Issue 63

A review of the music society concert by Alison Prince

Arran's music society goes from strength to strength in its provision of exciting and varied music. On Saturday, May 21st, Brodick Hall was packed for a performance by Kosmos, an extraordinary trio of breath-taking ability. Harriet MacKenzie on violin, Meg Hamilton on viola and Milos Milivojevic on accordion. The atmosphere in the hall became more excited as the players ranged freely through music from all over the world, from Scotland to Hungary, Greece to Brazil, flamenco to classical. Playing with no reference to written music despite the immense complexity of some pieces, their fluency and emotional charge never faltered, and the understanding between them allowed total freedom to improvise and extend. The skills were those of good jazz players, but with an underlying classicism that gave them extraordinary authority. As so often in these concerts, it was wonderful to see people becoming moved and excited by the music, and at the end, a spontaneous outbreak of drumming feet as well as applause and shouts brought them back for an encore. A truly wonderful night.

The film on June 12th at 8.00pm in the Corrie and Sannox Village Hall is Locke (Director Steven Knight, UK 2014, Cert 15)

Ivan Locke, a dedicated family man and successful construction manager, receives a phone call on the eve of the biggest challenge of his career that sets in motion a series of events that threaten his carefully cultivated existence.

Almost the entire film takes place within a BMW X5, which was driven down the M6 motorway on a flatbed truck for most of the time. Shooting took place in real time, and the filmmakers only took breaks to change the cameras' memory cards. Ivan Locke is the only character other than those who talk to him on the phone.

The critical consensus was: "A one-man show set in a single confined location, Locke demands a powerful performance – and gets it from a never-more-compelling Tom Hardy."

All are welcome to come and join us for this powerful film.

The 22nd Arran Folk Festival takes place this coming weekend, the 3rd to the 5th June. Here is a sample of the delights to come:

There are many and varied places to eat on Arran, from the highest cuisine, through great pub meals to simple coffee shops serving homemade delights. Many of us know some of them rather well, but there are always new ventures, new chefs and new ideas, so this column seeks to expand readers’ knowledge of what Arran has to offer. Please send in your own suggestions for places to explore.

The writer, whose pen name ‘the Mystery Muncher‘ disguises his/her identity in order to avoid suspicion of favourable treatment, will seek to give fair and honest appraisals of meals taken - while their main qualification for this task is purely a love of good food. And all meals at own expense.

The Black Grouse at Blackwaterfoot is my starting point, because it offers adventurous, imaginative food and is not yet nearly well enough known. On a late May evening we arrived to find a warm log fire in the bar and an impressive array of modern gins. The welcome is friendly and warm in this family business – a restaurant offering ‘contemporary Scottish cuisine’, attached to Blackwaterfoot Lodge with its 5 rooms.

Dinner is served in the conservatory, light, comfortable and surrounded by green garden. Our starters were unusual, rather different from standard Arran cuisine, showing the hand of a chef who questions the conventions, finding his own expression. Cauliflower spring rolls, with crispy cauliflower and cauliflower coulis were pleasant enough, but the pork belly braised 8 hours, served with smoked potato croquette, apple chutney and date puree was superb, beautifully tender, a delightful mix of textures and tastes. Deconstructed kedgeree – local smoked haddock, curried leek risotto, pea and lime puree, topped with a poached egg – was equally surprising and delicious.

Main courses continued to challenge conventional expectations. Perhaps the star was the wild garlic crusted, locally caught pollock nestling on wilted greens within a moat of seafood bisque? Or was it the deconstructed (note the theme) vegetable crumble? This ordinary sounding dish was pronounced truly heavenly, an elegant mound of freshly cooked vegetables, asparagus, beans, carrots…. bound together in a subtle sauce and seeded with crunchy titbits. For meat eaters though there was no doubting that the star was in fact the venison dish, combining on one plate steak and a little pie, neat and crispy, with beetroot sliced and smeared. The venison – sourced on Arran of course – was pronounced perfect and so tender the knife fell through it.

Hard to follow this main course act, and perhaps the desserts needed a little work, while still offering unusual tastes and combinations. There was rhubarb and vanilla pannacotta, with poached rhubarb and pear and ginger puree, crumble and ginger ice cream. Light and delicious, perhaps a bit too heavy on the gelatine? The souffle du jour – an apple crumble soufflé – was a bold attempt and very tasty, but suffered a structural malfunction in the separating out of the soufflé. The accompanying toffee ice cream gained it forgiveness. Finally the chocolate and orange cheesecake, with crispy orange slices and orange sorbet, was ‘very nice’ – but in my opinion, the chef is too restrained with the chocolate. People who order chocolate desserts expect masses of dense chocolatey flavours – or is it just me?

