabbed my attention as I walked around the exhibition. It is The art of Courtship by Rachel Bigsby. This photograph won the Natural Artistry award and you can see why, as this very aesthetically pleasing image could easily have appeared in a drawing/painting exhibition in a wildlife gallery. The Natural History Museum site tells us that From her boat, which was pitching from side to side in a turbulent sea swell, Rachel realised that achieving her vision of showcasing the gannets set against the towering cliffs would be tricky. But as the boat aligned with the rocks, she spotted this pair. They were ‘isolated on a lower ledge, intertwining their necks and framed by streaks of guano,’ recalls Rachel. One of the judges commented that this photo was heart-stoppingly beautiful and you have to agree, with the two birds in courtship mode and the waterfall-like guano in the background. The photo was taken in Shetland but appealed to me not only as a work of art, but because of the colony of gannets we see arriving on the Bass Rock, just off the East Lothian coast.
The Art of Courtship by Rachel Bigsby
The final examples from the exhibition come in the form of a video I made of a sequence of photos on shown on a continuous loop. One of the photos, entitled Ice Bed by Nima Sarikhani was the winner of the People’s Award and over 75,000 voted. You can see the photo, which shows a sleeping polar bear on a small iceberg and was featured widely in the press, here.
The latest exhibition in Waterston House in Aberlady, home of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, is entitled Contemporary Botanical Art and Sculptures (examples of work). It runs until the 25th February 2024, so there is till plenty of time to see it. On view is a stunning range of delicately painted flowers, trees and birds as well as smooth, tactile sculptures, all from different artists. It was a difficult task to choose which ones to feature here as all the artworks are worth studying closely. I am grateful to Laura Gressani from SOC for sending me examples, which come with permission from each artist for me to use them in the blog. The first work (photo below) is by Mary O’Neill, a well established botanical artist.
Confrontation by Mary O’ Neill (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
In the enlarged version of this work, you can see how the artist has very carefully reproduced each detail of the tree’s branches, leaves and berries and how she has faithfully drawn and painted each part of the birds. Attention to tiny details is a feature of all the works on display. It would be interesting to now how long this painting (and others) took to complete. The delicacy and accuracy of the work suggests that it may have been many hours. What makes this painting so attractive is the range of objects that we can look at. The red berries look enticing to the two birds, each leaf is slightly different and the work includes newish looking leaves and others that have faded. On the branches supporting the berries and the birds, our eyes are drawn to looking down the line to the multi-twigged end. The birds – a robin and a wren – are captured in extreme detail, with feathers, beaks and tails perfectly sculpted. In the confrontation of the title, the wren’s open beak signals that perhaps it, although the smaller of the two birds, is the aggressor.
The second example (photo below) is by Susan White, an artist who completes oil paintings as well as botanical art. The Butterfly Conservation group tell us that in Orange Tips, The males are unmistakable; white butterflies with bright orange wingtips. The females are white with black wingtips. Both have mottled green underwings. In this exquisite painting, we are looking at two males, with their attention-drawing orange tipped wings, and the green underwings are drawn very clearly (see enlarged photo) in a pattern of rows. The head of the butterfly at the top has its extended antennae reaching into the flower for food, The butterfly is delicately poised on the flower head, no doubt ready to fly off at any sign of danger. In the second butterfly, the artist has carefully delineated the body, and we can see how early aeroplane makers might have been inspired by this natural design. The cuckoo flower is a new species to me and the RHS (good photos) describes it as A perennial to 40cm, forming a basal rosette of pinnate leaves with rounded leaflets, with erect leafy stems bearing short open racemes of 4-petalled, pale pink or white flowers 1.5cm across in late spring. It has the impressive scientific name of Cardamine pratensis and is also known as lady’s smock and milkmaid. Here we see the flowers (pale blue/purple as opposed to the pale pink/white above, but similar to one of the RHS photos) both fully open and emerging. Each petal has finely drawn arteries and some of the flowers are shaped as if they are mimicking the butterfly in flight.
