Petworth Park by Turner – at The National Galleries for Scotland

Posted on 22 January 2025 by Katrina

We went to the Turner exhibition in Edinburgh this week, it was the second attempt as he tried to see it last Friday but the queue was long and it was going to be an hour before we even got into the gallery. We had to give up as we didn’t want to get a parking ticket.

In some ways things were even worse when we went back on Tuesday as the end of the queue was outside the Royal Scottish Academy and it was cold. We were out there an hour before we got into the building. Then another hour inside the building before we got in to see the Turner paintings, the ones that are usually in Dublin.

This view of a sunset at Petworth Park is one of my favourites.

I’ve also added Petworth House to our list of places to visit – eventually. I’ll blog about more of the exhibition soon, it comes to an end at the end of January.

My Friends the Macleans by Jane Duncan

Posted on 21 January 2025 by Katrina

My Friends the MacLeans by Jane Duncan was first published in 1967 and it’s part of a long series of the author’s ‘My Friends’ books. The books are all very autobiographical I believe.

The setting is the Caribbean island of St Jago where Janet Alexander and her husband Alexander Alexander or ‘Twice’ ás he is known have gone for a visit, but they end up staying there for a number of years when Twice is offered a good job there.

Their lives are more or less taken over by the social round on the island and as it’s all still very colonial in atmosphere Janet realises that there are sinister undercurrents. She’s longing to go home to Scotland.

I have to say that I really didn’t enjoy this one as much as the others I’ve read in this series, it didn’t have much in the way of humour. The author and her husband did live on a Caribbean island for some years, but it seems that she wasn’t very happy there.

Dimsie Goes Back by Dorita Fairlie Bruce

Posted on 20 January 2025 by Katrina

Dimsie Goes Back by Dorita Fairlie Bruce was published in 1927, my Oxford University Press copy seems to be a first edition.

In this one Dimsie has been asked to come back to the Jane Willard Foundation for one term to help out the headmistress Miss Yorke, who is looking a bit ‘seedy’ as far as the girls are concerned. Dimsie will be working as school secretary.

Dimsie is now engaged to be married, the older girls who know her are glad that she’ll be coming back, she had been Head Girl in the past and with a lot of common sense she could be just what is needed as things haven’t been going very well in the school recently.

The behaviour of senior girls has deteriorated badly, with the prefects and even the Head Girl happy to ignore the rules. Even worse than that is the influence of Coral Danesbury who comes from a very wealthy family and thinks that she should get special treatment from the staff, even offering to get her mother to pay the headmistress extra if she can have a room to herself for a study. Already her shared study is stuffed full with silk cushions and ornaments – all against the rules. But a majority of the girls look up to her and want to emulate her style. Face powder and anti-freckle lotion have become popular despite being against the rules.

Dimsie helps some of the girls set up a revived Anti-Soppist League.

This was a good read, there’s quite a lot of humour with a new girl Lintie Gordon being allowed to bring her puppy with her. Lintie is only nine years old and it’s thought she won’t be so homesick with her dog Jeems being at the school. He’s an absolute scamp and is always in trouble, but never for long as he’s just too sweet to be angry with. Through Dorita Fairlie-Bruce we’re told what is going through his mind, which is always amusing, she was obviously a dog lover as they often feature in her stories.

St Martin’s Church, Bowness on Windermere – ex slave’s gravestone

Posted on 20 January 2025 by Katrina

Back in September we had a few days away in the Lake District, and visited St Martin’s Church in Bowness on Windermere. While Jack was looking for Commonwealth war graves I had a walk around the outside of the church and when I got to the back of the church I found this lonely gravestone.

If you click on it you’ll be able to read it, anyway the inscription says:

In memory of Rasselas Belfield,

A native of Abyssinia,

who departed this life on the 16th Day of January 1822.

Aged 32 years.

A slave by birth I left my native land

And found my freedom on Britania’s Strand

Blest Isle! Thou glory of the Wise and Free!

Thy Touch alone unbinds the Chains of Slavery!

I suppose that there were people in the congregation who objected to a black man being buried in the church graveyard, and a compromise was sought resulting in poor Rasselas being buried on his own at the back of the church in a very gloomy dark spot, on his own.

I doubt if many people ever find his grave. My first reaction was surprise that he had been allowed to be laid to rest in the churchyard – swiftly followed by outrage at them sticking him out of sight of any others, for fear of the burial ground being contaminated presumably. Apparently there is also the gravestone of a slave trader in the same graveyard but no doubt he has a better location.

