Support Us

Month: September 2014

Categories
News Project Updates

Trading Journeys: On Yer Bike

Our third intrepid traveller, Uula Jero will leave Balmacllelan on Saturday morning, picking up keen cyclists at New Galloway and making their way down to Wigtown, passing through the picturesque Galloway Forest Park. If cycling is your thing, you are very welcome to join Uula at New Galloway. If you are interested please send us a quick email to [email protected] and we’ll pass on the necessary details.

Uula will be somewhat unmistakable as he brings with him, not just one of his amazing cargo bikes, but also a pedal powered foundry! Remember the charcoal that the boats are bringing from Creetown (see earlier post here), the foundry is charcoal fueled and the creetown charcoal will contribute to the heat necessary to melt and cast our very own Wigtown spoons! (more about Billy Marshall and his spoons here)

One of our early foundry tests. We do not reccomend coal as it is a bit too much for our liking! Image thanks to The Hidden Mill
One of our early foundry tests. We do not reccomend coal as it is a bit too much for our liking! Image thanks to The Hidden Mill
Early test pours in Balmaclellan
Early test pours in Balmaclellan

The spoons will be cast in front of a live audience outside the Wigtown County Buildings as part of Trading Journeys on Saturday evening, the 27th of September. We are making a very limited edition of spoons, so if you would like your very own Wigtown spoon come along to our spoon mould crafting workshop during the afternoon. Workshops will take place from 12 noon in Southfield Park, and are free to everyone.

Our foundry had it's first outing as part of our Nithraid earlier this month in Dumfries, where we cast Nithraid buttons!
Our foundry had it’s first outing as part of our Nithraid earlier this month in Dumfries, where we cast Nithraid buttons! Image: Galina Walls
Mould making workshops as part of Nithraid 2014. The moulds are made from cuttlefish if you are interested! Image: Galina Walls
Mould making workshops as part of Nithraid 2014. The moulds are made from cuttlefish if you are interested! Image: Galina Walls

We will also be holding drumming and flag making workshops in preparation for our procession prior to the spoon pour. The procession is open to all to join in.

Full details of the running order of the event are available on our website Trading Journeys page here.

Categories
Musings News Project Updates

Trading Journeys: Part Two

If boats aren’t your thing, and you like a more measured pace, keep your eyes open for Alice Francis is travelling with her horse who are making a three day trip to Wigtown from Auchencairn.

As they travel Alice will be creating a standard that will form the head of the Wigtown Trading Journey’s procession that will take place on Saturday afternoon. She will also be recounting the story of Billy Marshall, who supposedly had lived 120 years in southern Scotland and always claimed to be the “King of the Gypsies”. He was ,also, referred to as the “Caird of Barullion”. Caird (a skilled gypsy) referring to ceardon (a skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft). Barullion is the name of a range of hills in the county of Wigtonshire in the council area of Dummfries-Galloway, in southern Scotland. Another so-called title of his was “King of the Randies”. The word Randies in this context may be referring to a type of macho, virile, man that despised all rule and authority.

Billy Marshall is buried in Kirkcudbright, and his grave features the curious crossed spoons on the reverse.

The crossed spoons possibly may represent a wish for his people that they may never go hungry, for the coins at his grave site may have been left there with a goodluck wish, but originally they were left there for a poor travelling gypsy to be able to buy another meal. The spoons probably represent horn spoons, which have been popular in Europe and Scandinavia as far back as medieval times, being, also popular with the Vikings. Horn spoon making has been a tradition among gypsies since the 1600’s, and possibly had been a labor of love for Billy Marshall.

If you find that you have a hidden talent for spoon playing, bring that new talent along to Wigtown on Saturday, it’s bound to come in useful!

For more details on the stove network’s Trading Journeys, head across to our project page here

Trading Journeys has been created as part of the Wigtown Book Festival

Categories
News Project Updates

Crossing the Cree

Suffering from withdrawal symptoms from last weekends Nithraid? Never fear, there is another opportunity to join us as we make the journey to Wigtown Book Festival on Saturday, 27th of September. And we’re not just taking the A75 from Dumfries. Stove members are each making their own journeys the the former county town with its inheritance of martyrdom in Covenanting times and its modern booktown status, once the central crossroads in trading routes and pilgrimage routes through the West of the region.

First off Mark Zygadlo will be hoping for a little more wind than on Nithraid day as he and a flotilla of intrepid sailors make the journey across the Cree from the Ferry Bell at Creetown across the water to the old Wigtown Harbour. This flotilla is being kept to small numbers for safety reasons but if you wish to join the sailors there may still be an additional space left, please get in touch asap to Mark: [email protected]

button and uula-2lowres
Maneuvers 1 and 2, the boats are to be launched from a small slipway alongside the A75 before paddling under the road bridge.