Orange Tip with Cuckoo Flower by Susan White
The third work from the exhibition is shown in the photo below and is by Ann Fraser, who is a botanical artist who paints flowers from her own garden. When you walk down the corridor of Waterston House, you see a range of mainly smaller paintings lining the wall. When you walk into the main room, the stunning splash of colour in this painting immediately draws your attention. The title is Field Poppies and not Field of Poppies, a subject covered by many artists. These are individual portraits of poppies, each with its own particular shape and in each open flower, you see a delicate difference in the shade of red. The poppies also appear to be at different stages of their short lives, with some newly opened and others perhaps ready to have their leaves blown off by the wind. We also see nascent flowers, tadpole like, tightly packed green heads and slender stems, which all the poppies have. Although the poppies appear to be static, as you cast your eye across them, you get a feeling that, when you look away, they may be in motion, dancing perhaps.
Field Poppies by Anne Fraser
If you get an opportunity to see this exhibition, then take it and enjoy a masterclass in botanical painting and sculptures. Otherwise, revisit the website to get a closer view of the works on display.
I recently finished a remarkable novel by Ottessa Moshfeg entitled Lapvona (Guardian review). I knew nothing about the author or her previous books, so had no real expectations about the content. I try not to read the blurb on the back pages of novels which outline the plot, as I often find that this bears little resemblance to my own reading of the book. Lapvona is set in a medieval village, perhaps in central Europe or in Scandinavia – we are not told. The reader is immediately thrown into a violent scene with so-called bandits raiding the village. We are then introduced to the main character, Marek, a god obsessed teenager with a sadistic father, who has been born misshapen. There are a number of characters in the book, all of whom have some weirdness about them. So far, so unpromising then? Despite this apparently alien-seeming world, the novel is a compelling read and the story continues at sometimes hectic rate e.g. with the introduction of the local lord Villiam, a hedonistic and often cruel character, who lives above the village and retains water for his own cops while the villagers often suffer drought.
This can be seen as a morality tale, where good and evil clash and good does not always emerge as the victor. What Mossfegh does convincingly is to show how religion dominates the lives of the villagers, who are fearful of what might happen to them after death and regard their poor, often suffering lives as a necessary passage to a better afterlife. There are some comic episodes in the book but this is a dark and often cruel comedy featuring Villiam. Marek finds out that his mother has not died in childbirth as he has been told but reappears into the tale after leaving a nunnery. Mossfegh is an excellent story teller and the tale goes along at quite a pace. In some instances, coincidences and are hard to believe e.g. there is a double death near the end. This book will delight some readers and appal others but it is unique. So, read the first two pages in the book shop and if you are taken by it as I was, buy it and you will not be disappointed.
Hedderwick Farm (good photos) is situated about 3 miles/5K from Dunbar. It has a very interesting history and the website tells us that “Hedderwick Hill has been a melting pot of sporting and economic activity since 1865, when Hedderwick Hill Race Course was first established”. According to this Canmoresite “The racecourse and grand stand are depicted on the Revision Edition of the OS 25-inch map (Haddingtonshire, 1907, sheet 7), and annotated ‘Hedderwick Hill Race Course’ with a roofed grand stand”. I knew there had been stables at nearby West Barns for many years but perhaps the stables originated from the race course. There was also a golf course at one time on the farm’s land. The Hedderwick Hill Golf Course was established in 1896 and continued until 1937 – see here for an old photo and a detailed history.
My visit to the farm was to see the alpacas which are kept just to the east of the farm. I walked from the East Links Family Park (good photos) which features a range of animals and activities for children, along to where the two groups of the alpacas are kept. The photos below show the large field of impressively big leeks which I passed on the way, and a close up view of some of the leeks, which stand upright in regimented rows, like a huge army preparing for battle. Creamed leeks, made with crème fraiche and wholegrain mustard are one of my favourite vegetable dishes, especially when I cook seabass fillets.
Field of leeks at Hedderwick Farm (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)Sturdy leeks at Hedderwick Farm
The alpacas are owned by John Muir Alpacas (good photos) and the company offer one hour treks with the animals around the John Muir Country Park. Alpacas have a long history and this site informs us that “Alpacas (vicugña pacos) are members of the Camelid Family and are a domesticated species of the South American camelid. Camelids originated in North America over 40 million years ago. Camels migrated east via the Bering Strait and llamas migrated to South America”. They differ from llamas, to which they are related, in size, appearance and temperament. Llamas are bigger than alpacas and have much coarser hair and are more solitary animals. Alpacas have hair which is finer an can be used for wool and they live in close-knit groups – see more detail here. The photo below shows a group of alpacas in their fenced off area, with one on the left feeding and you can see a water trough on the right hand side. In the background, the line of trees hides and protects the farm buildings and there is a stack of bales on the right which will be used to feed the animals. Alpacas stand up very straight, with their long necks and sturdy bodies. These ones are obviously used to human visitors but of course, I did not go too close.
