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Some musings from me about this.
Art supplies
May. 30th, 2025 03:43 pmGot me some art supplies in (the pencil case is full of a good range of grades of graphite pencils etc.). I used to love drawing as a teenager. Especially in O'Grade Art and Design, when being sent out into Wilton Lodge Park on our own to draw the landscape and wildlife was just the best thing ever! I'd like to return to drawing, though I won't be able to get out much. Considered using my iPad, but for me, I think, analogue would be better. Wish me luck!
1990 Bursary
Jan. 5th, 2025 01:12 pmChecking new content on the British Newspaper Archive. As well as adding the St Andrews Citizen in 1991 they've added the Southern Reporter for 1990-1992. And crikey, here's me in the latter, for that bursary I won at St Andrews University. From the Southern Reporter newspaper, 22 November 1990. I also have much clearer photos from the reception at the principal's house.
Watching Paul Murton follow the River Dee, and thinking some of the Aberdeenshire folk sound awfully like Scottish Borderers! A uni classmate of mine at Dundee used to think my accent sounded as though I was from Brechin or somewhere up there. Nice to hear folk who sound “local” for me anyway. My accent is a mix of Edinburgh like / Borders cross, and a much stronger version which comes out the more puggled I am or if talking to eg my Mum! The Hawick part can come out really strongly then. Plus perhaps an added Somerset twang thanks to 30 years marriage 😜
"hike in Roxborshire"
Oct. 2nd, 2024 05:50 pmMe trying the live audio transcription facility in MacOS Sequoia. Well it could be quite useful, but with serious caveats!
Remastered Runrig
Aug. 18th, 2024 12:28 amWe've just discovered that there's a remastered 20-track rerelease of Runrig's "The Cutter and the Clan" album (1987). This was my first Runrig album, bought on cassette when I was still at school in Hawick. And we think it was maybe Martin's first Runrig album too, bought early on at university. So no surprise, that's what we're listening to now.
Throwback to 1988
Jun. 3rd, 2024 03:09 amCrikey just found this in the British Newspaper Archive. The Southern Reporter, 1988 June 30. That's me on the left. I do not remember that photo being taken.
Sunrise Pirates Skye
Nov. 18th, 2023 10:41 pmFirst chromatic button accordion practice since before my vaccines. I definitely need to work more on the basic exercises. But tonight I enjoyed playing some of my favourite tunes from sheet music, including Sunrise Sunset, the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, and the Skye Boat Song. The last two were new for me on this hunt the right button box. Skye Boat Song will be especially good to play to keep learning this new for me accordion system. Oh and I also played some Hawick tunes by ear.
Just encountered this example of appalling handwriting from an era when it's usually very clear to read. This is from Hawick parish kirk session minutes for 1821. Luckily the person who wrote this only writes a few pages. But still mega ouch. This is remarkably bad for this period. Incredibly poorly defined letters.
Researching poet lives
Sep. 27th, 2023 02:39 pmI'm finishing off a book review I'm writing for an academic journal. The book is a new collection of Scottish poems in the long 18th century. Each poet's section includes a short biography before one or more poems from them. And I can't help myself constantly researching the poets and their lives more. My big success last night was confirming one poet being baptised in my home town Hawick in 1764. Far more precise than "born in one of the border counties washed by the Tweed" in DNB etc. He had many siblings baptised in Hawick or Wilton, then younger ones in Gala and Edinburgh before the parents moved to Kilmarnock and more baptised there. I should probably write this up as an academic journal paper too, not least to show the possibilities of easily accessed digitised Scottish parish registers to expand on these life stories.
Browsing old newspapers in the British Newspaper Archive tonight and I’ve been finding a very intriguing J.G. Yung accordion performer and piano etc tuner popping up frequently in the Scottish Borders in the latter half of the 19th century (1850s onwards). A bit of genealogical digging finds he was born in Darmstadt, Germany, and died in Hawick (in the poorhouse) in 1903. I may well pull together the various references into a more scholarly article.
The newapaper references include his numerous - over many decades - adverts as a visiting piano, accordion etc tuner. But perhaps even more interesting are the reports of his accordion recitals, from the 1850s onwards, and how they were received by communities throughout the Scottish Borders, often encountering the instrument for the first time. This feels early for something like this to have been happening, but I’d have to research more the wider context and history.
The newapaper references include his numerous - over many decades - adverts as a visiting piano, accordion etc tuner. But perhaps even more interesting are the reports of his accordion recitals, from the 1850s onwards, and how they were received by communities throughout the Scottish Borders, often encountering the instrument for the first time. This feels early for something like this to have been happening, but I’d have to research more the wider context and history.
Dropping off back to much needed sleep, and of course my brain chooses now to torment me with questions about the tuck shop I helped run at Hawick High School in the mid 1980s. It was run out of a small store room / cupboard along the sciences corridor. And my brain now wants to remember if we jammed a table across inside the door to sell from, with the boxes of goods and money behind. And what was the money box like - I do have a memory of that one. But honestly, brain go away 😜
I shared this on Facebook too, so if any of my school friends can remember more about the tuck shop than me who was running it I might fill in some gaps! It was a great way to build up mental arithmetic skills ...
I shared this on Facebook too, so if any of my school friends can remember more about the tuck shop than me who was running it I might fill in some gaps! It was a great way to build up mental arithmetic skills ...
Slow but steady practice
Jul. 11th, 2023 07:24 amPleased to manage another good half hour of French chromatic button accordion practice. I try to manage that twice a week, but the last few weeks have been tricky. I am still very much in the beginning stage, working through lots of exercises to learn the non piano keyboard right hand side. Played a lot of those exercises today! But also experimented by ear with Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof, trying the new right hand/finger positions I am learning. And trying lots of Hawick tunes by ear. Teribus is especially beginner right hand friendly! No recordings yet, but happy. Ideally I'd get more practice in, but I'm taking what I can, and making good slow progress. This is going to take a long time.
Rugby champions
Mar. 11th, 2023 05:17 pmReally loved being able to watch – via YouTube – my home town Hawick’s rugby team win the Scottish Premiership final today. They’d topped the table after the normal matches, but it then went to two semis and a final for the top 4 teams. Today’s match was from Hawick, which has had snow for much of this week. But the club and the townspeople did a miraculous job keeping the pitch covered, then making it playable today. That was one of the most nerve wracking endings I have seen to a game of rugby. Hawick scored the winning try in the last minute or two. For much of the previous half they’d been defending heroically. Credit to Currie. But yes, champions! And I got to see rugby from the ground I used to be a spectator at so very many times. Proud Teri.
