Issue 19

Heather Gough explains how the McLellan Festival started, and gives details of this year’s programme.

Since 1989 the Arran Theatre and Arts Trust has been working to bring diverse and quality arts events to the Isle of Arran. In 2004 the McLellan Arts Festival, an offshoot of The Arran Theatre and Arts Trust, was established as a means of honouring the memory of Robert McLellan. It aimed to raise awareness of him as the most important Scottish dramatist and short story writer to work in living Scots in the twentieth century, and in 200 it celebrated his centenary.
 
This year’s festival season kicked off earlier in the summer with Nutshell Theatre Company’s award-winning play, Allotment, performed outdoors on a rain-free (yes, really!) afternoon in June. This touching drama played to a capacity audience, every member of which was moved by the tender tale of two sisters and their vegetable plot.

We now have the very first Arran Open Studios to look forward to. Over the weekend of 10th – 13th August, before the main week of the festival starts, twenty-five of Arran’s artists and craft workers are opening their doors to visitors, offering a unique opportunity for the general public to see how and where their art work is created. Look out for the handy pocket-sized brochures available across the island, giving details of the artists and other useful information or visit our website www.arranopenstudios.co.uk Thanks to LEADER and North Ayrshire Council for their financial support with this event.

Back with the performing arts, the festival kicks off with a production of two of Robert McLellan’s fine works – Jeddart Justic, a comedy,and the lyrical Sweet Largie Bay. Performed by local actors, these pieces will be performed on Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th August.

Two days later, on Friday 31st August, Arran and Beyond at Brodick Hall is a date not to be missed by poetry lovers. In a real coup for the island we have an evening with one of the UK’s leading poets, Jackie Kay, who will be reading from her work and judging the McLellan Arts Festival Poetry Competition. The evening’s music will be provided by the mellifluous sounds of local singing group, Ain’t Misbehavin’. Jackie Kay will also be performing at our Saturday night ceilidh, which offers a great mix of music, words, dancing and good food, as well as an open mike for local poets.

We also have our third Music School with students from the highly esteemed Royal Northern College of Music. They will perform for us in a Gala Concert on Friday 7th September at the Community Theatre. Previous concerts have played to packed houses, so book early to avoid disappointment!

The singing community on Arran is invited to take part in a performance of Haydn’s Creation, which will be rehearsed through the week and performed on Sunday 9th September in Lamlash Church.

Other highlights of this year’s fabulous festival include screenings of Arran On Film, Ed O’Donnelly’s fascinating compilation of film footage of life on Arran from the 1920s - 1970s, with new material added.

Reaching beyond this year’s festival, the Arran Theatre and Arts Trust has been working with Edinburgh publishers, Luath Press, to create an anthology of Robert McLellan’s work. This pioneer of writing in the Scots language lived and worked in High Corrie for over 40 years, but there has never previously been a collection of all his works, plays, stories and poems. We are delighted to announce the imminent publication of Collected Works of Robert McLellan  as a lasting tribute to Arran’s most accomplished writer.  

The Arran Archaeology Project is now in its second year. Children from Lamlash and Kilmory Primary schools have been unearthing the history of people from Neolithic and Viking times on Arran. Meanwhile the replica roundhouse is now under construction in Brodick Country Park. Arran Archaeology is a joint venture between Arran Theatre and Arts Trust, Arran Arts Resource and the National Trust for Scotland’s Countryside Rangers at Brodick Castle. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Trust for Scotland and Argyll and the Islands LEADER programme, the project runs until December 2012.

The McLellan Festival has been made possible by the financial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Scottish Community Foundation, North Ayrshire Council, Auchrannie and the Arran Theatre And Arts Trust.

For more information about individual events, booking, dates and times please visit our website www.mclellanartsfestival.co.uk or look out for posters and flyers.