Alpacas at Hedderwick
In the next photo below, I managed to capture an alpaca with one of its legs raised to allow it to either wash or scratch. This view allows us to see the shaped toe of the animal, with the very narrow end of its leg looking rather fragile. This is quite a balancing act for the alpaca but it has three strong legs which give it support. Alpacas have toes, with two nails on each toe, not hooves and if you have ever wondered how to trim an alpacas toenails, find out here.
Alpaca in cleansing or scratching mode
By cropping the photo above, I got a closer look at the alpaca on the left. The photo below shows this young alpaca who appears to need a visit to the orthodontist as it has a very prominent tooth at the front of its mouth. In the enlarged photo, you will see the rather ungainly looking tooth but also the still furry hair on the animal’s head and face.
Toothy alpaca
The Scottish Landscape Awards (SLA) exhibition runs until the 3rd March 2024 at the Edinburgh City Art Centre (examples of art and video tour). The Awards site tells us that “Spanning 2 floors, the exhibition displays 133 artworks selected from 2,800 entries. Showcasing the breadth and diversity of innovative contemporary creativity in Scotland today, the selected works reflect all dimensions of natural and man-made environments”. There is certainly much to see in this exhibition which features a range of media and it was difficult for me to choose particular highlights for the blog. The first exhibit (photo below) is the one awarded First Prize and the caption states “BASS ROCK is made by weaving musical scores of traditional Scottish songs about love and landscape as a response to the sounds and light of the iconic gannet colony”. This would not have been my choice of the best exhibit but it certainly is an impressive – and large – work of art, which draws your attention as you come across it. Before reading the caption, I was not sure what form of media this was. This is without doubt the most imaginative work in the exhibition, using musical scores to form it. In the summer, when you pass near the Bass Rock, you see hundreds of birds in the air just next to the rock and the lines of dashes you see here are reminiscent of the summer scene.
Bass Rock artwork at the SLA exhibition
The second exhibit on show is seen in the photo below. It is a line print by artist Bryan Angus (examples of his work) and entitled Stonehaven. It is a superb depiction of the seaside town of Stonehaven in the north east of Scotland, which I featured on the blog here last year. You need to enlarge the photo to get the full effect of this panoramic scene, which neatly portrays the wide sweep of the beach at the harbour, the fishing boats in the water and on the shore, with the forested hills in the background. Angus has also captured the buildings at the side of the harbour and the clouds above the hills. This is an impression of the town but it has a photographic quality to it. The detail in the line print is outstanding and you have to admire the artistry of the man who completed this fine piece of work, which must have taken many hours to complete.
Stonehaven by Bryan Angus
The final exhibit which particularly caught my attention is entitled Eve and the artist is Young Jeon. This is an extract from an intriguing and superbly filmed video which depicts a truly stunning depiction of a murmuration of starlings. You can see the full video on the Awards site here and it is a very calming experience, with the balletic movement of the birds and their formation of multiple parabolas in the sky.
Finishing a book by Richard Ford – one of my all-time favourite authors – provokes two emotions. One is that I am sorry that the novel has come to an end and the other is an urge to start from the beginning and read it again immediately. As I have three new fiction books to read, I will not be doing the latter but undoubtedly will dip into the book, as I do with his other books, from time to time. Ford’s latest novel and purportedly the last in a series of books featuring his protagonist Frank Bascombe, is entitled Be Mine (Guardian review). The main plot of the book may sound off-putting to some but it is so well-written that i can appeal to everyone. A 74 year old Frank is taking his 47 year old son Paul, who has a wasting disease and has not long to live, on a final road trip to Mount Rushmore (good photos), which features the faces of four past presidents of the USA. The book is by turns happy, sad, funny, pathetic and sympathetic. It is also a reflective novel, with Frank, as he has done all his adult life, seeking happiness and at the same time wondering what might constitute happiness.