These are tiny quibbles as the evening was one to savour and remember. No coffee machine, but excellent, strong and generous coffee in cafetieres were brought to the bar. The wine list is short and wide ranging, with weekly featured wines, some by the glass. Service is efficient and friendly. I cannot recommend the Black Grouse highly enough, and hope that many Arran folk will brave the trek over the String or round the coast to the West.

Arran Coastal Rowing Club is growing fast. The first St. Ayle's skiff was launched after the Lamlash Splash in September 2015 and has been out on the water almost every week since then. It was even spotted at the Douglas Dook on New Year's Day in Brodick!

The crews are training hard and will be taking part in the Troon regatta on Saturday 4th June. A few weeks ago a crew from Largs and Troon visited and had a great days rowing in Lamlash together with some of the Arran rowers.

NEW MARINE DISCOVERY CENTRE AHOY!

From Manuela de los Rios, Communications and Administration Officer
COAST (Community of Arran Seabed Trust) Nature of Scotland 2014 Award Winners
Office: 01770 600656 www.arrancoast.com Scottish charity No. SC042088

It has taken 20 years of community learning, education, campaigning and research on Arran for the establishment of the first community-led No Take Zone in Scotland and the South Arran Marine Protected Area.

Our community believes now it is the right time to give more people the opportunity to feel inspired, experience and learn about our amazing marine environment and how to take care of it through our proposed Marine Discovery Centre.

After considering various sites, we decided the Lamlash tennis courts and pavilion that the Bowling Club could not sustain would be the right location for this community-led project. The purchase money will help keeping the Bowling Club’s assets and two of the four tennis courts for the village will be upgraded and maintained by COAST. Our research has shown that visitors think this a fantastic idea and over 80% of those interviewed would visit us once we are open!

We are delighted with the support received at the public meeting in April. It has been great to have had so many residents involved; sharing great ideas that we hadn’t thought of, voicing concerns we will attempt to address and shaping the proposal with us. There is still much to be decided, the new build is unlikely to happen before 2018 and COAST will be planning and developing content and ideas in collaboration with other community groups and individuals throughout the next few years.

The new centre will be structured in a way that encourages learning by doing, by making, by asking. Hands-on, interactive and changing exhibitions with input from the community will make this centre a dynamic and creative hub. Visitors will be able to engage in innovative and fun activities, work and learn alongside with marine scientists and enjoy exciting experiences. For example you could be going for a virtual dive in a small submarine, a guided snorkel tour or just marvel examining a whale skeleton or the interesting history of fishing and marine protection on Arran.

If you have any questions, want to share any ideas or help us design and deliver this project, please get in touch with us by email info@arrancoast.com , by phone 01770600656, or just pop in for a chat in our office at the Old Haybarn in Lamlash. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

The NTS Rangers on the island, and the Arran Natural History Society committee members, are often asked to come to the assistance of injured or lost wild animals that have been found by residents or tourists. Sometimes, sadly, nothing can be done; sometimes nothing needs to be done. But at other times the animal may need specialised treatment and ongoing care, and this usually means transporting the patient to the mainland and into the care of the dedicated team at Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue, based near Beith.

Quicksand; What it means to be a Human Being, by Henning Mankell, Harvill Secker

Henning Mankell is perhaps best known for his Wallander crime novels, set in the author’s home country, Sweden, and dramatized several times on television, including one version starring Kenneth Branagh. These thoughtful stories reflect many of the issues of modern Swedish, and European, life; the move towards less homogeneous societies, immigration, more broken families and more different versions of family life, increasing disparity between the haves and the have-nots, the effects of colonialism and the exploitation of the third world, racism and nationalism, and especially in the later books, an awareness of aging and increasing infirmity.

All these issues and more were important in Mankell’s life, a full and committed life that combined adventure, social and political activism, the performing arts and literature, and was shared between Europe and Africa. The University of St Andrews awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2008, for his “contribution to literature and his practical application of conscience.”

The daily ebb and flow of the tides promise a renewable energy bonanza for countries such as Canada and the UK that have shallow seas and a steep tidal range.

