Hello folks! A big thanks to everyone for what was a really amazing twelve days. What a pleasure to spend time with you all. There is some sort of magic occurs during these meetings and days, and I find myself feeling freshly creative and a bit dissatisfied with my everyday life. Returning to the Central Belt was quite a shock at first, though I'm mostly re-acclimatised now. A special thanks to Camille Dressler for giving so generously of her time and encyclopaedic knowledge about the island. Oh, and to Joyce, as always, for setting the whole remarkable situation up. Here's to SpeyGrian forever! And lastly, to Kate Campbell, Manager of Eco-Schools Scotland, who couldn't be there but was a collaborator with Joyce in this Creative Connections course.
Anyway, as a wee memento I'm posting this page of images with captions below them for folk to have a look at.To view the photographs at a larger size, click on the thumbnails. They may take up to 40 seconds to load, depending on your connection speed, and can be downloaded to your desk top by simply dragging them there with the mouse. These are quite low-resolution, but should be alright for making small prints. Anyone who'd like a high-resolution print, either A4 or A3, of any of these, please drop me an email. I'd have to make a small charge for ink, paper and postage costs but would be happy to make the prints when time permits.
Part of my own sense of new creativity has been writing a handful of poems to go along with some of these images; I may post these here at a later date.
Cheers ever, and thanks again. Here is to further meetings, re-connections, and renewals.
Gerry
PS: If you'd like to see last year's images from Canna, click here.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
Images from Eigg, 14th-26nd July 2007.
All photographs copyright Gerry Cambridge. Not to be reproduced without permission.
1. Dibbling in a rock pool near the Singing Sands, and yes, I think it might be Tania Noble searching for a lost box of matches.
2. On the approach route to the Sgurr.
3. Christian McEwen, writer and teacher.
4. Wasps fanning the entrance to their postbox with their wings.
5. The picture of St Donnan in the Catholic Chapel at Laig Bag.
6. Icon of the Virgin and Child in memory of Ann Scott-Moncrief in the lobby of the same chapel.
7. Birch grove on the road up towards Glebe Barn.
8. On the road down to the shop after a visit to the Lodge.
9. Yes, that buzzing vespid postbox again.
10. At Laig Bay, the telegraph cable which ran under the sea to Rum, and through which goodness knows what messages travelled.
11. Ragwort, Creeping Thistle and Meadowsweet at Cleadale with Laig Bay and Rum in the background.
12. The astonishing lava-produced formations of the rocks near the Singing Sands.
13. She will hate me for it, but this very happy looking artist is Nicola Murray, at Cleadale during week two.
14. Visit to the Well of the Holy Women in week two.
15. Heath Spotted Orchids, Cleadale.
16. The morning of Sunday 15 July: the first SpeyGrian group get down to serious work in a difficult environment.
17. Shells on shell beach near Eigg harbour.
18. Christian McEwen, characteristically writing in her notebook, against the background of the Sgurr.
19. The track down to Glebe Barn as the first group arrive, 14 July 07.
20. Serrated wrack cast up on the Singing Sands.
21. Nicola Murray, artist, drawing shells on the shell beach.
22. Wild Thyme, Cleadale.
23-25. More of the amazing rock formations and boulder agglomerations on the shore near the Singing Sands.
26. Heath Spotted Orchids at Kildonnan with the Sgurr in the background.
27. Kenny Taylor, naturalist, writer, and general renaissance man, at Laig Bay with Rum as a backdrop.
28. Scene from Cleadale.
29. Pale and dark sand arrangements on the beach at Kildonnan.
30-31. More of those shells, which fascinated me, on the shell beach.
32. Kenny Taylor examines a weevil on the top of the Sgurr of Eigg, 15 July.
33. The interior of the Catholic chapel at Laig Bay.
34. Elspeth and Susan on the road towards Cleadale from the Singing Sands.
35. The outdoor poetry session on the shore during week one at Laig Bay. It's a tough life!
36. More of those bloody shells.
37. Heath Spotted Orchids at Cleadale, with pollinia visible.
38. The approach to the Sgurr, 14 July, with members of the group in top left. The loch in the background is Loch nam Ban Mora, 'The Loch of the Big Women', that we swam in later that day.
39. Empty shells, the sea's casual destructions.
40. 14 July, Kenny, Andrew, Elspeth, Susan on the top of the Sgurr; the lilliputian figure on the top of the triangulation point is not a Photoshop trick. The other Susan as well as Tania were also there. Rum in the background with (I think) Skye in the right distance.
41. St Donnan's grave marker.
42. That man Mr Taylor again. A publicity shot for his new modelling catalogue.
43. Silverweed growing among stones on the shore below the Massacre Cave, taken when a group in the second week visited the site and I opted to remain outside.
44. These crowded Hebridean beaches! Ms Noble and Susan at the Singing Sands with Rum as backdrop.
45. A poetry workshop as part of week one: participants get down to some serious thinking.
46. Kenny and Elspeth are strangely fascinated by a can of Miller—sorry, an Eggar Moth caterpillar—on the approach track up to the Sgurr. 14 July. The former was my creative mis-hearing of the latter as I arrived late.
48. Don't ask me where 47 went to, but this is an as yet unidentified Centaury, photographed near Kildonnan.
49. Jane practises her ceilidh steps along with Susan and Kenny at the Singing Sands; looking on are Elspeth, Tania, the other Susan, and John. An astonishing day.
50. Gorgeous Liz, the island's thought-mythical pig, eager recipient of the contents of Glebe Barn's recycling bin, poses coquettishly before trying to bite my head off. Kiss, anyone?
51. Camille Dressler, Eigg historian and overall activist, talks about the history of Laig Bay from this viewpoint overlooking the bay and Cleadale in week two.
52. Elspeth's artwork using my fountain pens.
53. Joyce with Camille to her right with Laig Bay and Cleadale in the background.
54. Rock pool as a mirror for a Rum cumuli.
55. Cattle, for some reason only they are a party to, on the shell beach.
56. She will likewise hate me, but this is Fiona Molloy in week two, sifting through shells looking for cowries.
57. Look, there it is! Dibbling in the rock pool at the Singing Sands are Tania, Elspeth and John in week one.
58. Tania and Susan in the distance on the Singing Sands, but plainly only there for perspective on those lovely foreground rocks.
59. North Cleadale, a sunlight and cloud-shadowed afternoon in week two.
60. Maggie Fyffe, island activist and chief spokesperson during the Eigg buyout, talks about the recent history of Eigg at the Pier Cafe on the evening of 20 July 2007.
61. Birds Foot Trefoll and Wild Thyme at Kildonnan.
|