On Friday 3rd August a fabulous jazz concert is being held in the Community Theatre, Arran High School, in aid of Alzheimer Scotland (which recently won Charity of the Year 2012.) Taking part will be Edinburgh Fringe sell-out performers, Joni Keen and the Stevenson Trio, who have been invited to perform live on Radio Scotland. Also on the programme will be harpists, Dagda’s Daughters and Arran’s own vocal group, Aint Misbehavin’.
Sadly, we probably all know at least one person who is suffering from dementia or caring for someone who suffers. Indeed, in Scotland around 80,000 people have a form of dementia and 7,000 more cases are diagnosed every year. It is more common in older people but it can affect people  in their 40s and 50s. Approximately 2,500 people in Scotland with dementia are under the age of 65. With our population living longer, dementia is likely to have an even more significant impact on all of our lives.
Rather than be depressed about these statistics, we can adopt a positive attitude. An all-party group in the Scottish Government is focussing on improving the rates of diagnosis of all forms of dementia and aims to ensure that sufferers have access to support and treatment that help them to continue living well. Constant research is going on to discover more about the causes and prevention of this debilitating and upsetting illness, and raising funds to support this research is one way in which we can all help.
The jazz concert on August 3rd promises to be a great night’s entertainment as well as raising money for a very worthwhile cause which concerns us all.

Tickets from the bookand card shop, Brodick or online at www.arranevents.com

Alison Prince
photographs by Sarah Hay, to whom many thanks

Lochranza Hall was full of paintings and three-dimensional works last week, together with some notable work made by members of the highly successful Art in Mind group. The exhibition was dominated by landscapes, many of them depicting Arran in its many moods, and some of these were very effective. Jane Penn’s swirly, vigorous painting of Goat Fell had tremendous impact and in a very different way, so did a study by Jim McKintosh of the Viking Ship, Corrie. His Casteal Abhail, too, was assured and accomplished.

Yvonne Bailey, one of Arran’s most professional painters, showed her study of a Mare & Foal, which surely should be a favourite among all horse lovers, but more broadly, among all who paint with solid, well-judged use of colour and texture. Equally professional but utterly different in approach are Masako Ritchie’s highly refined Japanese ink drawings. Her Notation of Blooming catches exactly the bursting global circularity of buds about to explode into blossom, while her grave little composition, Untitled, has a perfect balance that speaks its own language.

Reuben Betley shows work in the general section and most notably, contributes a highly accomplished drawing of Rorie in the Art in Mind section.Rebecca Roberts, a highly individual painter, uses a vigorous impasto technique that makes Mill Port Sunset particularly striking. Her blaze of light across darkening water is a delight.

Among the three-dimensional work, David Samuels was outstanding for his exquisite furniture, while wood-turning and basketware reached the high standard we have all come to expect.

Arran Visual Arts is to be congratulated on another successful show, and for its continued work in providing a wide range of weekend workshops. Details of the next one follow below.

The next two-day AVA workshop is on the weekend of August 18th-19th, and will be on the ancient and beautiful art of batik. Frances Hilder will guide students through the technique of using hot wax as a ‘resist’ that can form sequences of shapes under layers of dye. Students can expect to produce a wall hanging or cushion cover, or may even create a unique garment to wear. No previous experience is needed. The cost is £50 for AVA members of £70 for non-members, and Alison Barr on 01770 303607 will happy to supply all details.

Over a quarter of a million salmon (267,114, to be exact) with a weight of 291,056 kg died during October 2011 at the Scottish Salmon Company’s fish farm, St Molios, in Lamlash Bay. This was the largest mass mortality case in one single month in the whole of Scotland for the period 2008-2012.

There is a wide spectrum of diseases that commonly affect caged fish. The Lamlash farm was decimated some years ago by an outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anaemia, causing the destruction of the entire stock, but the new outbreak is different. A Freedom of Information request from Marine Scotland and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)
has forced an admission from the Scottish Salmon Company that during the first three months of 2012, fish in the St Molios cages were dying of Cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS).

 A Norwegian veterinary report suggests that CMS is a viral disease that ‘often affects relatively large and mature fish’. It may be highly acute, with death suddenly occurring in apparently healthy fish, or take a chronic form with a moderate increase in deaths over several months. ‘A repeat outbreak is likely to occur in approximately 20% of the cases.’ Significantly, perhaps, CMS is strongly linked with stress, which could be why large fish are particularly affected. In an unproven hypothesis, could it be that their stress rises as they grow and their share of the limited water environment becomes proportionately less? Anyone who has walked over the duckboards round the St Molios cages will know that the largest fish barely have room to move. Unsurprisingly, the Norwegian study says, ‘Cases of significant loss of fish from CMS in connection with transport to harvest have been reported.’