It seems that Rasselas was bought by an army officer who hailed from Bowness, and he became part of his household.

St Martin’s has unusual decoration on the walls, it seemed a bit Eastern in design, but beautiful.

Below is a photo of the side chapel.

Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid

Posted on 16 January 2025 by Katrina

Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid was published in 2024 and I borrowed a copy of it from the library. In this book McDermid puts forward her version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but written from Gruoch’s (Lady Macbeth’s) perspective.

Shakespeare fed us the myth of the Macbeths as murderous conspirators. But now Val McDermid drags the truth out of the shadows, exposing the patriarchal prejudices of history.

Gruoch is married to Gille Coemgain a chief in what is now the Inverness area of Scotland, he’s the Earl of Moray and is a bit of a brute. Gruoch is in danger because she hasn’t become pregnant and Gille is getting impatient, obviously Gille Coemgain wants a son. Her days are numbered, and she knows it.

When the very handsome Macbeth arrives to visit his cousin Gille, Gruoch is instantly attracted to him, but apart from that he could be the answer to her problem. In this version the ‘three witches’ are Gruoch’s companions, a seer, a healer and a weaver.

This is a very slim volume at just 134 pages, very different from Val McDermid’s usual style and subject, but still a good read, I really enjoyed it.

This book is part of a series called Darkland Tales published by Polygon. Others in the series are:

Rizzio by Denise Mina

Hex by Jenni Fagan

Nothing Left to Fear from Hell by Alan Warner

Columba’s Bones by David Greig

The Long Room, the Library of Trinity College, Dublin – a jigsaw puzzle

Posted on 15 January 2025 by Katrina

We got this jigsaw puzzle as a Christmas present, and the minute I looked at it I knew it would drive us nuts. This was possibly the most difficult puzzle that we have ever done and at one point quite early on – I nearly gave up on it. It looks like a beautiful room though and after we got about a third of the way through it it started to seem possible.

We have quiet a queue of puzzles to do so I’m going to have a few days off and then begin one that we got last year, The Salt Path – an Angela Harding design and of course it’s the cover of the book of the same name.

Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope

Posted on 12 January 2025 by Katrina

Castle Richmond Book Cover

Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope was published in 1860, the setting is mainly County Cork, Ireland, at the time of the potato famine of 1846 – 47.

Castle Richmond is owned by Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, he’s wealthy with adult children, a son Herbert and two daughters. His wife, Lady Fitzgerald, had been married previously, but her husband had died in France apparently and Sir Thomas had set his lawyers to find evidence of his death before marrying. The eldest son is expected to inherit the estate and all that goes with it, and as was usual with wealthy Irish landowners Herbert hadn’t been trained in any profession for that reason. He has fallen in love with a local lass, Lady Clara, the young daughter of an impoverished but ‘aristocratic’ widow and they plan to marry. Unfortunately Lady Clara had been very briefly attached to Herbert’s cousin Owen Fitzgerald not long before. Her mother had put a stop to that as Owen didn’t have enough money for her liking, but more importantly she rather fancies the young man for herself despite him being years younger than her, young enough to be her son really. It’s a tricky situation especially as Owen is determined not to give up Clara.

When Sir Thomas begins to be visited by some English ne’er do wells – a father and son – Sir Thomas’s health takes a turn for the worse, something is obviously worrying him but he is keeping it to himself. Eventually he has to admit the reason for the visitors arriving, the worst has happened and it seems that Lady Fitzgerald’s first husband is still alive, which means that the children are all illegitimate and of course Herbert will not inherit anything at all, they will be penniless and homeless on the death of Sir Thomas – and cousin Owen will inherit the estate.

I did enjoy this book although some parts of the plot are predictable – see above, apparently it wasn’t one of Trollope’s more popular books. Parts of it are about the potato famine, I imagine that may not have been popular with readers but it is I’m sure a very authentic portrayal of those times, and it’s desperately sad. There’s also quite a bit of Protestant/Catholic antagonism with Trollope being more sympathetic to the Catholics, which won’t have gone down well with many readers.

There are some light moments though, when Herbert’s aunt is trying to persuade him to become a church minister, with an eye to him being a bishop:

Aunt Letty was strong for the Church. A young man who had distinguished himself at the University so signally as her nephew had done, taking his degree at the very first attempt, and that in so high a class of honour as the fourth, would not fail to succeed in the Church.

Who knew that there was such a thing as a fourth class degree?!

