wallpaper
I have been part of several generations to consider our latest wallpaper as the “height of fashion”. I have also lived long enough to find later generations to consider ‘our’ … Continue reading wallpaper
Category: Architecture
several screws are missing
[photographed opposite Balgreen, Edinburgh, Friday 14th June 2019]
the fairm-toun sang
A special person has given me the opportunity to hear a Borders fairm-toun sing. I am going to take my mum with me as the singing begins on the day … Continue reading the fairm-toun sang
Bloody Scotland
Scotland’s International Crime Writing Festival will take place in Stirling between the 20th and 22nd September 2019. Alexander McCall Smith is attending and will be interviewed by Alex Gray:
The forgotten village
Almost nothing of the village of Binn remains. It lives on in memory alone. This film is for Ella Rae. Ella’s voice opens this film. Ella would have loved Ashley … Continue reading The forgotten village
Girgenti followed Paestum
It might have been the other way around: Paestum may have followed Girgenti. Nabokov once said that he “did not believe in time”. What follows is Girgenti [in the form … Continue reading Girgenti followed Paestum
Girgenti
Girgenti followed Paestum in a blue sky summer that was not little. Beneath this sky two girls sang. It was a beautiful summer.
Thesis 1389
Thesis 1389, and that of Dr Iain Smith give an account of Girgenti following the death of Captain John Cheape:
the Captain died
Captain John Cheape died in 1850. Unmarried and with no children, he left Girgenti to six Scottish hospitals. Girgenti was then sold and re-sold. Summer was giving way to autumn.
after the Napoleonic wars
After serving as a Captain in the Napoleonic wars Captain John Cheape “retired” to the Girgenti of his imagination:
Introducing Girgenti
Girgenti house, near Stewarton, East Ayrshire, was named after a temple in Sicily. Girgenti House was described in the New Statistical Account as being “built in rather an uncommon style”. … Continue reading Introducing Girgenti