By Paul Brown, The Climate News Network

Two countries with the highest tides in the world, Canada and the UK, both claim to be the world leaders in creating electricity from the tides. They are among a group of coastal states − including China, South Korea, the US and Australia − that are hoping to harness the enormous power of their local twice-daily tides to tap a new and reliable supply of electricity.

Unlike wind and solar energy, tidal power is entirely predictable. If it can be tapped on a large scale as a power source, it will provide reliable base load power for any grid system. There are all sorts of schemes in many countries, the most familiar being the tidal barrages that direct the ebb and flow of the tide through turbines to generate electricity.

Best known of these is the Rance tidal power station, which was opened in 1966 at St Malo, northern France. At 240 megawatts, it was the largest in the world for 45 years, until South Korea’s Sihwa Lake power station came into service in 2011, producing 254 MW.

But there is a new generation of tidal power schemes. They use undersea turbines, able to make use of the powerful tidal currents in estuaries and in relatively shallow water on continental shelves. Because water is far denser than air, the same area of turbine blade can produce four times more electricity than a wind turbine.

So far, 20 sites in the world have been identified where hundreds of underwater turbines could be deployed. These are in shallow water, where the tidal current moves swiftly and where cables can be connected to the onshore grid. The best sites are between islands or in other narrow stretches of sea where the tide flows strongly. Eight of these sites have been identified in the UK, and they could on their own generate around 20% of the country’s electricity needs – more than its 15 nuclear reactors are currently producing.

Sally Campbell writes a personal reflection on the European Referendum:

Previous United Kingdom Referendums

United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, 1975, on whether the UK should remain part of the European Economic Community. (Result: Yes)

United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, 5 May 2011. (Result: No, I voted Yes)

United Kingdom European Union membership referendum will be held on Thursday 23 June 2016

Why would I choose to vote Yes to remain in the EU in 2016?

I voted yes in that other referendum so long ago in 1975. Maybe because even then I could see that the world was changing and little UK needed to work with Europe in the coming years for economic and social reasons. We had lived in Germany, I had worked in the marine research station on Heligoland, and we had also lived in the USA. John with British Steel on Teesside was already working with the European Coal and Steel Community founded in 1951 on environment and health and safety. Since then the world has become more complex in terms of economics, money flows, banking, scientific research, connectedness in many areas of our lives, especially climate change.

As a marine ecologist/scientist I have witnessed the advantages of being part of a larger scientific community, sharing research and better visions for the environment for the future. The UK has been pushed into creating better water quality, conservation and sustainable fisheries. The Birds Directive, Habitats Directive, Natura Sites, now the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and Good Environmental Status with MPAs in Scotland and MCZs in England.

The fresh water and marine environments have benefitted from EU legislation over the past 40 years. Sustainability has risen up the agenda, in many areas and especially so in fisheries. Due in part to the collaboration of many European small scale fishermen, LIFE (Low Impact Fishers of Europe) is having an impact in Europe, so traditional power structures of the fisheries industry are changing.

But I know that many will vote, not with their logic and understanding of the advantages listed below but with emotional beliefs, particularly about immigration, fear of the future, and just wanting to shut the gates of the UK against all-comers. Brexit blames them for all our ills, be it overcrowded hospitals or schools, housing shortages, “stealing” from our welfare state. Figures show these to be largely false and as a society we benefit from their efforts in the UK, particularly young people, and from the many hundreds of thousands UK citizens working in Europe. All those Brexit ills could equally well be blamed on my generation, living too long, needing hospital beds once we are over 65, for longer, more costly interventions; further because we are living longer, occupying flats, houses etc that in a previous generation would now have been sold on. My family, the Chivers family, were immigrants from religious persecution in France in the 1700s, so I admit to an interest and probably prejudice in favour of immigrants! I do feel that as a UK we have all benefitted from the skills and hard work of immigrants, from the “Empire”, the Commonwealth, Europe, America and the Far East. We have always traded and shared with Europe and far flung places, as pottery in Iron Age Forts and Viking settlements show. The Middle Ages brought the Dutch to the east coast trading and settling. This is nothing new!

So I have put together many opinions and information that I think relevant to voting Yes. Please click on the "Print" icon at the top of this article to see the full text.

Beverley Walker, BlueWind Consulting Limited
(This article is based on a presentation to the Arran Civic Trust in May 2016)

South to make five diamonds. West leads the ♠K.

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