Me and my Mobile.

Much beloved family members gave me a new fancy mobile phone. I think they call it a Smart phone. Too right! This new gadget can, apparently do everything but pare corns, but I already know how to do that. Learnt it as demonstrated by my father, his foot in one hand,  razor blade in the other. The manny was swack!
 This learning curve's different as my new wizardy gadget confirms.
 The mobile I had before, was apparently, a simple affair. I was able eventually to make a telephone call on it, and even on a day when there was a sudden unexpected rush of blood to the brain, managed to send a text or two.
That seems a stretch too far for this machine. Sometimes I do make the contact but most times, only  my worried  face appears on it. Now I'm wondering, if I've gone global, and scaring little children with a  frightening mug shot.
Anyone out there with loose change for a call box?
Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

24th April 2017. A message from winter.

The snow today should not have come as a surprise- there's been plenty weather forecasters warning us that it was coming. This poem came on the tail of a wintry blast.

VOICE OF WINTER.

I regret  I've not yet done

and must leave a clean slate.

From a blizzard of snow and hail

I'll scour shoulders of granite

scrub boulders of gneiss

scrape stonecrop off stones

soak moss from its hosts.

Lustre to lochs needs frost

but to tidy leaves I'd want help.

The North wind will do that,

chill-blow them to heaps,

let sleet shift snow from peaks.

I've feather dusted daffodils

trying to trumpet Spring's here

and will write white on bold petal gold

Winter's not done yet, I regret.

B.B.C GROWING UP IN SCOTLAND.

There's to be a documentary on B.B.C.2 Scotland . The series starts on Thursday (23Feb.) 9p.m since you ask. In the absence of that delicious but now sadly finished series, THE MART, it's great that we're to have something else with a Scottish flavour. I'm devoted to ALBA but I've always to be close up to the telly to read the sub titles and can end up cross-eyed
Following the first programme on education, Laura Mitchell is responsible for the second which has home as its subject. She and camera man David Williamson met me at my old childhood farm where a wintry blast kept us and several spectating 'coos', company.
How strange and how clear the memories! Check them out if you like.( 2nd March). I'm unsure what if anything will be used, but I'd certainly recommend Laura's interviewing technique, easy charm and David's photographic skills and mischief.

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www.janeyeadon.co.uk

Reeling in Stuttgart.

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 We're back from visiting Stuttgart after a time made memorable by our generous hosts of Stuttgarter Spielkreis e.V. It's a talented group of musicians, singers and dancers who specialise in keeping musical and dancing traditions alive. They'd made such a full programme of activities and sight-seeing, I'd trouble remembering the reason for our visit but waiting for a train to take us to the main event was a prompt.
An audience of surprised passengers watched as we practised on the platform. The players' fiddles  had been left with our hosts, so in the absence of his, husband David sang several verses from that well known Scottish ballad, 'Deet deet deedle deedle deet deet deet.'
 Suitably accompanied, we managed the Circassian Circle without going into orbit whilst the Virginia Reel took reluctant dancer but expert fiddler William James to such a level of levitation, surely, we reasoned, we could also inspire our new friends.
  The January festival to which we'd been invited, was held in the old Kelterbeg 5 wine press. The plain wooden-beamed place came alive as the dancers took to the floor, hands clapping, coloured skirts swirling and polished shoes twinkling. 

 The beautifully measured folk dance shown above, is unlike, our Orcadian Strip The Willow, unlikely to land the dancers anywhere, but on their feet. Their verve and style was matchless but dancing partner, Charlie and I with the help of German Ingrid, managed to demonstrate the Dashing White Sergeant without too much collateral damage.
As back up, Ena,  the Fine Blend Music group leader of the Scottish fiddle contribution and accompaniment to our dances, talked everybody through the steps and by the time Sunday came with a follow up visit to an Old People's Home, that listening and clever  German group had added the St Bernard's Waltz, Canadian Barn Dance and Virginian Reel to their repertoire,
Hopefully the group will visit us in Scotland and show us how to do some of their dances, tho' the fact that they know a huge number could be a little daunting to those with the concentration of a blancmange.