So what can be done about it? Not a lot, it seems. ‘Preventative measures’ the study advises, should include ‘reducing the stress of fish in which CMS is suspected, identified or diagnosed.’ But if that can’t be done, then the suffering salmon should be killed.
‘Early harvest has been performed in a number of cases and may contribute to both reduce losses and contagion pressure.’

Don Staniford, the environmental campaigner who has visited Arran a number of times, runs a website called FishyLeaks that does exactly as its name suggests. It publishes facts on the handling of fish that are usually kept secret. You can find it on http://www.gaaia.org/fishyleaks
Staniford warns that the Marine Strategy Forum report, ‘Scotland’s Aquaculture Database’ will be officially launched at the end of July. This, he says, will be the Scottish Government’s attempt to prepare ‘a public relations offensive to clean up the poor image of Scotland’s foreign-owned salmon farming industry’. Describing the official version as ‘hogwash,’ he is publishing his own data on the FishyLeaks site. It highlights the fact that 2011 saw a ‘mort mountain’ of nearly 7 million farmed salmon, and that 2012 is shaping up to be worse. Over 2 million deaths of caged fish have been reported in the first three months alone.

The salmon that make it through to the supermarket packet will have been routinely dosed against sea lice with chemicals that include Deltamethrin, Azamethiphos, Teflubenzuron and Emamectin benzoate. The total range of diseases they may suffer from includes:
Ichthyobodo, Vibrio, Cardiomyopathy, Moritella vicosa, Yersinia ruckeri, Epitheliocystis, Salmonid alphavirus, Nephrocalcinosis, Tenacibaculum maritumum, Exophiala, Pasteurella skyensis, Nocardia, Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Gyrodactylus derjavinoides and Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis

Arran Community Council moved from the Ormidale Pavilion to Brodick Hall for its meeting on July 31st, in order to accommodate the large crowd of people concerned about the proposed wood-burning power station.

When NAC turned down the housing aspect of Fergus Tickell’s original plan because it was not in a ‘village envelope’, the scheme lost much of its usefulness, and the Council should look again at the implications of that decision. Many detailed questions were asked about filters and about what economic benefits could be expected. Mr Tickell remained courteous and patient throughout, and apologised for his failure to build in more detailed public consultation at an earlier stage. However, as John Inglis sought to bring an end to the debate, impatience mounted, and a demand was expressed for a dedicated and more detailed meeting to discuss the proposition. The Community Council will almost undoubtedly support the communal demand for further consultation.

The development proposals for Arran’s forests will focus on recreational use, with mixed planting that will include broadleaf trees, so in the long term, the cultivation of intensive Sitka spruce will cease. However, we are entering into a concept of energy micro-generation that will – or should – see Arran using every possible way to produce its own electricity. The current scheme could possibly use the heat it produces for horticulture, and every new-built house should be equipped with the means of making its own electricity. Meanwhile, the stringent controls that Scotland imposes on generator plants are probably a trustworthy safeguard. It would be a pity to abandon a potentially useful scheme because of fears that may be unfounded. 

The Biomass protest

On Tuesday 24th July, over a hundred people gathered in the Community Theatre at Arran High School to share concerns over the plans for a wood-fuelled generator proposed to be built on cleared forestry land between Lamlash and Whiting Bay. The mood was serious, concerned to establish the facts about a proposal widely felt to have been inadequately detailed in terms of its technology and possible effects.
With Maureen Smith and Steve Evans acting as co-ordinators, many contributions were made by those present. John Campbell established a rational note by stating that Arran has an obvious need to provide alternative energy, and suggested that most people present would accept that as a principle. No dissent sounded. He went on to cite cases of communities investing in alternative energy sources, and stressed that Arran has that potential. In terms of heat recovery, he could see no value in the Northern Energy scheme at present on the table.