This is the first Trollope with an Irish setting that I’ve read. Related titles with a similar setting are

An Eye for an Eye

The Kellys and the O’Kellys

The Landleaguers

The Macdermots Of Ballycloran

I might get around to those ones – sometime.

It seems that I read An Eye for an Eye back in 2015 and I blogged about it then. That’s the advantage of blogging as I just had a vague memory that I might have read it, well it was about ten years ago.

Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland

Posted on 9 January 2025 by Katrina

Seaton Delaval Hall is a National Trust property in Northumberland which we visited back in October when we went on a north of England road trip. Parts of the house are really just a shell as there was a fire there in 1822, there was some reconstruction work done but there is no furniture in that part.

The rest of the house is grand though, I liked the staircases, there are two like this one. below. I took this from the bottom looking up.

We walked along this colonnade to get to the habitable part of the house.

Some unusual wall decorations in the shape of mirrors and eyes which reminded me of Elizabeth I’s dress which was embroidered with eyes – and ears too.

There’s a portrait of Henry VIII and …

Catherine Parr is close by.

I think that the National Trust uses the property as a sort of repository for many of their treasures. There are some cabinets like the one below, displaying early porcelain.

The Chalet School at War by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer

Posted on 7 January 2025 by Katrina

The Chalet School at War by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer was first published in 1941 as The Chalet School Goes To It.

The Chalet School at War Book Cover

This one begins with The Chalet School on the move again. They had fled the Austrian Tyrol after getting into ttrouble with the local Nazis. Guernsey in the Channel Islands seemed like a good place to set up their new school!! Of course that wasn’t for long and with the Germans looking like breathing down their necks again they move on to mainland Britain.

Plas Howell on the Welsh/English border has been offered to them for use as a school. It’s a large and very grand house, beautifully decorated, much too good to be used as a school but otherwise ideal. After a dangerous journey across the English Channel the girls reach Plas Howell.

Gwensi Howell isn’t happy at all, she’s 13 years old and has lived at Plas Howell for the last nine years along with her older step-brother and his godfather. But Ernest her brother has had to join his ship and his godfather has gone. Gwensi had been educated by a governess, but she is to be part of the Chalet School now, she’s not used to other girls at all and doesn’t want to share her home with a lot of strangers.

Surprisingly Gwensi settles in fairly quickly, and she turns out to be a bit of a fan of boarding school books, and a few of them are name checked in the book, presumably Brent-Dyer was kindly mentioning some of her author friends.

With wartime food shortages looming the girls become keen gardeners and learn a lot, but as often happens in schools it’s the fourth year girls who cause a lot of trouble and angst.

I was particularly pleased that Jo appears in this book – along with her baby triplets. I’m not sure how far I’ll go with this series. It’s interesting that the books were written at the actual time of the war, but I might not go any further than the 1960s with the books. They are still being written by writers/fans who are continuing with the series.

The Dundee Tapestry Exhibition, V&A Dundee

Posted on 5 January 2025 by Katrina

While we were at the V&A in Dundee to see the Kimono Exhibition we also had a look around the ‘Dundee Tapestry’ exhibition which is free. All of the ‘ tapestries’ which are actually embroideries tell the history of Dundee over the years. In years gone by Dundee was called the Jam, Jute and Journalism city and the embroidered panel below depicts a lot of the characters from the Beano and Dandy comics, read by children of all ages for decades and published by DC Thomson. Oor Wullie is at the top of the panel which also features Denis the Menace (the original) with his dog Gnasher of course, Beryl the Peril and Granpaw from The Broons. There were some young Japanese women looking around this exhibit while we were there and one of the attendants was giving them a bit of a ‘spiel’ about it, but annoyingly she said Oor Willie, which drives me nuts as it’s definitely Oor Wullie, for some reason they anglicise it – to seem posh I suppose.

The Royal Research Ship Discovery which carried Scott and Shackleton on their First Antarctic expedition is berthed right next to the V&A. She was built in Dundee and it was only fitting that she should return there when she became a museum. It’s well worth a look around it. Otherwise the panel below is about the many other scientific discoveries from Dundee.

But it’s not all about the past, an Eden Project is planned for Dundee in the future and the panel below focuses on the nine environmental guilds which it’s hoped will help Dundee’s future to flourish.

This is just a few of the panels, there’s been a lot going on in Dundee over the years, particularly in the computer games industry, so it’s quite a large exhibition with 35 panels which I think is permanent, but it might not be. Some of my photos didn’t come out at all for some reason, but you can read more about the exhibition here.

Pining for the West

Meanderings about recipes, books, craft and more