March 08th, 2021

I hadn’t quite realised that it’s nearly 2 years since I last blogged… I forgot to post last year and, since Covid-time represents a kind of suspended animation, I guess it doesn’t matter...

McCulloch, Geological Map of Scotland (1840) , National Library of Scotland

WINDOW TO THE WEST
 
My big news is that Meg Bateman and I have finally published Window to the West online with Clò Ostaig – the publishing division of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. It's 960 pages so takes a minute or two to download, but it’s free, and if you click on anything blue it takes you there, so it’s easy to navigate. There is and will be no paper edition. Here is the link.
 
Meg and I worked together on this for well over ten years and we never fell out. We have swum against the academic tide by being broad and ambitious. I’m immensely grateful to Meg for her knowledge, wisdom and readiness to embrace a truly holistic multi-disciplinary approach, but that is how the Gaelic world operates, so we make no excuses for reflecting it. We hope you enjoy exploring it. There’s a lot in there.

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Oakbank Crannog, Loch Tay - Photo courtesy of Oakbank Crannog Centre

​OAKBANK CRANNOG
 
Back in October 2019  - when we could still do such things as gathering together – I organised a ‘launch’ of a new section of the exhibition at Oakbank Crannog. Crannogs are loch dwellings of a type unique to Scotland and Ireland, and this reconstruction is brilliant. Discovered during the excavations some years ago was an enigmatic object which I and Graeme Lawson have identified as probably intended for a bridge for a plucked stringed instrument. Graeme has made marvellous reconstructions showing how such a bridge might have been used, and he and Maeve MacKinnon performed by firelight in the crannog itself with a selection of songs which might have some genuine connection with what would have been heard back in 500 BC.
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Rona, our neighbour's calf, Kat, and Cora - Photo copyright Bar Purser

​FORTHCOMING CD
 
I’ve been preparing for a final CD of my own music. The Brodsky quartet managed to come together during lockdown and record my string quartet (the only one I let out to play) back in December. There’s also two vocal pieces, a trombone sonata and a romantic piece for cello and piano - and a piece for bassoon and traditional Maori musical instruments. Quite a mix! It should be out by the autumn.
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​Croftwork continues as usual. Our two  calves, Cora and Rona, have been named in honour of the times. My neighbour and I have been down in the woods again gathering fallen timber. He does all the work and I sit in the ATV and attempt to behave magisterially, but as I have now reached the age of 79 I am cashing in on being old, vulnerable and in need of indulgence...  I have even had my first Covid jag. Somebody wants me alive!
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