Dancing in Stuttgart

Husband David is a member of the Elgin Strathspey and Reel Society. Often a group of musicians come to our house to practise for an event where some of the members have volunteered to play. It's always lovely to have our house filled with the sound of their music, particularly with the toe tapping rhythms which accompany the reels.
I love dancing, so,imagine my surprise and delight when asked to accompany the group on a visit to Stuttgart.
'You and Charlie can demonstrate some of the dances,' explained Ena, the group conductor and leader. She handed me a list.  'Look! They're easy- you'll manage fine.'
One of the dances is the Circassian Circle and there's several versions on You -tube showing how to do it.
Now, Charlie's a gifted musician. He composes, plays the fiddle, guitar and sings as well, but between  us, I bet that age wise, we could easily tot up more than just a century.
 Let's hope Charlie goes for the douce and stately version rather than the Cossack one. I fear its high kicks might be beyond our reach.
Still, and if we go for the dramatics, and don't land in an orthopaedic ward, I'll let you know.




Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

WITCH WATCH.

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Visit my website at:
www.janeyeadon.co.uk

The other day I visited my old home on the edge of the Dava Moor that wild space between Forres and Grantown on Spey.

Some things have changed but not those larch trees which for me still hold a certain spell.

 WITCH WATCH.

            Drawn to a sickbed window

witches held sway

      on the green larches of

          a childhood remembered.

           From a storm-tossed pillow

          the watcher heard the crack

         and knock of cone-knuckles

against the glass,

         glimpsed gnarled creatures

 in pointed hats

mounted on steeds

       that moved and bowed,

    tethered to their host

as the child

 held in fever chains.

                               

Many thanks to my pals in the Forres Forwords writing group who are not without a magical way with words of encouragement and advice..

Artists at Glenfiddich. August 2016

                        


                         ARTISTS AT GLENFIDDICH AUGUST 2016.

 Scenes around The Dorback.       
 

               One way or another, inspiration's been slow lately. A wee dander round my favourite local spots often helps, but it's taken the second exhibition of The Artists At Glenfiddich Distillery to prompt a return to this neglected blog site.

Along with some members of the Forres ForWORDS writing group, I took the Dallas road to  Dufftown. At any time, it's scenic, but an approaching autumn made it particularly colourful with the surrounding heatherclad hills turned purple and bracken to gold.

That night, the sky had lent an indigo back wash against which windmills sculled their white paddles whilst, a rainbow maker had dropped a pastel arc over Dufftown's Glenfiddich Distillery.
It was as welcoming as co-ordinator, Andy Fairgrieve,  responsible for serving generous cocktails in an art gallery transformed by the resident artists' work.
Exhibitions, such as these, appeal on several levels and in different way and how fascinating to share the artists' vision through their undoubted skills.
Life at Glenfiddich was captured in a number of delicate pencil and ink works and brought to the walls by Korean Min Joon Park.
'Did ye notice there's thirty of these?' asked Patricia O'Shea who would later pen and read a haiku on the Angel's Share at a small poetry-reading slot. (Not, owing to Andy's hospitality that there was much alcohol allowed to evaporate on this particular occasion.)
'After our last visit and seeing  Australian Joan Ross's Right to Roam,'  Tez Watson explained to the attendees, ' I wrote a poem on the same theme.'
Since Joan's subsequent work, is a mischievous mix using an eclectic mixture of materials, figures and wall hangings, it'll be interesting to see if Tez will be similarly inspired.
Andy Allan, a Dufftown loon followed, taking a poem about his sister going to America from his recently published book, Breath of Dragons.
Meanwhile Margaret Bain had done a test run in one of Emily Bink's sculptural installations. Some of her work's been inspired by mountain bothies and rudimentary shelters.  The  one outside, built of old sofas,crates and polythene, worked!  Despite the rain, it allowed Margaret to return dry and bring her North-east honeyed voice to a poem she'd written about whisky.
Newfoundlander, Eleanor King was thoughtful. Her written presentation, 'Be-stilled in the FUTURE PAST at Balvenie Cottage accompanying a scene recreated from an 1899 Dufftown  showed how different all forms of art can be.

'You had to be there,' is a truism, and it's hard to capture in words what's on visual offer. Still, anyone can go and see that exhibition for themselves. It's open each day from 12.30- 5.30 apart from Mondays and Tuesdays and admission is free. Go on!  Why don't you? You couldn't help but be inspired, but keep an eye out for scarecrows!

                                                                         

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www.janeyeadon.co.uk