Nature Creativity And Well-Being In Hard Times
21st April The Boathouse Aberdour
Present: Jim McCarthy, Gordon Peters, Norman Bissell, Bill Eddie, Tessa Ransford, Nanon McManus, Steve Pardue, Elizabeth Rimmer, Fiona Byrne-Sutton, Angela Taylor, Bill Taylor (Scottish Centre for Geopoetics) and Mairi Heneghan, Graham Leicester and Andrew Lyon (International Futures Forum).
Jim McCarthy opened the meeting by thanking the IFF for their excellent hospitality.
Welcome to 2012
A Guid New Year to you! What better way to start 2012 than by reading the first issue of our new online journal Stravaig and enjoying a stravaig through the snow with Henry Thoreau?
http://www.geopoetics.org.uk/2012/01/stravaig-geopoetics-online-journal-issue1
Henry Thoreau was an important forerunner of geopoetics, a man who had a keen perception of the world around him and who wrote about it extensively in his books and journals. He was quite a walker too (unhappy if he didn’t manage four hours a day) and so it is highly appropriate that this first issue of Stravaig (a Scots word meaning to stroll or wander) should be inspired by his work and feature four essays, many poems and images which clearly demonstrate the creative benefits of getting out of the house and going outwards.
Stravaig: Geopoetics Online Journal Issue 1
Welcome to this first issue of Stravaig, the online journal of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics. Henry Thoreau was one of many forerunners of geopoetics, a man who had a keen perception of the world around him and who wrote about it extensively in his books and journals. He was quite a walker too (unhappy if he didn’t manage four hours a day) and so it is highly appropriate that this first issue of Stravaig (a Scots word meaning to stroll or wander) should be inspired by his work and feature essays, poems and images which clearly demonstrate the creative benefits of getting out of the house and going outwards.
Going Outward
Geopoetics and John Ruskin: a conversation
Norman Bissell (Director, Scottish Centre for Geopoetics) and Howard Hull (Director, Brantwood and the Ruskin Foundation) in conversation, discussing connections between John Ruskin’s thought and Geopoetics. Introduced by Bridie Ashrowan.
It was held at the ‘Going Outward’ Geopoetics Weekend at Brantwood (Former Home of John Ruskin), Coniston, Cumbria on 26 & 27 March 2011.
‘Going Outward’ was a two day event about making real connections with the world as the key to understanding and practising geopoetics. The outstanding setting of John Ruskin’s former house overlooking Coniston Water in the Lake District enabled us to explore his response to landscape and his relationship to geopoetics.
Kenneth White at the Ullapool Book Festival 10-11 May 2007
The name of Kenneth White is now generally associated with the opening up of a new field in Scottish thought. In this lecture he provided a re-reading of certain Scottish writers, while touching on themes such as localism and globalism, poetics and philosophy, identity and creativity. Chaired by Donny O’Rourke.
On Friday 11 May at 3 pm in Ullapool Village Hall Kenneth White, who has been described as “Scotland’s most original and challenging writer, academic and poet”, gave a poetry reading. Chaired by Kevin MacNeil.
Tickets were £5 for each event and were available from Avril Moyes at the Ceilidh Place Bookshop, Ullapool tel. 01854 612245 or online at books@theceilidhplace.com. Full details of the Festival’s attractive programme can be found at www.ullapoolbookfestival.co.uk.
The text of Kenneth White’s stimulating lecture at the 2006 Edinburgh International Book Festival “Along the High Lines- Figuring out the way towards a world culture’ can be viewed on the Hi-Arts Website.
Catherine Murray reads from “Walk and Talk” by Tony McManus
An audio interview with Catherine, where she discusses the significance of Tony’s work and reads from “Walk and Talk”, can be downloaded from the Textualities website using the link below.
Looking Back on the Natural Life on Luing Weekend 2007
GOING WITH THE FLOW
What do you do when there’s a power cut at the start of your Powerpoint presentation to a large audience in Cullipool Hall on the first morning of the Natural Life on Luing Geopoetics Weekend? If you’re Bill Eddie (not Oddie), ornithologist, botanist and leading member of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics, you go with the flow (or lack of it) and take your audience outside to look for birds around the village and in Cullipool Bay.
