Monthly Archives: September 2011

The Old Kirk, Kirkcaldy, Fife.

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It was Doors Open day in Kirkcaldy last week-end and at last we managed to visit the Old Kirk which is quite well known for its stained glass windows. Two of them were designed by Edward Burne-Jones, who is sometimes known as the last Pre-Raphaelite. There are some lovely images of his work here.

We were told that the conditions weren’t doing them a lot of justice. Obviously they look a lot better if it’s a very bright day outside, but they’re still not at all bad I think.

Burne-Jones
Burne-Jones

I suppose they’re a bit plain when compared with some stained glass but they are in a Scottish Presbyterian church and some of them have no stained glass at all. I suppose it was looked on as being a bit too fancy and frivolous.

We climbed up the tower which was quite a scary hike up the usual kind of stone spiral staircase with narrow steps. This photo is of the lower part of the tower.

Old Kirk Tower bottom

The church is the oldest building in the town and parts of the building date back to 1244. The Church of Scotland decided that they didn’t want to continue to use it as a church and the building has been taken over by a local group who are hoping to keep it alive in some way, so that it can be an asset to the town. You can read about it here.

Internally it’s a great space and I can imagine that it could be useful for all sorts of things. It’s the sort of place which costs a lot to upkeep so I really hope that they can make a go of it.

It was worthwhile climbing up the tower as you get quite a good view of the town and the sea. We didn’t stay up there too long though as the tail end of hurricane Katia was just beginning to pay us a visit and it was quite fierce up there.

Kirkcaldy from the Old Kirk Tower

Since then it has actually got much worse and I was nearly blown off my feet twice today. It feels more like November than September. So much for that season of mists and mellow fruitfullness!

Crime by Ferdinand von Schirach

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This is one of the books which I got from my last trip to my library. Sadly I’ve given up on reading it, it’s a compilation of short stories and I think short stories are especially good for bedtime reading but these ones just didn’t fit the bill.

I think they’re really well written and translated from the original German but the author is a criminal lawyer and as you would expect he has had a lot of experience of the things that most of us are lucky enough to avoid in life. Murder, torture and general mayhem abound.

I’m not against the odd wee bit of mayhem now and again but I really don’t feel like it at the moment. It’s not conducive to a good night’s sleep either, I just didn’t enjoy trying to get to sleep whilst having torture on my mind. I know – silly me!

Edinburgh from Kirkcaldy

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I had to walk along to Tesco the other day to buy some milk and as it was a really lovely bright evening I decided to take the scenic route home along the esplanade. I had been painting walls all day so I really needed to get the smell of emulsion paint out of my lungs. This is the view of Edinburgh from the esplanade.

Edinburgh From Kirkcaldy

Arthur’s Seat was clearly in view, which isn’t always the way of it and if you look at the photo below it’s the darkest, tallest hill towards the right hand side. We still haven’t climbed it yet but plan to before the winter closes in on us. We’ve still to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia too, I didn’t fancy going around it during festival time because it’s bound to be really busy then.

Arthur's Seat from Kirkcaldy

It’s not too bad looking I suppose but if you want to see some really lovely images take a look at Duncan’s photos on doctorvee. He stopped off at the Lake District recently on his way to the south of England. I haven’t been there for years but his photos make me think that I’ve been missing something. I think I’ll be adding the Lake District to our list of places to visit and re-visit!

Emotional Geology by Linda Gillard

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I’ve been wanting to read something by Linda Gillard for quite a wee while now but her most recent book is only being published as an e-book and I’m not sure about reading a whole book from a screen – I know, I’m a Luddite. Anyway, a big thank-you to Jo at The Book Jotter for pointing me in Linda Gillard’s direction. I really enjoyed Emotional Geology which was published in 2005, I borrowed it from the library.

It’s set in the Western Isles of Scotland, mainly on North Uist where Rose has moved after experiencing a very traumatic event which has sent her over the edge. Rose suffers from manic depression and the relationship which she had with Gavin, a mountain climbing fanatic, didn’t help with her fragile state of nerves.