Each boat will carry a small cargo of charcoal made at Creetown Primary School with the help of Phoebe and Will Marshall. This will be used to power Uula Jero’s pedal-powered foundry… but more on that later!

Screen Shot 2014-09-21 at 16.37.09
The route follows the Cree before making it’s way up the Bladnoch. The flotilla will be guided by Alan Wykes in his motor who knows the Bladnoch channel.

For more details on the stove network’s Trading Journeys, head across to our project page here

Trading Journeys has been created as part of the Wigtown Book Festival

Categories
News Project Updates

Rushes from Nithraid 2014

The Salty Coo Procession

Great weather – great people – great town – great river…..art making places. More than 5000 people were on the Whitesands for the Nithraid over Saturday afternoon – even Alex Salmond turned up at one point. Happy Days!

This is a really quick set of images from the day…..more to follow soon

Photos from The Stove Documentation Team (Colin Tennant, Galina Walls, Kim Ayres, Drew Johnstone) and ‘Our D+G’ Facebook Page…thanks all!!

Stove member Mark Zygadlo is the nautical brians behind the Nithraid...simply wuld not happen without him. Who knows he might even win one year ;-)
Stove member Mark Zygadlo is the nautical brians behind the Nithraid…simply would not happen without him. Who knows he might even win one year 😉
Boats ready to go at Carsethorn
Boats ready to go at Carsethorn
Le Mans style racing start
Le Mans style racing start
Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 13.07.19
Off at a terrifying pace….
people watched from vantage points all the way up the 10 mile course
people watched from vantage points all the way up the 10 mile course
Crowds waiting at Whitesands
Crowds waiting at Whitesands
The anticipation was too much for some
The anticipation was too much for some
Meanwhile in town, people were assembling fro the Salty Coo procession
Meanwhile in town, people were assembling fro the Salty Coo procession
The Salty Coo Procession
The Salty Coo Procession
The amazing Balkan Street Carnival Band was led by Ruth Morris (left) who also wrote the music specially for the event
The amazing Balkan Street Carnival Band was led by Ruth Morris (left) who also wrote the music specially for the event
The Salty Coo was extra salty this year
The Salty Coo was extra salty this year
Whilst the Salty Coo was coming down the Vennel, the First Minister arrived at Dervogilla Bridge and crossed to the Whitesands...happy chaos everywhere
Whilst the Salty Coo was coming down the Vennel, the First Minister arrived at Dervogilla Bridge and crossed to the Whitesands…happy chaos everywhere
meanwhile on the Sands
meanwhile on the Sands
Our Market was open ...the Beauty Booth
Our Market was open …the Beauty Booth
Stove Herald Moxie DePaulitte had the scouts on her stall....they were teaching people knots
Stove Herald Moxie DePaulitte had the scouts on her stall….they were teaching people knots
Doonhame Derby Dolls
Doohame Derby Dolls in the market
Uula and Katie's mobile foundry was working overtime to keep up with demand from people wanting to make Nithraid Buttons
Uula and Katie’s mobile foundry was working overtime to keep up with demand from people wanting to make Nithraid Buttons
A freshly made Nithraid button and its maker
A freshly made Nithraid button and its maker
Race tracking central....our very own Will Levi Marshall kept up a commentary throughout the day, with information supplied by the Dumfries and Galloway Radio Unit
Race tracking central….our very own Will Levi Marshall kept up a commentary throughout the day, with information supplied by the Dumfries and Galloway Radio Unit
Whitesands shore - our scale model of the Nith had model boats showing the current standings in the race
Whitesands shore – our scale model of the Nith had model boats showing the current standings in the race
The Wheel of Hope was a chance for people to be part of a collective vision for Scotland
The Wheel of Hope was a chance for people to be part of a collective vision for Scotland
Meanwhile the crowds at Whitesands
Meanwhile the crowds at Whitesands
Salty Coo on CDM
The Salty Coo waited for the boats from its vantage point atop the CDM (Coo Delivery Mechanism)
The winning boat arrived! (Skippered by Roger Blamire)
The winning boat arrived! (Skippered by Roger Blamire)
Each boat carried a piece of cargo up the Nith - they finished the race by delivering their package
Each boat carried a piece of cargo up the Nith – they finished the race by delivering their package
The dunking of the Salty Coo - Josh for the winning boat - with comely assistants Bill Barlow and Robbie Coleman
The dunking of the Salty Coo – Josh for the winning boat – with comely assistants Bill Barlow and Robbie Coleman
A crew of intrepid Nithraiders after finishing
A crew of intrepid Nithraiders after finishing
Salty Coo heads off down the Nith, dissolving as it goes
Salty Coo heads off down the Nith dissolving as it goes
Categories
Musings News Project Updates