Apart from a greenfinch sitting on the telephone wire outside the Hall there weren’t many birds around that morning but, thanks to the arrival in the Bay of the fishing boat My Tara, Bill was able to point out the differences between black-backed, herring and common gulls and then resume his wide-ranging illustrated talk.
Next morning Rosy Barlow and Zoë Fleming had to be equally flexible at the end of their joint presentation on the flora and fauna of Luing when the heavens opened and hailstones drummed on the Hall’s velux windows just as they were about to take us on a guided walk. They decided to go with the weather and instead took more questions from a discerning audience who marvelled at their beautiful photographs of celandines, tormentils and many other species, and their knowledgeable explanations of how different habitats and land uses produced variations in the island’s flora and fauna.
The showers having cleared, a crowd of us were soon up on the hillside behind the village peering into gullies and kneeling down to examine the rich variety of wildflowers, grasses and mosses which often go unnoticed beneath our feet as we admire the wonderful views or look up at buzzards or crows cruising in ever-changing skies.
In between these talks and walks the 20 visitors, who had come from as far afield as Newport-on-Tay and Newcastle (on Tyne and under Lyme), joined with members of the Luing History Group and those who had kindly provided accommodation to enjoy a marvellous 3 course buffet provided by the Luing Social Committee. As well as sampling the delights of Luing cuisine, this was a great opportunity for visitors and islanders to get to know each other and to create a basis for future networking.
The buffet was followed by a Grand Ceilidh with dancing to the Seil Ceilidh Band interspersed with moving words and music, including traditional Japanese songs, from Fumiko Miller, former Mod gold medallist Hughie McQueen, some Glasgow and Luing poems from my forthcoming collection Slate, Sea and Sky, two great songs about Belnahua and the Isle of Luing from Fiona Cruikshanks and others by Eleanor Carlingford-Reeves. When the band had to leave to catch the last ferry, The Cast, a professional duo who took part in the Weekend, kept the dancing and singing going in splendid fashion with their own songs and traditional tunes.
A request for an additional discussion about geopoetics led to a very lively session involving both islanders and visitors on the Sunday evening before Alastair Fleming’s talk about the future of Luing. Alastair gave a very enlightening personal view of the challenges and opportunities facing the island and outlined the work of the Community Trust in seeking to provide a heritage centre and interpretation panels on Luing.
This second geopoetics weekend on the island was again highly successful thanks to the warm welcome and generous support it received from the people of Luing.
Norman Bissell
Scottish Centre for Geopoetics Natural Life on Luing Weekend Programme
Friday 4 – Monday 7 May 2007
FREE EVENTS in CULLIPOOL HALL:
• Friday 4 May at 8.30pm An INFORMAL SOCIAL GATHERING for visitors and islanders to meet each other and discuss the weekend ahead. Please bring your own refreshments and nibbles.
• Saturday 5 May at 10.30am BIRD LIFE ON LUING: an illustrated talk and guided walk by Bill Eddie, ornithologist and botanist.
• Saturday 5 May at 8.00pm GRAND CEILIDH with the Seil Ceilidh Band, Fiona Cruikshanks, Fumiko Miller, poets and ‘Come all ye’ performers. Please bring your own refreshments.
• Sunday 6 May at 11am THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF LUING: an illustrated talk and guided walk by Rosy Barlow and Zoë Fleming, Luing History Group, on the results of the recent survey.
• Sunday 6 May at 7.30pm THE FUTURE OF LUING: an illustrated talk by Alastair Fleming, Chairman, Luing Community Trust, about the work being done to create panels and a heritage centre.
• Monday 7 May at 2pm A GATHERING to share and discuss artwork, poems, prose etc. to include in a pamphlet about Natural Life on Luing. Please bring along your work and ideas.
All of these events are open to all islanders and visitors and will be FREE thanks to funding from Scottish Natural Heritage.