The Atlantic reviewer noted “The astonishing core of Be Mine is the barbed, tender, despairing bond between father and son, a bond both battered and strengthened by the cruel “progress” of Paul’s disease”. The story begins with Paul’s final visit to the Mayo Clinic where he is part of a research project. Richard Ford describes the pathos and occasional farce of the visit through Frank’s eyes and there are some very funny moments in this part of the book. Other patients, their relatives or helpers and the sometimes over-anxious. patronising volunteers are acutely observed. Frank then hires a large campervan to transport Paul and himself to Mount Rushmore, despite the fact that this is winter and father and son could not possible sleep in such a vehicle. When they get to Mount Rushmore, Frank and Paul – like many others they discover – are underwhelmed by the carvings of the presidents on the white rock. All through the various scenes in the book, there are caustic but sometimes funny exchanges between Frank and his sometimes unpleasantly sarcastic son. Frank puts this down to Paul’s illness but the reader senses that Paul was a difficult child and this continued into adulthood.
One of the joys of reading a novel by Richard Ford is that author’s ability to produce sentences that you wish you could have written yourself. At a reunion, Frank meets Pug who has not changed in 50 years and has the ” same scrunched forehead, same out of date flattop and undersized chin, as if that part of his face had been economized-on by his maker”. Frank is a Democrat and sees the then President Donald Trump on TV, and Trump’s “swollen eyes-bulging face .. doing his pooched lip, arms folded Mussolini. I couldn’t take my eyes off him – tuberous limbs, prognathous jaw, looking in all directions at one, seeking approval but not finding enough”. Ford sends me to the dictionary from time to time and, looking up prognathous, I found that it means having a projecting lower jaw or chin. Describing the route he and Paul are taking, Frank notes that the area all “looks the same – glacial, white, vast as Melville’s whale”. On sharing plastic cups of vodka (Russki Stoli) with his son in a motel, Frank states of his drink ” .. mine landing on my tongue, throat an innards like a Brahms hymn to a grieving man”. These are only a few of the many quotations I noted on a blank page at the end of the book, but there are many more.
The novel ends, as it began, with Frank reflecting on what happiness might be. For example, is happiness merely the absence of unhappiness in our lives? This seems a negative stance, so may we be better served by looking at moments or periods of happiness in our lives? In the TV series Fawlty Towers (good videos), Sybil says to Basil “Are you happy Basil?” and Basil replies “I was happy once Sybil, I just can’t remember when it was”. We all may have different definitions of happiness and different answers to Sybil’s questions and our answers might change from day to day. A more pertinent question might be “In general, are you happy?”. I would reply in the positive. To learn more of Frank Bascombe’s views on happiness, go out and buy this superb novel by one of, and perhaps the, USA’s leading contemporary novelists.
Richard Ford’s latest novel (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
My observations on flowers in my garden and elsewhere normally focus on Spring and Summer but, at the moment, there are sudden splashes of colour in one part of the garden. This year, we have a splendid show of hellebore. We bought one plant and it has self seeded to give us a second one. The RHS (good photos) tells us that “Hellebores are classic plants for winter interest, with elegant, nodding blooms in shades of green, white, pink or ruby. These perennials have a long flowering period, lasting well into spring. Mainly evergreen with handsome leaves, they thrive in shadier spots”. The first photo below shows a hellebore fully out in the sunshine. The nodding blooms cited by the RHS refer to the unopened flowers but the open flowers are equally elegant and graceful. The scallop-shaped petals remind me of some of the gladioli heads we get in the summer. The stigma, with their white filaments and what one website describes as binocular anthers reach out to attract any insects that hang around in winter and they also attract bees in early Spring, as hellebore can last from January to March.
The hellebore has a long and interesting history, hinted at by its name derived from “the Greek name for H. orientalis, helleboros, meaning “to injure” and “food.” Most species are poisonous”, according to this site. The hellebore below is H Niger and is also referred to as the Christmas Rose. The second photo below shows more flowers and the handsome leaves referred to by the RHS.
Hellebore flowerhead and leavesHellebore flowers and leaves
Another colourful flower in the garden is the cyclamen, which the RHS (good photos) describe as “A delightful tuberous perennial providing colour often when little else is flowering, particularly in late winter or early spring”. Cyclamen is the botanical name for this plant but the RHS note that its common name is Sow Bread – a new term to me. Looking this up, I discovered that this refers to the fact that “It is often referred to as sow bread because the corms looked like small loaves and were thought to have been favoured by pigs in the wild”, and you can see more here. Cyclamen originate in the eastern Mediterranean countries and have been grown in the UK since the 1590s. According to cyclamen.com, “Its name, which for once is identical in Latin and English, is transcribed from the Greek word kuklaminos, derived from kuklos, meaning “circle”: it refers to the round and flattened shape of its tuber”. The photo below shows our pink and white cyclamen flowers which provide a nice contrast to each other. Cyclamen leaves are also aesthetically pleasing because of their shape and decorative patterns. These flowers will be out on show for a number of weeks in the winter as they are hardy as well as beautiful.