Alan Thomson of Lamlash asked how much electricity would be produced by the scheme, and warned that the forest, unless continually replanted, would not last forever.  Duncan Mulholland, who himself runs Arran Wood Fuels and has established big heating schemes for leading Arran enterprises, said things had changed in the years since the original Northern Energy scheme was put forward. In technical terms, the firm run by Fergus Tickell had ‘got it cracked – they know what they’re doing’. A cooler at ground level would mean that not all the heat produced would go up the chimney. There would be very little smoke, and a ‘plume’ would consist mostly of CO2 and water vapour. It was, Duncan said, up to the firm to decide what filters were used, but basically, modern techniques meant that the process was very clean. However, Arran was the wrong place for it.

Brenda Stewart of the Arran Community Council said it was essential to press for a full Environmental Impact Assessment. A visitor to the island, himself a mechanical engineer, had done the calculations and said the proposed scheme should produce about 20.000 megawatt hours per arrnum – enough to supply electricity to all Arran’s houses. He wanted to know if it was proposed to used the brash that was left on the ground after felling operations, and said that the emission control at present cited on Northern Energy’s website looked ‘fairly basic’. However, he added that with modern systems, it should be possible to eliminate a plume completely.

John Lamont said there was ‘not a smidgeon of benefit for Arran people’ in the current scheme, alluding to that fact that windfarm developments build in a pay-back element to benefit the local community, or in some cases, are communally owned. Concern was expressed about the effect on Arran’s roads of heavily-laden timber lorries, and it was felt that this could have an adverse impact on tourism. Duncan Mulholland pointed out that the current forestry operation is moving 45 million tons of timber a year, and suggested that local use of trees might reduce that. However, he added that despite rational arguments, he was ‘dead against’ the scheme, feeling that it was in the wrong place.

Donal Boyle said the scheme should be turned down on financial grounds. ‘If it is not what we want,’ he said, ‘tackle it at the basic level, not on grounds of particulate emission and other details.’ Howard Driver felt that a commercial company acting for its own profit could be of no benefit to Arran, and John Lamont pointed to the ‘psychological aspect’ that gave Arran the aura of a ‘clean’ island, a haven that attracted tourists because it was natural and unpolluted.

It was evident that many people present intended to be at the Arran Community Council meeting on the following Tuesday, and Bill Calderwood, ACC Secretary, said notification would be given if it was felt that the meeting should be held at a larger venue.

Please see the community council website at http://www.arrancommunitycouncil.org.uk/records.php

The Italian film to be shown on Sunday August 12th in Corrie Hall is called Le Quattro Volte (The Four Times) and stars an aged man and a fabulous cast of goats. Shot in the remote landscape of Calabria in southern Italy, the title comes from the four stages of living that Pythagoras thought we have to go through in our return to being part of the physical world after our death in this first life. Human existence is the first time, but then we become animal, then vegetable and finally mineral, in our return to the earth. But don’t worry, there is no spouting of complex metaphysics in this film. On the contrary, it is almost wordless, unfolding its story in ravishingly lovely pictures of the mountains, the peripheral village life – and the extraordinary goats.

In simple piety, the old man believes that the sacred dust in the little church will keep him strong and healthy, and stirs it into a drink each day. In fact, it is slowly killing him. When the goats find his body, they enter his home to keep watch over him. His man’s soul finds its next stage in a new-borne kid, which one day becomes separated from the herd and dies under a tall pine tree. The soul of the goat is then in the tree, which is chopped down and used by the villagers in their yearly fertility rite. The tree is in turn sold for charcoal, and thus does the old man’s spirit go through its four stages and return to the earth.

Directed by Michelangelo Frammartino, the film has extraordinary things to look at, from the intricate, expressive life of the goats, loosely organised by a highly intelligent dog, to the breath-taking sweep of mountains and a pagan fertility rite. Apart from bleating and birdsong, the film has virtually no spoken script, but the goats and the dog act with extraordinary ability, as though they completely understand what they are doing. Frammartino is modest about his stunning achievement, and tends to disclaim responsibility for it. He was ‘given’ the film, he says, and ‘did not will it through my own pre-existing idea.’ Certainly, the film embodies its own truth, leaving the astonished viewer wondering how on earth it was done.

