A real Festival treat

I was listening to Radio 3 earlier in the week and a fellow listener had rung or emailed in to sing the praises of an Edinburgh Fringe production, The Tempest in the Firth of Forth. Edinburgh is currently staggering under the weight of 23,000 performers plus thousands of visitors to the Edinburgh Festival, Book Festival and all the various Fringe events. The Royal Mile is just buzzing with wandering minstrels, musicians, actors doing odd things, meandering tourists and others charging in and out of the Fringe Ticket Office to get their tickets for their next performance of the day. It is all completely mad.

I was very taken with the idea of going to The Tempest in the Firth of Forth. It takes place on the beach next to the estate at Hopetoun House, just beyond the two bridges across the Forth. About 45 of us travelled by coach to Hopetoun, lute music played throughout the journey and on arrival we were greeted by the players from St Andrews University Mermaids Theatre Society. They led us down to the shore where story was played out.

Tiny waves gently broke in the background and there was the winnowing sound of curlews calling from the water's edge. Oyster catchers cried out and gulls flew overhead.

'Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.'

We moved back and forth along the beach with the players and during that time the tide silently crept up behind us, in perfect harmony with the text.

'Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore'

The cast was excellent, the setting was perfect and accompanying music from a harp, violin and lute completed a really wonderful production.

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In a vase on Monday - colour

The intense colours in my vase this week come from nasturtiums, sweetpeas and a single glorious zinnia! Their beauty and love of life speak for themselves and need no further words from me! Enjoy!

Found items IAVOM

I am on holiday on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay. It is my happy place. Thoughts of Colonsay rattle around in my head each and every day I am not here! I haven't got a vase to share this week but some lovely things I have found over the past few days, which are just as beautiful as a vase of flowers! I hope you agree! Here are some leaves of giant rhododendrons, growing in the outer gardens of Colonsay House. Some skeleton leaves of magnolia. The dried stem of a kelp seaweed. A couple of conkers (can never resist those!), and a branch heavily populated by a number of lichens. The air on Colonsay is so clean that lichens flourish here!

Colonsay postcards - on arrival

The first thing I do, once we have unpacked our car, which has been groaning with all the stuff we need for a week's stay in the holiday cottage, is head for the outer gardens of Colonsay House. It is a place of wonder for me! I particularly love the leaves of the giant rhododendrons. There are many different varieties, all planted in the early 1930s. The outer gardens are generally overgrown, having had little tending over the decades. That makes them even more magical! The old woodmill falls apart a little more every year, but that's fine by me because I love corrugated iron and especially if it's rusted! And of course the bees. Colonsay's beekeeper, Andrew Abrahams, has one of his apiaries on the edge of the pine wood. So lovely - the hum of busy bees and the heady smell of the pines. We are here - finally! Delayed by four months by the wretched virus, but now I am on holiday! Hooray!

the running wave

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