Cyclamen flowers and decorated leaves
The cyclamen plant has featured widely in art and literature and you can read about it in this excellent website (good photos and paintings). Here you will find reference to a piece of art on display in the Smithsonian Institute which provides a stunning portrayal of cyclamen. The painting (photo below) is from a book of woodblock prints by Japanese artist Tanigami Kōnanand dates from 1917. The artist’s impression of cyclamen is innovative in that each open flower appears to have an eye, with flower at the top left resembling a parrot. It looks as if the flowers might be a family gathering and that they are talking to each other and maybe laughing. There is a wonderful delicacy to the print , with its various shades of pinky purple, the flowers at different stages and the patterns on the leaves. There is also one brown leaf and this may be the artist’s warning that all flowers and leaves will fade on day. This is one of the most fascinating works of art that I have seen for many years. The more you look at it, the more detail you see.
Tanigami Kōnan, Seiyō sōka zufu Downloaded with permission from the Smithsonian Institute
A garden should always have colour and the hellebore and the cyclamen provide this in droves, making them a delight to see as I open my front door.
We had some huge, wild tides during December in Dunbar and a visit to Dunbar Harbour showed some polar opposites in the state of the incoming waves. I walked down to the Victoria Harbour(aerial photos and history) built in the 1840s, and stood below the castle walls, when I looked across the entrance to the harbour, I saw a huge wave coming over the harbour wall and drenching the walkway below. I then walked along the harbour side to the fairly recently refurbished Battery (photos and history) and I could see the massive waves hitting the breakwater between the Battery and the Old Harbour (see Battery link). The photo below shows the breakwater, which was originally the way fishing boats approached the entrance to the Cromwell Harbour or Old Harbour. This is built of huge natural rocks and some concrete slabs and has to be reinforced from time to time, because of the force of the winter storms. It was a wonderful experience just to stand and watch the incoming waves transfer themselves into dramatic bursts of white water in the air. There was an interesting light in this mid-afternoon and the photo shows a pink tinge in the clouds to the left of the harbour wall.
Waves on the breakwater and wall at Dunbar’s Old Harbour (Click on all photos to enlarge – recommended)
You can relive my joyful experience in the video below. No need for commentary with the stimulating sound of the waves. In the distance, you can see Barns Ness Lighthouse (previous blog post).
By contrast, when I walked back over the bridge to the main harbour, all was calm. The photo below shows the view across the harbour from the Battery. With the recent storms, there were no fishing boats in the harbour to prevent possible damage. In the foreground, you can see piles of creels ready to be used. Not long after this photo was taken, Storm Babet (lifeboat video) damaged or destroyed hundreds of creels, and today the whole harbourside is lined with creels in various states of repair. The castle walls across the harbour are home only to a few seagulls at this time of year, the kittiwakes having left in August.
Looking west across Dunbar Harbour
I walked along to the Old Harbour, packed with its own resident boats, plus those from the main harbour where, again, the water was calm. The photo below shows some of the boats in the harbour and the most prominent is LH 46 – Fiddlers Green – and you can read a detailed description of the boat here. Like my last photo of the Old Harbour, I have captured the Dunbar Parish Church (photos and history) between the masts. You can also see the roofs of the houses along the shore and stretching back into town. The white square on the top right of the photo is the Fisherman’s Monument (photo and history).
Boats in the Old Harbour, Dunbar
At the end of the Old Harbour wall, going towards the town, there is a slipway from which fishing boats used to be launched. When I reached this point, I was greeted by a roar of the sea and looked out upon hectic waves, throwing themselves against the sea wall. The photo below shows the approaching waves which will hit the walls all along the unseen beach, and against the walls of the houses which you can see from the white house going left. The Parish Church looms above the town – such edifices were meant to impress – and the chimneys of the late Victorian age are prominent. In some ways, given the noise and the force of the waves, this could be seen as a violent scene, with the waves, as one poet put it, dragged by the hair on to the shore. I prefer the version which views the waves as hurtling and dancing forwards and leaping joyfully against the wall. It is a mesmerising sight and despite the noise, quite calming.
White waves at the slipway
I took this video at the slipway to remind me of this experience that day. This is a unique sight as no incoming tide is exactly the same as the next one.
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