Geology is a useful metaphor for dementia – the bed rock is the oldest and longest lasting memories, gradually reducing through substrate to the surface – the newest memories are the first to disappear.
Awash at sea with my sister
The beauty of the endless motion of the sea and it sounds and one of the many moments of shared humour that makes my sisters Alzheimer's bearable. I choose to take the happy laughter we had together at this stage.
My Sister's Brain
Understanding the cause of Alzheimer's and the impact of dementia helps me deal with the devastating loss of my sisters memory. I treasure every moment I manage to have with her considering she is in Australia. The video of the seemingly silent storm was taken when we watched it together from Cowes in Australia on my last visit and was such a strong visual metaphor for this terrible disease.
Fortunate Isles
La Gomera is one of the volcanic Canary Isles off the dry west coast of Africa. They were called Fortunatae Insulae (Fortunate Islands, or Isles of the Blest) in ancient Roman accounts. The high summit ridge has a number of rocky fingers which are remnant cores or plugs of volcanic activity on the island. The rest of the island has been eroded into steep ravines down to the sea and a dry desert like landscape. The mountainous ridge catches the rolling Trade Winds and traps moisture that often shrouds the peaks which are home to the Canarian Laurisilva woodlands. This is Garajonay National Park a world heritage site since 1986 because of its rare sub tropical woodlands
Mutualism
Lichen are a composite organism that arise from algae living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship as tree spirits or dryads in Greek mythology do with oak or other tree species. Lichen come in many forms - they may have tiny, leafless branches (fruticose); flat leaf-like structures (foliose); grow crust-like, adhering tightly to a surface (substrate) like a thick coat of paint (crustose. Lichens are good sounders of pollution free air and many thrive in the west coast Atlantic Oak woodlands of Scotland. This video poem was photographed and recorded at Taynish National Nature Reserve Argyll one of the finest examples of ancient Atlantic temperate rainforest oak woodlands in Europe 475 lichen species have been recorded at Taynish NNR, including 91 nationally scarce species.
Poltalloch Laundry
Poltalloch House is a Jacobean style country house designed by William Burn and was formerly the seat of the Malcolm’s of Poltalloch. The Malcolm’s were owners of sugar plantations in the West Indies. Money made from the plantation profits and gained following the abolition of slavery was used for a building programme and agrarian improvements on the estate. The house is now on the Buildings at Risk Register having had its roof removed in 1957 after changes in tax laws. The Malcolm’s moved to nearby Duntrune Castle.
Red Coffin
Loss of vision can enhance our sense of hearing and amplify sound. In a wild woodland setting at night in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, entombed in a tent, this heightened awareness of my own vulnerability and fear reached pitch fever.
Endangered Giant
There are 8 species of Baobab trees in the world and 7 are endemic to Madagascar. The beautiful Giant Baobab, 'Adansonia grandidieri', is known in Malagasay as Reniala or Mother of the Forest. She is now endangered through loss of natural habitat to agriculture and in consequence extinction of many of its native seeds dispersers.
Madagascar Memories
Quick sketch book paintings done in situ as I travelled around Madagascar in September 2023 from Andringsitra, Isalo, Kirindy and Morondova. An exotic and colourful country.
Flow
The blanket peat bogs of the Flow Country whose name derives from ‘flowes’, the Scots word for wet peat bog, is itself derived from ‘floi’, Old Norse for wet or marshy. Stretching across Caithness and Sutherland in the far north of Scotland this vast expanse of blanket bog comprises a complex set of interlinked pool systems and micro features that hosts an important biodverse flora and fauna but also plays a vital role in our defence against the effects of climate change
Swift Manoeuvres
Watching gangs of Swifts feeding at sunset is like watching air combat manoeuvres (ACM)- the tactical art of moving, turning, and situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft - namely insects. They are incredible flyers that rarely touch the ground - sleeping, eating, bathing and even mating on the wing, They are also the fastest birds in level flight, with an impressive top speed of 69mph. Swifts are on the red list of the UK Conservation Status Report due to loss of nesting sites in old buildings. The Circular Economy would enable more of these old buildings to be retained and repurposed while keeping nesting sites for these most acrobatic birds.