The screening starts at 8.00pm in Corrie Hall, and is free to all comers. Non-members of the Corrie Film Club are very welcome, and a small donation to the running expenses of the hall would be much appreciated.

MORE ABOUT CORRIE FILM CLUB AT www.arranart.com/corriefilclub.html

Judith Baines, whose diaries and embroidery pieces are such a delight to Voice readers, has acquired a new companion in the form of Phoebe, a large, sweet-natured black Labrador dog, rescued from terrible conditions and now, as our picture shows, wonderfully happy. Labrador Rescue, a tiny but devoted outfit, did a great job in providing veterinary services and care to bring Phoebe round from the derelict condition in which she was discovered. If anyone is thinking of giving a home to a needy Labrador – one of the most friendly and amiable of breeds – contact www.homealabrador.net . They would be thrilled to hear from you.
Judith herself is busy as ever with her fine teaching and embroidery skills, this time helping SWRI members to create a competition entry on the Jubilee theme. A magnificent crown stands on an embroidered appliqué hanging and, together with a beautiful piece of beading, will have been judged by the time the August Voice goes public. Best of luck to Arran’s SWRI!

On Monday 6th August Corrie Film Club will be showing a film called Waste Land, also in Corrie & Sannox Village Hall at 8pm.

Waste Land records how a Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz, spent two years working with the scavengers who pick anything usable from the vast Jardim Gramacho rubbish dump in Rio de Janeiro. The original Portuguese title is Lixo Extraordinário, which means Extraordinary Garbage – and the story is indeed extraordinary.

With the help of these people, Muniz creates from landfill trash large-scale mosaic portraits, recognised as so impressive that they are sold at art auctions in London and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo. The film shows the lives of the garbage pickers and their working conditions as well as the way working with Muniz helped them to gain recognition and better living conditions.

The showing is planned to coincide with a visit of NAC waste awareness officers, who will be at a series of Arran events to offer advice about recycling. Zero Waste Volunteer Co-ordinator Claire Owens points out that food waste costs the average family £430 a year. To the rubbish pickers of Rio, that would be staggering richness. And even for us, it’s a lot to throw away

A small but, as one might say, perfectly formed audience gathered in Whiting Bay Hall last Sunday afternoon and were enraptured by the four young players of the Scottish Tango Ensemble. Fiona Macleod, (piano), Gemma O’Keefe (violin), Paul Chamberlain (accordion) and Tom Berry (double bass) produced a rich and exciting variety of music that often sounded as though far more than four players were on the stage.  Tango is a highly exotic rhythm that originated in the Candombe religious ceremonies of Bantu people from Africa brought to the plantations of Argentina and Uruguay as slaves. It evolved into a dance form that quickly spread across North America and Europe, and the extraordinary thing about it is the tremendous range of styles and emotional states that it can convey.

The performers in Whiting Bay moved seamlessly from flirtatious decorum to Latin American passion, and throughout the programme, returned to the music of Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine composer and bandoneón player who revolutionised the form after studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His ‘new’ tango can by turns be erotic, angry, heart-breaking and utterly beautiful, and the audience was entranced. The four pieces that make up Piazzolla’s ‘Seasons’ sequence are technically dazzling and full of evocative expression. ‘Autumn’, with its falling phrases on the accordion to a slow bass beat, was particularly magical. Throughout, the players demonstrated a brilliant state of individual accomplishment and an almost uncanny empathy between them made their performance spell-binding. Everyone who heard them (and loudly demanded an encore) went out feeling moved, excited and privileged

Colin Guthrie sends us this poem by Edwin Morgan, as a response to Jim Henderson's pieces about James Hutton, the geologist who came to Arran and spotted the 'unconformity' that started him on a new idea of how the earth evolved. Hutton and Burns knew each other well, and there's a neat quote from For Auld Lang Syne at the end of Morgan's poem.

