Issue 57

On Saturday 14th November a big audience gathered in Brodick Hall to hear the Tim Kliphuis Trio playing their distinctive, brilliant jazz. Tim himself is becoming well known not only as an astonishingly accomplished violinist but as composer as well, while Nigel Clark and Roy Percy have equal eminence as guitar and bass players, ever creative and technically stunning.

Starting with a laid-back rendering of Tea For Two, the trio went on to unveil their subtle, intellectual jazz in all its richness. Vivaldi's Winter crept into the many variations explored, and then the trio was into Grappelli's Chanson de la Rue. Their Hoe-down for the Common Man was enchanting, with a shift into that ever beguiling tune, She Moved through the Fair. With a complete switch of mood, Gabriel Fauré's Nocturne No 1 followed, then a Bach chaconne that might have had its composer jumping up and down with delight. (Never a stuffy man, Bach …) Astor Piazzolla followed, with one of those plangent, somehow heart-breaking tango numbers, and by this time the audience was in helpless raptures of sheer joy. An unforgettable evening.

Our Arran Artist of the Month for December is Ann Hume, who makes beautiful jewellery in Brodick.

How would you describe your work and the philosophy behind it, Ann?

My work is created mainly by folding silver circles and ovals. I sometimes hammer along the fold before opening it out, a little like the petal of a flower opening. I am concerned with the way the metal naturally behaves when it's folded or hammered. When metal is heated and cooled, a process called annealing, it becomes softer and more malleable enabling me to create soft curves.

I then solder groups of these shapes together to create organic looking forms which I hope are delicate and beautiful. I don't polish highly as I love the contrast between a matt finish with linear highlights drawing around the form.

Where did you grow up, go to school, and go to college or university?

I grew up and went to school in Renfrew. I then went on to study Drawing and Painting at Glasgow School of Art which was a great privilege. To spend all day drawing and painting for four years and share the experience with other young creative people was just great. My oldest and closest friends come from that period.

What other jobs have you done?

Soon after leaving art school I had my first son and during his early years I worked in various part time jobs from children's portrait photography, working in bars and restaurants and in a florists, this kept the wolf from the door!

In addition to this I taught Saturday morning art classes to 11-16 year olds at Kilmardinnay House in Bearsden and an evening class in drawing and painting, so I was very busy.

In 1988 I joined a post graduate course in Primary teaching and began teaching in the south West of England in '89. After 22 years teaching, with both my sons having left home, my husband and I decided to return to Scotland and Arran and I made the decision to leave teaching and draw a line under that phase of my life.

At the present time, when not making jewellery, I work part time in the Tourist information office and I have just begun teaching a silversmithing evening class at Argyll College which I am enjoying very much.

Tell us something about your journey in art – how is it that you are here now, on Arran, and doing what you do?

Arran goes back a long way in my life. I spent summers here working at the Glenisle Hotel and Lochranza Tearoom in the 1970s and I loved it. The plan was always to return and we did this in 2010. Throughout the time I spent teaching and bringing up my family, I had little time for anything else. As the children grew up I began to spend more time on my own creativity. I have always made time to draw. When I'm drawing I think of nothing else but looking, seeing and feeling the marks I am making on the paper, very much in the here and now. It's when I am at my happiest and most content.

About 10 years ago I joined a short course in silversmithing, mainly to accompany a friend, and I got 'hooked'. I loved the way you could manipulate metal and especially enjoyed seeing the way the metal behaves naturally when folded or hammered. I am mainly self-taught and have done some workshops with contemporary jewellers to develop my skills. The possibilities are endless when working with metal but I choose to stick to my own style and develop it. I make what I want and hope that enough people like it. I am in the fortunate position of being able to do this. It is challenging to keep this approach. I now have three galleries on mainland Scotland with my work with Arran Art Gallery and the Rockpool on Arran. I have no plans to increase this as I want to have the time to 'play' with my work and continue to enjoy and develop it. I do have a desire to paint again and know that I will at some point.

Who or what have been the greatest influences in your work? Which other artists do you most admire?

I admire the work of a young silversmith Theresa Nguyen who creates beautiful forms in silver. If I could afford the silver I'd work on this scale, perhaps one day? Most people will probably not have heard of her but she's worth a Google.

