HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY BOB!
A bit late - my favourite Dylan songs - Visions of Joanna, If not for You, Make you Feel my Love, Tangled up in Blue, Tambourine Man. So many questioning, ironic, layered, story telling songs. Thanks Bob. Good to be alive in the times of our Bard.
.. oh yes things have changed alright...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9EKqQWPjyo
One thing for sure is that the arts will be essential for our recovery.
Scottish Festivals ... Seek to engage, challenge, entertain and to ensure quality of standard, musicianship, writing, diversity, colour and more.
Every August is a highlight to venture on Edinburgh’s historic streets and to culturally recharge my batteries at the world’s largest arts festival. There’s a special freedom of creativity, where nearly anything goes – a vast melting pot of colour, comedy, dance, song.
August means Edinburgh and in particular its International book festival. I grew up in this northern capital, dominated by its castle, Arthur seat and historic Royal mile. I have been taking photos at the Edinburgh Festival since 2007.
This is a year to renew our attitudes and ideas or make a change of direction: this is much needed reflections and contemplations.
Last year 2020 the festivals, for the first time had to be cancelled since 1947, due to the worldwide Covid pandemic. I visited the high street, it was very odd.
This year the festival is planning 3 large outdoor marquees. While the fringe may take over some of the newly empty shops in town. Edinburgh is also planning to pedestrianise George street. Stars such as Alan Cumming and violinist Nicola Benedetti.
Edinburgh festival is the world largest arts festival, begun in 1945 to bring rejuvenation after the devastation of war.
There is the main international festival along side the Fringe comedy: plus dance, opera, musicals, drama, concerts, mime, art, debates, books and of course the performers in the high street..
There’s also the high water marks of the main festival – with opera, classical, ballet, drama, and more. .
TICKETS NOW ON SALE - https://www.eif.co.uk
Edinburgh FRINGE - https://www.edfringe.com
The Edinburgh festival has been taking place each August since 1947. After the devastation of war Austrian Rudolf Bing, decided Europe could be brought together to heal by a large scale cultural festival. He decided on Edina, as it reminded him of Salzburg, and it became the worlds biggest cultural arts event. 2020 was the first year for 73 years the Edinburgh festival has not been held.
Edinburgh is ideal to see on foot with the Royal mile, the Mound and over to the new town.
Art is crucial
Art is how we move forward, broaden horizons, question and exchange ideas, culture and heritage ultimately matters more – more than any political rhetoric!
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| Empty & Haunting Glencoe |
Our hills are bare
How can we restore, recover our wetlands, our forests,
Our hedgehogs, our eagles , our bears
Our winding rivers to the seas..
The silence…
- Only 2% of Scotland has trees, it’s the least wooded country in Europe. 37% is Europe’s average.
- 25% of Scotland’s land is for grouse shooting and open hill deer stalking with little revenue. There is an urgent need for talks with all involved.
Our hills are bare, with burnt heathers, triangles of unnatural pines with no undergrowth, wild salmon under threat by lice-infected farmed salmon. Victorians tamed our hills to empty glens for grouse shooting.
Our forests were cut down for the trenches in world war one and sent over to Belgium and France and our land depleted by clearances of people, to prioritise sheep and grouse shooting exploitation. Scotland needs the powers to protect our natural resources and a greener future. Scotland has unnatural, empty landscapes, devoid of people or trees –
I remember my first visit to Glencoe and Rannoch moor, as a young student and I was so struck by the vast emptiness amid the towering, imposing, snow capped mountains. The winds seemed to howl of the past tragedies and violence ..the Glencoe massacre of the MacDonalds.
In America there are wondrous natural forests, that are multi-coloured, from soft yellows, dark greens, blue greens, in the Fall are such a glorious show of reds, oranges and browns.
Scotland is one of the most nature ruined countries – exploited by polices of grouse shooting, heather burning moors, culling hares, wildlife, removing natural predators and people in favour of sheep and deer herds. Images of Norway show diverse, natural forests and people living on the land – unlike Scotland’s empty glens.