Edwin Morgan

James Hutton, that true son of fire who said
to Burns, ’Aye, man, the rocks melt wi’ the sun’
was sure the age of reason’s time was done:
what but imagination could have read
granite boulders back to the molten roots?
And how far back was back, and how far on
would basalt still be basalt, iron iron?
Would second seas re-drown the fossil brutes?
‘We find no vestige of a beginning,
no prospect of an end.’ They died almost
together, poet and geologist,
and lie in wait for hilltop buoys to ring
or aw the seas gang dry and Scotland’s coast
dissolve in crinkled sand and pungent mist.

COAST is part of OCEAN2012, a coalition of over 160 groups all around Europe that is working to bring about a more sustainable fishing policy. ‘END OVERFISHING’, their posters say.

The three High School students in our picture were helping at the COAST stall at the Heather Queen festival in Lamlash two weeks ago. They are Susie Mowat, Luke Cannon and Robert Ingham.  COAST has awarded them, together with a fourth student, Hannah Ross, an opportunity to do a Powerboat Course at Arran Outdoor Education Centre. Nigel Marshall will help to increase their knowledge and skill in using boats, and the students will have a chance to act as assistant boatmen and women in research boats this summer.

These workshops sound great fun.  The building of the flying fish kites will befollowed on the Friday by a procession along the front in Lamlash plus a COAST stall to celebrate European Fish Week

The Arran lifeboat volunteers never know what they may have to deal with. On July 3rd they had a call from a walker at Laggan who had been stung by a bee and had gone into anaphylactic shock. Fortunately, the sufferer was carrying medication for such an event and was well on the way to recovery, but the lifeboat acted as a kindly taxi to take the walker back to Lochranza.

On Wednesday of the following week, 11th July, the lifeboat was called to Holy Isle, where a lady had fallen while walking and broken her wrist. Crew members stabilised her wrist for travel then brought her back to Lamlash to a waiting ambulance.

Sometimes mysteries have to be solved. At 9.pm on Sunday 15th July a rubber dinghy was reported to be drifting off the moorings in Lamlash Bay with two people on board. When volunteers arrived at the station in response to the call-out, a couple who had found their dinghy missing were wondering if the one seen belonged to them. Clyde Coastguard requested the lifeboat crew to launch and bring the drifting dinghy and its occupants ashore. The dinghy was indeed the missing one and the two youths occupying it were brought ashore to the waiting police.

Helmsman Mark Nelson said, ‘It’s all in a day’s work, helping people. It’s what we spend our time training for.’

If you’d like any more information about Arran’s local service, please telephone Geoff Norris, Lifeboat Operations Manager, on 01770 600420 or e-mail Richard_Smith2@rnli.org.uk. For general information, see www.rnli.org.uk.

…and other rescues

Thanks to John Kinsman for these items

On Sunday July 22nd the Helensburgh Inshore RNLI lifeboat went to the assistance of a small boat with six people on board that had become stuck on rocks near Kilcreggan in the Firth of Clyde. The lifeboat crew managed to re-float the small boat but stayed with it while it made its way to the James Watt Dock in Greenock.

At 7.30 pm the following day, Monday July 23rd, the Troon All-weather lifeboat rescued a man from the Firth of Clyde after his boat caught fire and sank beneath the waves. Fortunately, he had sent up a distress flare, but he had been in the water for some time when the lifeboat reached him. He was suffering from smoke inhalation and hypothermia, and was treated by ambulance crews before being  taken to hospital.

CalMac fare concession for Oban

Martin Dorchester, CalMac’s new Managing Director, has agreed to an improved fare structure for the ferry service between Oban and Mull. Up to now, a 5-day supersaver ticket has been available at a 30% reduction, but this is to be extended to a 9-day supersaver. If for Oban, why not for Brodick? Arran’s tourism needs all the help it can get.

Passenger-only Dunoon-Gourock route

News of this unpopular change was withheld until after the Scottish parliamentary elections in 2011, and Robert Wakeham, who runs a good website called ForArgyll, called it ‘a shoddy little political dodge dating from the political stone age.’

New ferry firm for Orkney and Shetland

Transport Scotland has appointed Serco Ltd as the preferred bidder for the NorthLink ferry routes between the Scottish mainland and the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland.
NorthLink is a subsidiary of the state-owned David MacBrayne Ltd, and has been leasing its ships from the Royal Bank of Scotland. NorthLink staff will transfer to Serco under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations, so there will be no job losses, but NorthLink will be brought to an end or, as the press release picturesquely says, ‘be confined to limbo as an empty envelope.’