Charles Lewton Brain who has developed the technique of fold forming metal and I also admire a jeweller who is at the forefront of ethical jewellery, Ute Decker. The source of the materials I work with has niggled me, the idea that I create adornments from material which has been mined with dubious connections. The human rights and environmental issues are huge and the supply chain for materials is very complex. I have begun to look into this and my supplier can provide 100% recycled silver. This is not a perfect solution as you never know exactly where the original silver was mined but it's a start. There is an excellent blog on Ute's web site if anyone is interested. I will continue to explore this area.

In terms of painting I particularly love the work of Scottish painters Anne Redpath, William Gillies and Elizabeth Blackadder. Having now returned to live in Scotland I'm very much enjoying getting in touch with Scottish painting again. Lucien Freud’s drawings are another favourite. To be honest there are too many favourites to mention.

Describe your workspace or studio for us.

My work room is at the back of my house which looks onto Stronach wood. With its monumental Scots pines, which squirrels spiral around, it can be distracting but very beautiful.

How do you tend to work – in concentrated bursts, sporadically, or in a regular daily pattern?

The frequency and intensity that I work in is dependent on how much work I have on. My preferred way to work is in bursts of a couple of hours, stopping to potter for 10 or 15 minutes and then returning. It can be quite intense working on a small scale and having to be precise. Training as a painter I was encouraged to make huge free brush strokes, silversmithing is very different. I don't like working to time pressures and resist this as much as I can possibly do.

And what are you working on at present?

I am continuing to develop my work on folding. I find that as long as I am working ideas develop and creativity flows.

Thank you very much Ann.

The Christmas offering on December 13th at 6.30 in Corrie and Sannox Hall is going to be a Christmas Triple Bill and Supper. Three films with supper in between (bring a dish if you would like to). This is a very convivial evening and children are especially welcome at the first film. The films are;

Dinner for One (18 mins.)

A comedy sketch written by British author Lauri Wylie for the theatre in the 1920s. It went on to become the most frequently repeated TV programme ever.

Song of the sea - Ireland 2014 Cert PG

A visually beautiful animation rich in Irish folklore based of the selkie legend.

What We Did on our Holidays - Directed by Andy Hamilton 2014 Cert 12A

While visiting family in the Scottish Highlands, a troubled couple (Rosamund Pike, David Tennant) try to put on a happy face, but their three children innocently reveal all of their biggest secrets. According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Witty and well-cast, What We Did on Our Holiday injects unlikely laughs into a story dealing with dark, difficult themes.”

Do come along – everyone is welcome.

Tim Pomeroy is not only an outstanding artist, musician and poet but also a very personable man. He is charming and both well spoken and well read, and so it was on a cold bright day in Edinburgh that I found myself at the Fine arts society for Tim’s first solo exhibition in years. Tim, who lives in and works as a sculptor from his studio in Lamlash is exhibiting until the 23rd of December with beautiful pieces including a sculpture made from re claimed bark found in an Arran bog and another carved out of marble and polished with diamond paper of three different grades until it now shines to a highly reflective finish. He also uses wood and copper to produce earthy and yet ethereal pieces.

On Saturday the 21st I was privileged to not only observe these works first hand but also to hear Tim talk about his art and life as an artist. Although Tim was obviously nervous he held us captivated as he talked of his Presbyterian upbringing which has influenced his way of working, for example the attention to detail given to a piece and often the painstakingly slow process taken to create such works. Time which would shake the patience of most of us and which Tim himself needs a break from sometimes, to rest the eyes from close up work and take up pen to create poetry or guitar to voice song as way of release. Making art can be hard graft!

Tim spoke of his former belief in God and the subsequent lack of faith formed along life’s path. He took a candid look at spirituality through art and faith quoting Colm Toibin whom writing about TS Elliot’s Little Gidding and Larkin’s Church Going, said that “I may not believe in (the power of) fairy rings, but if I found one in my garden I would not destroy it”.

Tim’s inquisitive artist’s mind and eye keep him connected to the earth and its line between past and present, the constant search for an arrow head amongst the heather, and indeed his work reflects the prehistoric in shape and content drawing us to each piece as a moth to a flame. It was a pleasure to hear and see Tim’s obvious passion and great skill for his work and I would urge all to go and experience it first hand.

Tim Pomeroy's show is on at the Fine Arts Society, Dundas Street, Edinburgh until the 23rd of December

Fyne Futures provides a range of community projects to improve the environment and promote sustainability in and around Argyll and Bute. It currently operates a fortnightly recycling kerbside collection, collecting a range of materials from plastic bottles to cans, paper and tetrapaks, as well as a textile kerbside collection service. Fyne Futures also manage a collection service for unwanted furniture across Bute. This is offered for resale in the ‘Restyle Rothesay’ furniture shop.