What does help is her beautiful quilting which she has shown at exhibitions. She pours the feelings which she can’t express any other way into her work. Calum, a local teacher asks her to show some of her wall-hangings to his pupils and so begins a tentative relationship which Rose is not at all sure she wants.

Well that’s a brief outline, you might know that I don’t like to go into much detail in reviews. Suffice to say that it’s a really good read about a subject which isn’t often written about and Linda Gillard has managed to portray a real feel of the atmosphere of a Scottish island and the inhabitants.

Linda comes from England but she lived on Skye for a number of years which stood her in good stead because she is able to write exactly as the people there speak, and the folks in Glasgow for that matter too. It’s something which isn’t all that easy to do. There’s only one thing which annoyed me and I know this is nit-picking but it always drives me mad. It’s that ‘aren’t I ‘ thing. Nobody in Scotland says aren’t I – we always say ‘amn’t I’ and I maintain that that is the correct way of speaking as of course I and am go together but I are certainly do not! Calum says aren’t I three times in the book!!! I think that an editor has probably ‘corrected’ the original. It sometimes happens that actors say aren’t I, even when they are Scottish and I always wonder why they don’t tell the director that it’s wrong if they are supposed to be Scottish.

Anyway, that’s my only moan in what was a bit of a treat for me really because I loved the setting and as a child I was always falling over crampons, ice picks and rope belonging to my very much older brother and of course I’ve always had an interest in geology. The manic depression I don’t have, thankfully, but we probably all have a bit of experience of that, even if only at second-hand. But as a keen crafter and one who has tried my hand at the odd wall hanging and bit of quilting/applique I have to say that I really loved all the descriptions of the fabric, beads and sequins and the like, and even the bin liners and shoelaces!

One wee word of warning – if you have a very strait-laced mother-in-law then this isn’t a book which you should recommend to her as there is quite a lot of use of the F word and a bit of sex – unless you want some very hard stares from her of course!

I’m really looking forward to reading Linda’s 2006 book A Lifetime Burning which I’ve requested from my library.

I’ve just hopped over to The Book Jotter and seen that this is going to seem a bit like a Linda Gillard Fest as Jo has just reviewed a book by her today but it’s a total coincidence!

The Great British Bake Off

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I was having a look at You Tube – as you do – I was hoping that there was a clip from STVs The Hour programme of the Scottish author Gordon Ferris, but no such luck. It was Judith (Reader in the Wilderness) who alerted me to his existence, he’s a crime writer and his books are set in Glasgow. I’m going to try them out in the hope that he manages to capture the great character of my birthplace. I read just one book by Denise Mina and I was disappointed with it because she failed completely on the Glasgow front, but maybe that’s only noticeable if you know the city.

Anyway, back to You Tube, I noticed that there are some videos of The Great British Bake Off on it. I never watch any of these reality/competition things, Big Brother and ‘Strictly’ type things just don’t appeal to me. But I must admit that I started watching the Bake Off, well the first one was on in the background when I was on my Netbook and I kind of got dragged in.

At first I was amazed that some of the contestants had been daft enough to bring in shop bought things to add to their celebration cakes. It’s the sort of thing we all do for kids cakes but surely not in a competition! Then I was less than impressed that they all seemed to make their pastry in machines and some of them had never made pastry before. Machine made pastry was not a success. My boys got cookery lessons at school, including hand-made pastry and there was still time for all the academic stuff.

Mind you when they got to the bread making bit I was full of admiration because the couple of times that I’ve tried to bake bread have been disastrous. I couldn’t even have put the results out for the birds because the RSPB would have done me for cruelty! My bread was so heavy the only possible uses for it would have been as doorstops or even anchors.

Anyway if you’re interested in baking, or just looking at food you might like to have a wee keek! They’re starting off with cup/fairy cakes. Kids stuff!