The okra whales of our western waters, are now perhaps infertile. They can live 90 years and only 8 adults now remain. Are those awful nuclear subs that patrol the western seas, confusing these magnificent animals with their sonar sounds? Most Scots want the removal of these ugly, monstrous subs.
The silence…
“….absence of birdsong or wolf howl,. We were persuaded to let the soils wash into the sea, the few remaining predators to be trapped or shot, the land tamed, and the life drained away.
the taming of the Scottish highlands has not tamed wildlife. “
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| Wetlands & marsh |
Restoration is supported by 75% of Scots
Positives moves – UN Decade of Habitat restoration; re-introduction of natural ecosystems and natural biodiversity; beavers brought back to build dams which restore wetlands and temperate rainforests; osprey and white-tailed eagles brought back. Restoring nature to our quiet glens.
Re-wilding projects Scotland a re-wilding; mountain hare culls have stopped. And Wildlife bridges for animals rather than small pockets – Perth to Inverness, wetlands, natural forest, habitat re-connectivity.
Huge costs. Scotland has many alien species, rural economy development, greener habitat, plus money to remove the awful scourge of Rhododendrons.
Bio-diversity of the future.
‘young forests are on the march for the first time in generations, peat lands are being restored, natural processes are being allowed to shape and govern our landscapes. “
River restoration systems were allowed burns straightened out a century ago, to meander again, reconnecting to their floodplains and leading to more trees, more flowers, more insects, more fish, cleaner waters, less flooding.
Scotland’s beautiful landscapes, some of the best in the world, have been exploited, ruined and laid bare by foreigners intent on fast money. Indy Scotland needs the powers to protect our resources – now a theme park for global elites.
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| @Peter Cairns |
**Scottish Rewilding Alliance
**I attended an online
Talk by wildlife photographer Peter Cairns
Cairns spoke of his motivations with his photography.
Conservation works, we need more of it. Wanderlust, always looking over the horizon or beyond doorways: asking questions about myself and why I’m motivated to do something. He considered Wildlife management, conservation and ecology. He spoke of our relationship with animals and with predators such as wolves, to reintroduced them and to bring back the natural environment.
Cairns spoke of photography as a language and the power of the visceral image. Its power as a visual communicator, storytelling, informs, inspires and influences change. The human world view – hunters, ranchers, our set of values.
- https://www.petercairnsphotography.com
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| Loch Ardinny &Campsies |
**ISSUES we must urgently address
Economic growth vs well being?
Green bridge Aberdeen.
Grouse moors are legal, moor burns are a problem, but we must work together to find solutions.
**BOOKS
*Tooth and Claw with Mark Hamblin: changing our relationship with wildlife. We have complex, contradictory values. Endangered species. The wildcat – highland tiger.
*Wild Wonders of Europe: top 70 nature photographers, explore sustainability.
*2020 Vision (20 British photographers) he feels more at home in Scotland and to tell the story properly, it needs to be under your skin. Protecting species and nature reserves. Think bigger and longer term.
BOOK Regeneration, Andrew Panting.
https://www.petercairnsphotography.com
“After the first Anglo-Sikh war in India, one of these days our great Indian empire, will stand up on its own legs and make use of our own rope to scourge us. … what right has England to an Indian empire?
No more than the Duke of Sutherland to his broad estate, wait a little, we shall see it all arranged, according to a better justice, on the small scale and the large”
Her family made its money on the sugar planation of Jamaica
was an English poet of the Victorian era popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in Count Durham, the eldest of 11 children, Elizabeth Barrett wrote poetry from the age of eleven. At 15 she became ill, suffering intense head and spinal pain for the rest of her life.
In the 1840s Elizabeth was introduced to literary society through her cousin, John Kenyon. Her first adult collection of poems was published in 1838 and she wrote prolifically between 1841 and 1844, producing poetry, translation and prose. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and her work helped influence reform in the child labour legislation. Her prolific output made her a rival to Tennyson as a candidate for poet laureate on the death of Wordsworth.
She was married to Robert Browning. Elizabeth's work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. She is remembered for such poems as “How Do I Love Thee” (Sonnet 43, 1845) and "Aurora Leigh" (1858).