The Great Eucrite
Ardnamurchan peninsular the most westerly point in the UK. Its volcanic centre is most notable for its place in developing ideas on how magma is emplaced in the upper continental crust. The gabbroic “Great Eucrite” is the finest example of a ring dyke. This video poem is inspired by the volcanic heart of Ardnamurchan its impact on the landscape as well as other great events that impacted on the communities who lived there.
I mourn your passing
In the words of Jim Crumley (The Great Wood)
There are many good reason to plant more trees and to take the time and trouble to do it well. They create the most benevolent of all nature’s habitats. They create opportunities for a greater diversity of wildlife species of all kinds. They create a counterbalance to greenhouse gases. They create stable and long-term rural employment for people…and if rural people are employed they create the circumstances that bond people closer to their place on the map, giving them a stake in the environment of that place. They create opportunities for recreation in a beautiful environment. And they matter for their own sake. And they should matter to us because of the debt we owe.
Elemental
Minerals are links between Earth and human health. The earth's crust contains most of the mineral nutrients our body needs, and the chemical composition of a rock, such as granite, is strikingly similar to the composition of the human body. We rely on geologic processes such as weathering to chemically break down rocks into other natural materials, such as soil, that contain minerals more easily dissolved and are absorbed by roots of plants. When we inhale, the oxygen in the air is bonded to the iron contained in haemoglobin.
Humans share 50% of their DNA with trees
My entry into the off page exhibition of visual poetry that had a successful and busy opening on Thursday 16th March in Glasgow. The piece is a development from previous work around the importance of trees are to humans.
This collection of mini video poems explores this bond with our chlorophyll fuelled woody perennial relatives.
Deeper
Humans share 50% of their DNA with trees - there is an awareness of this connection when we are in a woodland that can give us a sense of wellbeing but also something more than that. It may be a primal link to the importance of trees to our ancestors for shelter, food, warmth and the connection with the seasons, the cosmos and belief systems. Trees are also a repository of information wrapped in years of growth rings that unites us with the past. With that comes both a sense of awe as well as fear of the known and unknown that we can still experience now.
Deeper is the final part of my video piece included in the Off Page exhibition celebrating visual poetry - opening night 16th March 5-8pm at Many Studios 3 Ross Street Glasgow G1 5AR
Prometheus
My final piece of Americana video poetry once again celebrating the Ancients of the Bristlecone pines but this time in a small stand in Great Basin National Park, eastern Nevada. Wheeler Peak is the highest mountain rising out from the desert in the Snake Range. Prometheus was a living member of a population of Bristlecone pine trees growing near the tree line on the lateral moraine in the corrie of the former glacier below Wheeler Peak. In the 1960's it was felled by a student for research purposes and it has subsequently been assessed as being just under 5,000 years old when it was felled and therefore the oldest known non cloned organism. It was named Prometheus after the mythological figure who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.In this poem I consider the appropriateness of the name given to the tree as its life was stolen in passing its knowledge onto humans.
Ancients
The Methuselah is the oldest known living tree at 4,854 years. I first heard about the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest from one of the participants of the Landscapes of the Mind Group. These ancient trees inspired his transformational moment and I totally understand why. They are located high in the White Mountains in Inyo County California set against a backdrop of the Sierra Nevada range. They are great twisted caramalised sculptures eking out an existence in this hostile environment, with a growing season of only 45 days a year . Here the science of dendrochronology was founded and still continues to inform us of using the growth rings of the living as well as dead trees ( some are over 12,000 years old) to determine climate change through history as well as help date archaeological sites.
Tonopah
Made famous to me by a Little Feat song, 'Willin', that takes me back to my teens. Another boom and bust mining town in Nevada which had more success for a few than many others did. The legacy is the Mizpah saloon still on the main route plus the mining park to the rear of the town. At the feet of the old workings are the remnant shacks of the original town and its miners. Now it is more known as a halfway house between the gambling mecca's of Las Vegas and Reno plus of course the nuclear testing range on its doorstep.
Rushed Fever in Death Valley
The astonishing detritus left behind from previous centuries shows the landscape changes endured and still enduring from small to large scale mining activities that led to fevered rushes of thousands coming for the lure of gold and silver. Whilst its activities left terrible scars it also is a reminder of the harsh conditions and loneliness borne by so many