On the Gordon Ferris front – all of his books are out in my local library so he’s obviously popular, I might have to put in some requests.

The Rumour by Andy Stewart

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I was watching the Scottish news earlier tonight and there was a report about some men who had tried to lure children into their car using a glove puppet. The incident happened in Glasgow and luckily no children were daft enough to get into the car.

Apparently in no time flat there were reports of the incident on the internet but the action had moved to Dundee, Aberdeen,Edinburgh and Fife – where no such thing actually took place according to the police. It’s amazing how things get out of hand so quickly, even without the help of computers. It reminded me of the ancient monologue by Andy Stewart called The Rumour which was really a vehicle for him to show off his skill at different Scottish accents.

The question is: Can anyone understand him because I had some difficulty with parts of it?!

Wait For Me by Deborah Devonshire

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I was told that I would enjoy this autobiography, and I did. In fact it was fascinating and it’s a must read for anyone interested in the Mitfords or even 20th century Britain.

I’ve always felt a sort of affinity with Debo Mitford just because I know how it feels to be the youngest in a large family and have a mother who wanted boys, as my mother did too. That’s where the resemblence ends though and it’s easy to feel envious of someone who has had such a full and seemingly charmed life. But, we can’t all be duchesses and all hasn’t been as wonderful as her life seemed on the surface.

It’s a book with plenty of funny moments in it but there’s lots of sadness too and when Deborah Devonshire relates the history of her many pregnancies it’s really heartbreaking. Three of her children survived but another three died within hours of their birth and she also suffered a miscarriage. My first pregnancy ended in miscarriage and that was bad enough, I can’t imagine how she must have felt or how she managed to cope with it all. The war years brought too many deaths of family and close friends in combat too. So it hasn’t all been a charmed life.

I’m just annoyed that I didn’t get around to reading this book before visiting Chatsworth House for the first time during the summer because it would have made it even more enjoyable. I’m sure we’ll be going back there some day though as it isn’t possible to take it all in in one visit.

I hadn’t realised that the Devonshires were related to the Kennedys by marriage with ‘Kick’ Kennedy (Jack’s favourite sister) being married to Debo’s husband’s brother. She is buried near Chatsworth. So there is quite a bit about the Kennedys and a description of JFK’s inauguration and funeral.

Having just finished reading three of Nancy’s books it was an eyeopener to me to discover that she had ‘done the dirty’ on her sister Diana during the war and was instrumental in Diana being put in prison. Nancy apparently had a jealous nature and bore grudges.

I borrowed this one from the library but I might end up buying it anyway as I enjoyed it so much and it’s one for dipping into again I think.

I’m definitely going to have to read something by Patrick Leigh Fermor as he’s mentioned so often in this one and I’m now looking for John Buchan’s biography of Montrose – JFK’s favourite apparently.

Chesterfield, Derbyshire

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We’ve been busy arranging our next British road trip because we thought we’d better actually book places to stay this time although it’ll be the October school holidays by then and I don’t think we would have had a great deal of difficulty finding places to sleep. How I wish we had a Dormobile type of thing though a la John Steinbeck.

Anyway, I realised that I hadn’t done a post on Chesterfield which we visited during the summer when we were in Derbyshire. The only thing I knew about Chesterfield was that it had a famous crooked spire – so here it is. Very crooked! It actually looks much more twisted in real life.

Spire 2

It’s a market town and then some, as the only day which they don’t hold a market is Sunday. We were there on a Thursday which is the general market day and there were all sorts of things for sale. I bought some lovely cactus plants, 3 for a tenner! I think that you have to be careful what you buy mind you as markets have quite a reputation for being full of tat, but the plants are great. I would have loved to have been there the day before as apparently Wednesday is flea market day. I’ve never been to a flea market but I’d love to see what one is like. Markets like that just don’t happen in Scotland and it’s one thing which would improve the place, I think.

