I was contacted this week by someone researching a book about the Covenanters who had come across a reference to a landowner whose mansion sat in a plain near Inverkip and was cursed by the minister Alexander Peden with the prophecy that one day a road would be built through the place and it would be a ruin. Being a total sucker for both local history and the Covenanters I was more than happy to try and locate and take a photo of the spot, if it still existed. My research suggests it was around Chrisswell Farm which is a very old farmstead in Spango Valley and if any building was divided by the road through Spango it will be long gone as said road has become a dual carriageway and been redeveloped around the IBM factory hard by it. I may update with more details on what I have found about this aspect of locality later on. I am totally fascinated by the fact that this area has thousands of years of history and characters and events running through it and is still largely rural and unchanged.
I have been pretty busy with work the last few weeks, trying to keep pace with various projects and meetings. Part of this flurry is the deadline of the Saol na nGael (Life of the Gael) photo competition which I was hired to administer by Irish-Scottish Gaelic organisation Colmcille again this year. We had almost 1000 photos entered into the competition on the public competition pool at
http://www.flickr.com/groups/saolnangael/, double last year's entries so I think it was a success. People entered from all over the world submitting their snapshots of life in the Irish or Scottish Gaeldom and I flew up to Stornoway for a meeting today with Colmcille project officer Mairi Murray and the invited judges of this year's competition:
Michael Russell MSP,
Scottish Government Minister for Culture, and Sean O Donaile, presenter of Irish language channel
TG4’s photography programme i bhFócas.
As a result I've had some lovely family time too. Me and Mum & Peigi watched Marley & Me last night which was good (although Peigi says the book is better). While I was at Stornoway airport all afternoon for my meeting (they have a business room for hire in the airport - who knew?) they were all taking the peats home finally and I came home to find Mum looking like she'd been sobbing her eyes out all afternoon but it was some peat dust that had got into her eye and irritated it so badly that it had began to swell and we insisted on taking her in to the hospital to get it checked out. So I found myself on Saturday evening sitting in an empty (thankfully! No queue!) waiting room in the Western Isles Hospital. Mum was duly examined in a manner that would make your eyes water just hearing about it and sent home with antibiotic cream to apply every 4 hours and orders to take painkillers and come back if it hadn't improved tomorrow. So mum was supine in the living room while Peigi took control on the kitchen and I helped her with breaded garlic chicken and a honey fruit crumble for dinner which I think mum enjoyed all the more for having it made for her. I was delighted to discover that it was the
Last Night of the Proms on the BBC tonight too so we got to see the usual raucous renditions of Rule Britannia, Jerusalem & Pomp & Circumstance etc. - some to beautifully different arrangements this year I noticed. *sigh* I must get to a 'Last Night' in person before I die. Love it.
I'll be back down to Greenock on Monday so am enjoying the home time while it lasts…roast pork tomorrow for Sunday lunch :o]
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