Crocuses

photo taken at Gorgie City Farm, Edinburgh.

Disturbances in the Field

Last night we went to see Disturbances in the Field at the nearby St Brides Centre, which as well as having a lovely theatre is a well used community centre. The show was a dance drama with some poetic dialogue. The characters are lost in a place that looks like a wonderfully eclectic second hand shop though they think it's an art exhibition. They are looking for someone to explain things for them but the only person they find is a poet who plays four types of musical instruments (including three of the four types of recorder!) and who seems to be as lost as they are. Its a lovely meditation on searching for meaning in art and in life and it's on again tonight at the same place then will be in Glasgow on 7 and 8 March.

Disturbances in the Field
St Brides Centre, Edinburgh 7.30pm, 27 February
Old Sheriff Hall, Glasgow 7.30pm 7 & 8 March.
The Elements World Theatre Company

Polly Clark reading at the Scottish Poetry Library

Last night I was at the launch of Polly Clark's new collection Farewell My Lovely. She read for an hour in total, half an hour from this new collection and half an hour from her earlier collections Kiss and Take Me With You. She has a lovely reading voice and an engaging manner. Her poetry is wonderful, very vivid and with an enviable ability to look at the familiar from strange angles, the behaviour of a dog described as an operatic performance for example. She has been a zoo keeper and her poetry often deals with the natural world, as in Elvis the Performing Octopus:

Elvis changing from spilt milk to tumbling blue,
Pulsing with colour like a forest in sunlight.

Elvis does the full range, even the spinning top
that never quite worked out, as the striplight fizzes

and the flylamp cracks like a firework.
Elvis has the water applauding,

continue reading this poem.

Her topics are wide ranging though and also include snooker and roadworks. If you've never read her work, I'd definitely recommend buying one of her collections (you can buy them from her website) or going along to hear her read if you get a chance.

Spring Haiku

The Spring Haiku blog has started! You can read one of my haiku (as previously seen on this blog) here.

Curator of Throwaway Art

From a box in her bedroom,
Lynn takes a favourite plastic bag,
smoothes it flat,
enjoys its sheen and texture,
sniffs a plastic bottle,
admires its pleasing curves.

Many people collect great piles of plastic –
you’re sure to have
a hoard of carrier bags -

But only Lynn appreciates
throwaway plastic as art.




(recycled from years ago, poetically not up to much, but there's an interesting idea in there that I may try to incorporate into a better poem).

Alder catkins

Alder is one of my favourite trees, I love it at this time of year when the catkins and cones are out before the leaves come out. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you may be able to see some cones on this tree to the right of the photo (alder is quite unusual in having cones and catkins on the same tree). Thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend for the photo, which he took on Saturday at Arthurs Seat - you can see more photos of that walk in the post below.

Spring approaches

Yesterday we went for a lovely walk round Arthurs Seat. It was very windy but the sky was beautiful blue for most of the day. The gorse is already in bloom. Dunsappie Loch on the side of Arthur's Seat was more full of birds than usual, Crafty Green Boyfriend took this photo of a swan with a pair of tufted ducks (the female is the brown one). We walked home through The Meadows where the crocuses are already looking lovely. We also saw a flock of around 20 redwings flying around and running across the grass (but we didn't capture them in the photos!).

For those of you who asked, the snowdrops in the banner are from last year's February trip to Cammo Country park, the photo was taken by Crafty Green Boyfriend. There were some snowdrops in the snow when we visited Cammo last week.