2025 Reflections TOP PHOTOS

Some favourite memories of 2025! From fun concerts at Celtic Connections and excellent times at Edinburgh festivals. 

Edinburgh 2025

Past concert memories!

Blackberries ~ Margaret Atwood

Blackberries

~ Margaret Atwood

 

 

In the early morning an old woman

is picking blackberries in the shade.

It will be too hot later

but right now there's dew.

 

Some berries fall: those are for squirrels.

Some are unripe, reserved for bears.

Some go into the metal bowl.

Those are for you, so you may taste them

just for a moment.

That's good times: one little sweetness

after another, then quickly gone.

 

Once, this old woman

I'm conjuring up for you

would have been my grandmother.

Today it's me.

 

Years from now it might be you,

if you're quite lucky.

The hands reaching in

among the leaves and spines

were once my mother's.

I've passed them on.

 

Decades ahead, you'll study your own

temporary hands, and you'll remember.

Don't cry, this is what happens.

Look! The steel bowl

is almost full. Enough for all of us.

 

The blackberries gleam like glass,

like the glass ornaments

we hang on trees in December

to remind ourselves to be grateful for snow.

 

Some berries occur in sun,

but they are smaller.

It's as I always told you:

the best ones grow in shadow.

 

The Statutes of Iona 1609

 

On a beautiful sunny day under perfect blue skies, we visited the peaceful island of Iona, where I discovered a plaque to the –

Statutes of Iona of 1609

James VI brought the clan chiefs together for a meeting on Iona. He was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and heir to queen Elizabeth of England – with the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

 

He required that the eldest sons of Highland chiefs be educated in England

 

The Statutes of Iona aimed to civilize the Highlands into English culture and language in order to suppress Gaelic culture, and to bring clan leaders under royal control by making them accountable in Edinburgh. 

 

To eliminate Scottish Memory by outlawing Gaelic bards. 

 Just as had happened in Ireland outlawing Irish Gaelic. 

Key Aspects of the Statutes of Iona (1609):

·       Education for Heirs: Chiefs had to send their firstborn sons (or other heirs) to be educated in Lowland Scotland.

·       Religious Compliance: Support Protestant ministers and outlaw Gaelic bards (who preserved traditional culture).

·       Royal Control: Chiefs had to appear annually before the Privy Council in Edinburgh to answer for their actions.

·       Goal: To pacify the Highlands, assert royal authority, and assimilate the region into the more "civilized" Lowland Scottish & English culture, reducing the power of the clan system. 

 

Women support Scottish Independence

I noticed in the photos of many far right marches that most protesters were male. Many men today feel angrily disenfranchised by the failed capitalist economic models and the rise of AI. 

There are movements such as ‘Women Against the far Right’ (a woman’s Claim of Right in Scotland 1991)

 

By contrast more women now support Scotland’s independence as they see the chaos, erosion of human rights and a toxic Westminster culture - and also the erosion of women’s rights under Trump’s America – Roe vs Wade. 

 

Plus the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform party and his far right ideology, against equality and human rights.

A vote of Scotland’s indy is a vote against English nationalism, racism, and narrow ideology. 

People in general want more control over their lies – via improved local governance.

 

A vote for indy is a vote of more progressive policies, for equal rights, and gender just welfare state.