The organisation is committed to providing employment opportunities for the long-term unemployed as well as offering placements in partnership with Argyll Training, and also offers volunteer opportunities.

The recycling centre is now managed alongside Bute Produce and Towards Zero Carbon Bute, and a new project involving the collection and processing into compost of kitchen waste, and of green waste. This is part of the Zero Waste Bute initiative, the aim of which is to inspire, educate and empower people to take action and live more sustainably. The ambition is that Bute will become an island which

• Views waste as a resource
• Takes an integrated approach to waste/resource management
• Seeks solutions that provide multiple benefits, including contribution to ‘zero carbon’ and resource efficiency
• Delivers Zero Waste Towns as an exemplar, going beyond national average expectations
• Acts as a catalyst for change and performance in the national context
• Supports more sustainable ways of living

On Wednesday 11th November Reeni Kennedy-Boyle, General Manager of Fyne Futures, came to Arran to describe the work that they are doing on Bute and the progress made so far, at a public meeting organized by Eco Savvy, Arran’s own sustainability charity. Reeni explained the steps involved in the setting up of the food waste collection service, and the processing of the waste in their rocket composter before it can be made available to the public to use as compost. She described some of the problems they had encountered and how they had tackled them, and how they are now moving on to dealing with green waste such as grass cuttings.

Like Bute, Arran has a serious problem with food and green waste. At present it is all shipped off the island to landfill, but in a few years time this will no longer be allowed. Grass cuttings are often dumped on the foreshore where they are unsightly and polluting. Imagine the difference if we could use food and green waste as a resource to make fine compost for our gardens – a waste problem would be solved, jobs and training opportunities created here, and unnecessary transportation of compost to the island avoided.

The Eas Mor hydroelectric scheme at Kildonan is now up and running! The photograph below shows the green-roofed turbine house, designed to fit in with its surroundings.

The scheme is a high head run of river system, with installed capacity of 95kW, and will be a much needed addition to the renewable energy contribution to the National Grid.

Eas Mor Ecology Limited say that once the start-up loans are paid off all profits from the electricity generation will be put in to their charitable aims. This includes the construction of ecology and reception centres and increasing the path network on the site. The paths that have been built will in time be used by battery-powered scooters powered by the Eas mor hydroelectric power generating system. This will allow access to the beautiful forest for disabled visitors.

There is more information about the scheme on the Eas Mor website.

This took place on Monday 23rd November. As well as the AGM business there was a Gardeners Question Time, a vegetable cake competition (won by an amazing sprout and kale cake!), kids activities, a raffle, and lots of information on the project so far. Plans for the coming year include the planting of 20 rare Arran Whitebeam saplings, lots of fruit trees, a showcase allotment, waymarked paths, and hosting local school groups, outdoor education groups, and offering courses in conjunction with colleges. Some of this depends on securing further grant funding, and also on local volunteers helping out with the many tasks needing to be done.

The online campaigning organization 38degrees is conducting a survey about land reform in Scotland. Readers of the Voice can have their say by visiting the 38degrees website.

Andy Wightman is a well know writer and researcher on Scottish land ownership. His latest blog can be found here. It begins:

“In January, I blogged about the opaque ownership of Kildrummy Estate in Aberdeenshire. A gamekeeper, George Mutch, had been convicted of wildlife crime. Under Section 24 of the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011, an employer or agent of George Mutch can be charged with vicarious liability.

I asked a simple question – against whom would such a charge be brought? The estate is owned by Kildrummy (Jersey) Ltd. and, having outlined the complex ownership structure of Kildrummy (Jersey) Ltd, I speculated that the Crown Office might have a job on its hands to determine who (if anyone) could be prosecuted.”

Andy has been proved right; Police Scotland are unable to charge anyone with vicarious liability because of the complex ownership structure of Kildrummy Estate.

Kildrummy Estate is not the only Scottish estate to have an opaque ownership structure and to be registered in Jersey. All of which makes the existence of the Arran Community Land Initiative a small but significant symbol in the struggle for fair and transparent land ownership here on our island.