The Guardian once described Serco as ‘the biggest company you have never heard of’. Its fingers are everywhere. It runs trains in northern England and the London’s Docklands Light Railway, though its only shipping line so far is London’s Woolwich Ferry. It supports Royal Navy ships in Scotland and runs Shetland’s Scatsta Airport. Oh, and it also supplies speed cameras. CalMac may be feeling a little jittery over the appointment of this many-headed giant to a Scottish ferry service. Is this the thin end of a Government wedge designed to break up the existing, virtually nationalised services? A battle for the Clyde may well be in the offing.

The RSPB newsletter has engaging snippets from readers. We specially liked this one.

I was sat on a seat at the end of my garden pond, not wearing my glasses, when I saw this outrageous monster gliding across the water towards me. It appeared to have a very large head, two black beady eyes and two large fangs about two inches long protruding from the corners of its mouth.

I quickly got my net and fished out the monster. It turned out to be a grass snake, which had started to eat a toad head first. The toad, trying to avoid being eaten, had blown up its body, stopping the snake from being able to swallow it. The toad's legs sticking out from the snake's mouth were what I had thought were fangs.

I threw the snake onto the lawn and it released the toad, which appeared unharmed except for a small cut on its back. It hopped off to fight another day.

Jack Payne

David Underdown sends us this simple, sensitive poem by John Clare – a response to the finding a mouse that is rather different from the well-known poem by Burns.

Mouse’s Nest

by John Clare

I found a ball of grass among the hay
And progged it as I passed and went away;
And when I looked I fancied something stirred,
And turned again and hoped to catch the bird –
When out an old mouse bolted in the wheats
With all her young ones hanging at her teats;
She looked so odd and so grotesque to me,
I ran and wondered what the thing could be,
And pushed the knapweed bunches where I stood;
Then the mouse hurried from the craking brood.
The young ones squeaked, and as I went away
She found her nest again among the hay.
The water o’er the pebbles scarce could run
And broad old cesspools glittered in the sun.

John Clare (1793-1864) was the son of a farm labourer who grew up during the Agrarian Revolution in a time of rapid industrialisation. Despite having almost no formal education he began to write in an attempt to stave off his parents’ eviction from their home and enjoyed some early success. Though he was never accepted by the English literary establishment and his work soon became largely ignored, he is now recognised as one of the greatest of all English nature poets. His poor health and bouts of depression led to him spending most of the second half of his life in an asylum.

John Kinsman, our Marine Editor, sends us this picture and assures us it is not a product of Photoshopping.  He adds the following explanation:

The rare blue pigmentation is believed to appear in only about one in a million lobsters. It is thought that the colour is due to an overproduction of protein, which fuses with a red carotenoid molecule to create crustacyanin, which causes the blue coloration.
Blue lobsters are more easily recognisable to predators, which helps to explain their rarity. Red/brown lobsters can blend in easily with their natural environment, but blue ones have a much smaller chance of survival. It is thought that in order to survive into adulthood, blue lobsters need to develop a greater degree of aggression.

Because they are so rare, blue lobsters caught by fishermen are usually given to aquarium owners rather than being sold as food – but it is said that if they are unlucky enough to get cooked, they turn as red as ordinary lobsters do, and taste no different.

Our MP included his item in a recent news letter.

On 20th June during Prime Minister’s Questions I asked the Prime Minister to confirm that, apart from Italy, the United Kingdom is the only country in the G20 to have suffered from a double-dip recession.

The damage the Government’s economic failure is doing to our communities has been highlighted by latest labour market statistics which show that in North Ayrshire and Arran long term unemployment has more than doubled. Over 27 people on Jobseekers’ Allowance now chase every vacancy advertised on Jobcentre Plus. The Government however is refusing to admit responsibility and is simply pressing ahead with more of the same, as shown by the announcement that they plan to make 1,200 DVLA staff redundant.