News from the Band

From Ruth Morris

By far the most difficult part of the whole thing has been finding enough young musicians to take part. We had the idea of a Balkan style street carnival band. To sound like that, one needs a few brass/ woodwind instruments, which turn out to be like hen’s teeth in Dumfries and Galloway! However we have a few now, including a euphonium, a trombone, some clarinets and some saxophones. We also have fiddles, accordions, flute and percussion. So it should be very lively!

To hear it at it’s best, join the parade through Dumfries from 1.30pm this Saturday, or see the band perform the full piece on our stage on the Whitesands later in the afternoon.

Writing music for transposing instruments, eg clarinets, saxophones, euphoniums is full of interesting challenges. For example, if I want everyone in the room to play the note ‘C’, I have to tell fiddles, flutes, accordions etc to play ‘C’. But I have to tell clarinets and euphoniums to play ‘D’, and I have to tell alto saxophones to play an ‘A’. This can lead to confusion, as I’m sure you can imagine.

But once everyone has worked out what the notes are, it’s a truly wonderful sound, loud and powerful. For most of the people involved, this is a very different kind of music to what they normally play, so it’s a great opportunity for everyone to try something a bit different.

Writing it was a lot of fun. We usually start with an idea for a melody line, then once that has become fixed, find some nice chords that work with it. We often then record that, which gives something to try different harmony parts against. We adapt the parts to suit the players that are involved. We’re very pleased with how the Nithraid music has come out, it will work well for a parade.

Ruth Morris and Gavin Marwick are part of the Stove’s Nithraid team, working to develop and grow the procession that will see the salty coo carried through the streets of Dumfries and down to the riverside where it will take pride of place over the River Nith to welcome in the arriving boats. This year’s Nithraid takes place on Saturday, 13th of September. A dangerous dinghy race from Carsethorn upriver, the boats will arrive in the centre of Dumfries with the high tide at approximately 3.45pm. There is a lot going down on the Whitesands all afternoon, full details on our Nithraid page here.

Categories
Musings News

The List of the River Nith

From Mark Zygadlo

Here’s
the rainbow scum
in the peaty puddle,
the floating wabbling moss
pressed to a trickle, to the stony sykes
and the burns with the overhanging alder banks,
the Marr, the Scaur, you know them all.
Plunge pools between the rocks
where something cold in the shape of a tiny fish
slimes to the stones and you dare not touch it,
innocuous though you are.
The falls and the places of the saved, the plains flood, bunds and bridges now, drains and stinking outfalls, rich weed and confluences, abbey ruins, mills, houses, fishing beats those who should and those who shouldn’t, lord bless us and slow us every one.

The river Nith's tidal bore seen at Glencaple. Image available in the Dumfries Museum collection
The river Nith’s tidal bore seen at Glencaple. Image available in the Dumfries Museum collection

Now here’s a river that flows both ways twice a day, here’s a river with a bore, here’s a river of great salmon and otters in the town centre, here’s river that worked, here’s a river that sent a thousand swanskin gloves in a single ship, here’s a river that’s been trained and straightened, blasted, dredged, bridged, forded, made electricity, turned the town mill. It’s the replying torrent that floods the town and carries off the eroded hills, it fills and empties with millions upon millions of tons of seawater twice a day and here’s a benign stream of clear tea stained water with islands and ducks and white flowering weed.
Here are the docks and wharves o’ergrown, the flattening merse, the ooze, the whetted wind that opens the distance to the sea. This is the sea. The Nith is a constant with darkness laying along its meandering silty bed. No day is the same yet…

The Rise of Denmark in full sail on the River Nith. From the collection of the Dumfries Museum
The Rise of Denmark in full sail on the River Nith. From the collection of the Dumfries Museum

Mark Zygadlo is part of the Stove’s Nithraid team, developing the boat race itself and this year has also been working to create a large installation in the centre of the River Nith. This year’s Nithraid takes place on Saturday, 13th of September. A dangerous dinghy race from Carsethorn upriver, the boats will arrive in the centre of Dumfries with the high tide at approximately 3.45pm. There is a lot going down on the Whitesands all afternoon, full details on our Nithraid page here.

Skip to content