Dolina McLennan

The November meeting of Arran's Saltire Society featured the enchanting Dolina McLennan, an actress and consummate story-teller. Still with the lilt of her Hebridean ancestry, she reminisced her way through a colourful life that took her from Skye to the theatre and TV. Refreshingly, it was no listing of triumphs, rather a contrasting of life today and then. What stood out was the freedom from convention in those days – the way a little school could open worlds of imagination and possibility, with no insistence on a pre-set curriculum and tests. Partly reading from her own book but constantly taken up with new ideas, Dolina involved her audience at a very deep level, opening up memories and stories and laughter. A night to be remembered.

It takes time to adapt to using hearing aids – getting used to new sounds as well as managing the hearing aids themselves. Our Hear to Help service on Arran can enable people to make the most of their hearing aids and manage their hearing loss effectively.

Our Hear to Help staff and volunteers can provide support with the following:

• tubing, minor repairs, ear mould cleaning and battery replacement
• advice and support on maintenance of hearing aids
• advice and support on making the most of the hearing aids
• information and signposting to other services
• introduction to other useful equipment.

All our services are provided free of charge.

Our local drop in service on Arran runs at the Arran War Memorial Hospital, Lamlash KA27 8LF on the 4th Tuesday of every month between 11am – 1pm. Please note that there will be no service on Arran in December. Dates for 2016 will be published as soon as we have them.

We also deliver services in local care homes, sheltered housing and day care centres. We also carry out home visits to people that are housebound and would struggle to access the service in Lamlash or Crosshouse Hospitals.

We currently have over 200 people registered to use the service on Arran. Since the service was launched in 2013, we have saved these people thousands of hours in travel time, as well as thousands of pounds in money, as they no longer have to travel to Crosshouse Hospital for basic hearing aid support!

If you require more information about the service please contact us or look at our website.

Donna McSwiggan
Project Coordinator
Tel: 01563 539900/07429199617
Email: donna.mcswiggan@hearingloss.org.uk

Selected by David Underdown, who also wrote the commentary

Capital

by John Lanchester

Reviewed by Alison Prince

John Lanchester's novel about London, simply called Capital and now serialised on BBC television, is clever, hard-hitting and often very funny. It peeps, if you'll forgive the pun, at Pepys Road, a London street with residents ranging from the Pakistani family running the local shop to Smitty, a performance artist. Bogdan the builder is in fact Zbigniew Tomascewski from Poland, but doesn't say so. Elderly, ascerbic Petunia, who is irritated rather than dismayed when told she has cancer, is seen steadily through to the end. Shahid is in prison, but doesn't understand why. Mill the policeman never manages to find someone called Kwame Lyons, who pays immigrant workers in slightly under-value cash for the cheques they receive at work. The wildly mingled flow of people from all nations through the houses of Pepys Road is brilliantly done, as is the overall picture of traditional London houses falling into very different forms of use. Casual, laid-back, making no judgement, it lays open this mixed and crammed community with the dexterity of a surgeon's scalpel, but is never indifferent. Each of the characters who wander, stride or struggle through these pages comes over as utterly real. Lanchester's writing is a joy, laconic, funny and deeply human, like Dostoevsky with the boring bits left out. Deeply moving and human, Capital is also funny and hugely enjoyable.

Capital by John Lanchester. Faber paperback £7,99. ISBN 978-0-571-23462-2

South to make four hearts. West leads the ♠Q.

Some answers are seasonal and have no clues. These are marked with an asterisk.

Earlier this year, Lancashire council refused to grant permission for fracking. In case anyone doesn't know, this is the process of drilling for natural gas by fracturing the rocks deep in the earth by forcing fluid into them. But now, in a move that makes a mockery of local democracy, Greg Clark, the minister responsible for overseeing local government, has announced that Westminster will have the power to override any objection by councils.

This is profoundly undemocratic, and potentially downright dangerous. A friend of mine living in Preston, Lancashire, has already felt his end-of-terrace house shaken by fracking tremors.

Should we not be able to invoke the ancient principle of Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos. (The owner owns also the right from heaven to the deepest earth.)

Clearly, this right is no longer ours. Time to resist.

Sign the petition here.

Alison Prince

Just one in five salmon farms in Scotland has installed the most effective method of deterring seals, data reveals, prompting fresh criticism of claims that the animals are shot as “a last resort”.

Scottish environment secretary Richard Lochhead has said that 80% of salmon farms do not use anti-predator nets to prevent seals attacking salmon cages.

While all sites in Scotland are fitted with some form of seal deterrent, evidence suggests that anti-predator nets, which encompass the entire farm and provide a first wall of defence against marine predators, are the most effective, and at an average cost of £1m to install, the most expensive.