Users of North Ayrshire’s Library Service topped the one million mark for the first time ever last year. A total of 1,071,781 visits were made to borrow from the Council’s 17 libraries and download titles from the website.

In case anyone doesn’t realise, access to libraries doesn’t stop when the building is closed.  You can access the service online at any time to request items or do a bit of research through Encyclopedia Britannica and Credo. You can read local, regional and national newspapers, free of charge, with UK Newsstand. If history is your interest, there is a wonderful collection of old and new photos of North Ayrshire on the library service Flickr photo stream. And there’s a
texting service to keep you in touch with events all year round.

Find it all – and join, if not already a member – on www.ers.north-ayrshire.gov.uk

Nothing untoward, you understand – this is not a case of assault with umbrella on members of the Perthshire aristocracy. Shirley-Anne Hardy, who is in her eighties and does not own a computer, has nevertheless managed to publish a hefty book called Stolen Land – Stolen Lives and the great con trick of Debt! (her exclamation mark.) It is formidably well researched, quoting sources that range from Jesus Christ and the Koran to Zola, Longfellow, Carnegie and Confucius. It includes a comment from George Orwell, who said, ‘The logical end of mechanical progress is to reduce the human being to something resembling a brain in a bottle.’

Ms Hardy’s thesis is a classic one – that land belongs to itself, not to any human being. It was there before the human race evolved, and will still be there (with any luck) when homo non-sapiens has muddled itself into extinction.  We may establish use of it for a while, and should during that time steward it well, though this is not always the case. We may imprison it in a carapace of stone and tarmac by building cities on it. We may play golf on it, shoot grouse on it, mine it for minerals, farm it for food and bury it under motorways, but in the end, it retains its own identity, indifferent to the notion of ownership. A quote from a protest song that circulated during the time of the Enclosures says it all:

            The law indicts the man or woman
            Who steals the goose from off the common –
            But lets the greater felon loose
Who steals the common from the goose.

If anyone would like a copy of Stolen Land, drop a line to the redoubtable Shirley-Anne Hardy at The Rocks, Pitlochry, Perthshire, PH1 3DZ.

If your house is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, it needs better insulation. Help for this is at hand, as the Scottish Government has funded a free Home Insulation scheme. Angus Bodie, North Ayrshire Council’s Head of Infrastructure and Design, says the free insulation is open to all North Ayrshire residents on a first-come, first-served basis. He adds that households can save around £300 per year on heating bills by installing cavity wall and loft insulation.

Home owners, tenants and landlords are all eligible to apply. Just call 08000 198 220. A real human being will answer – we tried it, to make sure

Cornish Scones

Ingredients.

500g plain flour
15g baking powder
pinch of salt
100g caster sugar
100g diced butter
250ml milk

Method

Sieve flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl.
Using just your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it is no longer visible.
Add the milk and mix well. Once it starts to come together, turn out on to a lightly.
floured surface and knead gently until it forms a smooth, soft dough.
Preheat the oven to 200degrees/Gas mark 6.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 2.5cm thick and cut into rounds
with a 5cm cutter. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
For the egg wash, mix ingredients together in a small bowl and brush the tops of the
scones twice.
Do not over-bake them or they will be dry.
Serve them warm with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam.

from Chef Richard Attkins at Arran on a Plate

August is the month of the Scottish strawberry, so here is the perfect Pavlova recipe, as light and delectable as the legendary dancer herself:

For the meringue:
4 large egg whites
250g castor sugar
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp cornflour
1 vanilla pod, scraped

500g strawberries (or any other summer fruit)
300 ml double cream
50g icing sugar

For the meringue, heat the oven to 140c. Beat the egg whites on full speed and gradually add the castor sugar. When the mixture is stiff and glossy, whisk in the cornflour and vinegar.
Spread out on a piece of non-stick paper.
Bake for 1 hour and then turn the oven off and allow the meringue to cool within.
When the meringue is cool, take 100g of the strawberries and mix with 10g of the icing sugar and a couple of tbsp of water to make the coulis. Boil and blitz. Whip the cream with the remaining 40g of icing sugar to soft peaks. Spoon onto the meringue. Place on the chopped remaining 400g of strawberries and drizzle over the coulis.