Chesterfield Market

I was quite impressed with Chesterfield as it still has a feeling of a town which is thriving and you can’t say that for many places at the moment. I didn’t see any empty shops although I’m sure there must be some around the place but it isn’t like the towns around my area which are looking so down-at-heel at the moment with shops closing down all the time.

I’m not sure how old these buildings are because they were still building Tudor style places in the 1930s but to me they’re just so English and quaint looking. The Street is named Knifesmith Lane.

Knifesmith Lane

I would visit Chesterfield again sometime, if only to experience a flea market!

Some progress with de-cluttering

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For some unknown reason ‘Pining’ has been having a wee bit of a nervous breakdown over the last couple of days and a couple of recent posts completely disappeared but they’ve turned up again and things seem to be back to normal. I hate technology!

Anyway, the schools have been back here for three weeks now and as my husband is a teacher I’m home alone during the day so I’ve been trying to get all those things done around the house which I’ve been putting off for ages.

The de-cluttering is continuing and at last I can actually see some difference in the place as I heave things out for recycling, charity shops, the tip and that fantastic site Ebay. One woman’s dross is another one’s treasure and all that!

The best thing that happened this weekend though was that we were able to wave bye-bye to four big lumps of furniture which have been sent off for auction.

The worst thing was the shame of seeing ten years of dust which had accumulated behind them all. Honestly they were all too big and bulky to move!

So tomorrow I’m going to be busy painting the dining-room that oh so exciting colour of magnolia and generally freshening everything up. I keep telling myself that I’m neutralizing the place but that sounds horrible and somehow quite dangerous. Magnolia is just deeply boring but I’m following the advice that all estate agents give you which is probably just as well because people have been known to take a sharp intake of breath when they went into that room for the first time, when it was painted jade green. It was just too much for them. At the moment it’s a sort of pale blue colour which was supposed to be a sophisticated shade of grey, but you know what paint colour is like, never what you expect from the charts.

I think I can safely say that the magnolia will turn out to be magnolia. If you’re really lucky I might photograph the finished result!

The Blessing by Nancy Mitford

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The Blessing was first published in 1951 but it’s set in World War II and begins in London. Grace, the daughter of Sir Conrad, is engaged to Hughie who is off fighting in Egypt. When Hughie meets Charles-Edouard de Valhubert in Cairo he stupidly asks him to ‘look up’ Grace while he’s in London. Before she knows what has happened Charles-Edouard has proposed to Grace and they are married. A baby boy, Sigismond, is the result and Grace doesn’t see her husband for seven years as he’s off fighting abroad and isn’t demobbed until 1947.

When her husband does eventually turn up he whisks them off to France to meet his family. Everything is strange to Grace but she falls in love with France and she’s completely clueless about the society which she has been thrown into. When Charles-Edouard moves them to Paris he immediately resumes his affair with Albertine an old flame of his. There’s a lot of bed-hopping going on as you would expect in France. When Grace finds out, she’s not amused, who could blame her!

I didn’t enjoy this one all that much mainly because Grace is the only likeable character in it. Her husband is an arrogant, lazy, philandering scumbag, he’s everything that gives French people a bad name.

Their son Sigismond must be one of the most ghastly, manipulative children in fiction. I’m afraid the mummy in me couldn’t stand that and I longed to give him a good skelp on his bahookie, very un-p.c. of me I know but it wouldn’t half have sorted him out! What I would have done to Charles-Edouard is unprintable!

It’s a bit of a worry really as Nancy Mitford’s books tend to be very autobiographical and she did live with a Frenchman in France for a number of years. I suspect that Gaston Palewski led her a dance. According to a very elderly lady friend of mine who has had experience of living in a Scottish village which was ‘taken by storm’ by the Polish army, a French/Polish husband would be a disaster for a woman expecting fidelity. My theory is it gives them something to confess to their priests about! For me The Blessing was the least enjoyable book of the three which I’ve recently read.

What can I say – that Presbyterianism upbringing never leaves you!