The latest data on seals shot by salmon farms, covering January-July of this year, shows that Grieg Seafood, which has fitted anti-predator nets at its farms, killed one seal. Companies that have not fitted anti-predator nets have shot many more. They include Marine Harvest, which killed 15 seals, Scottish Sea Farms (12) and the Scottish Salmon Company (11).

Compared with the same period last year, the number of seals shot by salmon farms in Scotland rose 20%, although ministers insist that the overall trend is down, with a 55% reduction in seal shooting over the past four years.

Anti-predator nets are the most effective deterrent for salmon farms but cost £1m to install.

Campaigners have renewed calls for bodies such as the RSPCA to withdraw their endorsement of farmed salmon produced by firms that have not installed the nets and protests are planned next month in London and outside the RSPCA head office in Sussex.

“The price for seal-friendly farmed salmon is the installation of predator nets and that could be £1m for each salmon farm,” said Don Staniford, an environmental campaigner. “Given that there are 143 active salmon farms in Scotland and one in five have installed them, the cost to the Scottish salmon farming industry could be well over £100m. Until all salmon farms install predator nets, consumers should boycott all Scottish salmon.”

Lochhead outlined the position on seal deterrents in a letter to Roderick Campbell MSP, who recently led a members’ debate in the Scottish parliament on the declining seal population.

An increasingly popular option at farms is to fit the bottom of nets with blinds that hide salmon from seals.

“All fish farms included in applications for a seal licence already employ at least one, and many a range of, non-lethal alternatives,” wrote Lochhead. “All use tensioned nets, almost half use acoustic deterrents, a third use seal blinds, and a fifth use anti-predator nets.

“The use of such measures has contributed to an overall reduction of 55% in seal shooting since the system was introduced in 2011.”

In correspondence with Staniford, Campbell wrote it was “deeply unfortunate that some salmon farms consider it necessary to shoot seals. I recognise the need to protect very valuable fish stocks, but I also appreciate that this should not come at the cost of the lives of seals.”

Dear Editor

It was good to see the thought provoking piece in last month’s Voice about the problems associated with plastic in our oceans. The Arran Coastal Way team are doing an impressive clean-up.

Last year I was a crew member on eXXpedition, an all-women scientific research voyage across the Atlantic from Lanzarote to Martinique. Amongst other activities we were trawling daily for plastic particles in the top few feet of ocean to add to the data now being collected across the earth. I was privileged to have as one of my watch mates Dr Jenna Jambeck, now the lead author on a major paper published in Science, the leading American journal. Go to http://jambeck.engr.uga.edu/landplasticinput for links to the full article, supplementary data, and the text of an introductory discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

I believe it would be from this paper that your writer drew the information about the amount of plastic reaching the oceans. Dr Jambeck’s research team did indeed conclude that an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic reached the oceans in 2010, but not through deliberate dumping. Only a tiny proportion is estimated to be thrown away, whereas the great majority of this shocking tonnage is mismanaged waste that escapes from landfill or other land based sites, as can be seen in the graphic below, which is from Dr Jambeck’s paper. This total does not include rubbish from ships, fishing, or lost through floods, tsunamis or other disasters.

The picture is not quite as bad as your writer described, in that the annual figure is not predicted to increase tenfold by 2020. The paper in Science predicted that the 8 million tonne pa figure would slightly more than double by 2025, (to 17.5 million metric tonnes) and that in the intervening 15 years a total of 150 million metric tonnes would be added to what is already there. This is quite bad enough!

One of the shocking findings drawn from Dr Jambeck’s research is that their robust estimate of tonnage entering the oceans does not fit at all with the previously estimated amount of plastic floating on the oceans’ surfaces. It is at least 20 times larger than the highest estimate and up to 2000 times larger than the lowest estimate. This has raised the urgent question of where all the plastic goes. While some of the lost plastic appears on our shorelines (and is sometimes collected by concerned citizens), much must be suspended in the water column, or accumulating at the bottom of the sea. A great deal will be disintegrating into micro particles with all the attendant dangers your writer noted.

Dr Jambeck’s research is also concerned to point towards mitigation strategies for the whole world. We have to reduce mismanaged waste and we have to reduce waste generation and plastic use, especially single use plastics. This is where we each have the power to make a difference, from not taking plastic bags for veg in the co-op to never again buying a plastic water bottle. Sales of these are now being banned in progressive American states. We can get there too. Lobby the Government anyone?

Yours
Sue Weaver