2025 Year of Surprises and Nostalgia

 

2025 Year of Surprises and Nostalgia

The internet gives us unbounded access to “knowledge:”

but – at the same time leaves us ignorant and in our own bubbles.

 

That’s why knowledge and empathy through books – through all the Arts: poetry, music, art,, film, matters so greatly. Otherwise our worlds are limited. To celebrate our diversity and connectedness. 

 (The UK apparently is a rich country – when I wonder if this is true, where is the money?)

Ignorance is a terrible weakness. Different cultures and identities can sit side by side – why does one culture have to be better or superior? We are stronger for our diversity. 

 

In the new year 2026 - I hope for greater empathy and understandings through the Arts.

 

 NOSTALGIA

Its so easy to be nostalgic at Christmas, 

remembering all the past Christmases, 

looking up old photos and friendships, 

 

of the time ticking by,

the past years endings and all that it meant,

the memories, the highs and the lows. 

 

Making new plans, new resolutions, expectations

of what the new year may offer….

PK

Long Memory

I shake out the dusty distance between the lost long ago times.

There’s the National songbooks faded now a deep brown,

There‘s the thought of back when the world was bright and new. 

 

I thought back then

There was so much time,

I took for easy granted,

Never looking too far behind, 

Often too easily uncaring and reckless,

Forgetting time passes us all goodbye.

 

I remember singing those well loved Burns songs -

Ye banks and braes o bonny doon

How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair,

How can ye chant ye little birds

And I sae weary full o care.

 

Ye’ll break my heart ye warbling birds, 

That wanton trough the thorny trees,

Ye mind me o departed joys,

Departed never to return. 

 

And iconic pop tunes,

Joni Mitchell, Elton John, the Beatles,

Of Mozart and Beethoven classics,

All accompanied me in my safe place.

PK

 

November 2025

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.