This is Pittencrieff House in Dunfermline.  I nipped over there one fine day recently.  Although I've been to Dunfermline several times in recent years it's always been to an event, generally some jazz in the Carnegie Hall.  I hadn't visited the town since I was a child and thought it was about time I saw how the one time capital and resting place of many Scottish kings was getting on.

The Abbey is at least as much of a ruin as it was when I last saw it and the Abbey Church has crumbled a bit and was closed.  They look pretty good though.  Here's a shot from the church doorway of the Abbey ruins.

And a closer view of part of the ruins,

and an attempt to get everything in the one shot.

Getting back to Pittencrief House, it was built in the 17th century by one Sir Alexander Clerk and passed eventually into the hands of Andrew Carnegie who gifted it and the extensive grounds to the town in 1903.  Read all about it here.

Anyway Alexander had an eye for a good spot.  There's a brilliant view south over the Forth to the Pentlands.  There were no bridges in his day but if anything they enhance the view.  My snapshot doesn't do it justice but blown up it's not bad.  Just click on it to test my contention.  I'm now using it as my PC wallpaper.












There have been some fascinating photographs on display at the National Library and at the Portrait Gallery.  This is a collection that spans 100 years from the beginnings of photography in the 1840s and contains the work of early pioneers, of professionals and of amateurs.  Closed now it will be on tour and I think ultimately all of the images will be available online. Google provides a selection here.

Moving on to moving pictures I had a bit of a binge over three days.  I saw Parasite, the Oscar winner.  It was very entertaining and while I appreciated its social message about the disparities between rich and poor I didn't rush out to buy a copy of the Sociaislt Worker or (spoiler alert) a carving knife.

Ninotchka is a 1930s romcom starring Greta Garbo.  Filmhouse had it scheduled for their biggest screen on Valentine's Day but it was pushed out to the much smaller second screen by Parasite.  I'm sure there is some sort of social message there but I can't quite identify it.

Anyway the film is great fun.  Garbo is a severe straitlaced Bolshevik aparatchik sent to Paris to rectify the incompetence of her Marx brothers like comrades who are not doing well in trying to sell the confiscated jewels of a White Russian duchess living there.  They have been thwarted by the Duchess's right-hand man (and lover?) Count something or other, played by the devilishly handsome Melvyn Douglas.  Naturally he takes on Garbo and things wind up as might be expected.

The third was another romcom, the newly released Emma.  Jane Austen's annoying, even to a degree unlikeable heroine has long been one of my favourite characters in her canon. Her other heroines have a tendency to be flawless but Emma gets it wrong every time.  Her match making falters and fails thanks to her need to manage others and an overconfident assessment of her own people reading skills.  Her putdown of Miss Bates even suggests a touch of cruelty in her nature.  But with Knightley's help she redeems herself and her eyes are opened not least to the fact that she loves him and he her.

I loved the film.  The plot unrolls with nary a glance at any of the grim reality that accompanied the golden age in which it exists.  It is delightfully shot in chocolate box settings.  The country house grandeur was maybe even a touch too grand.  The acting and characterisations were beyond criticism.  Escapism of high degree.

Garbo was a Hollywood legend as was Marlene Dietrich and at the Queen's Hall this month there was a show billed as Ute Lemper sings Marlene.  She did, but she did much more.  She performed Marlene's life ranging over her cabaret years in Germany, her Hollywood career, her political views, her involvement in boosting the morale of American soldiers in the second world war, her relationship with her daughter (not good), and her love life in which she spread herself widely over man and womankind.  Check out this website for the tantalising story of the coming together of those two amazing stars.

Ever heard a pibroch played on the violin.  Well that was Rachel Barton Pine's encore after she played Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the RSNO.  She actually swapped her own violin for a Scottish fiddle to play Macintosh's Lament.  No doubt that gave it greater authenticity.  It was lovely.  I wouldn't say it overshadowed the concerto but it was jolly engaging.  If you look at her very catholic musical activities on Wikipedia it comes as no surprise to hear a pibroch at her hands.

Just as well I didn't resolve to be an assiduous blogger this year since I've totally neglected that task not only since New Year but since long before Christmas.

So a rapid catch up would be in order.  Delicious Christmas lunch of Mushroom Wellington by Claire.  A post Christmas binge watching session of three seasons of Better Call Saul which I enjoyed so much that I rushed onto the internet, ordered season four and devoured it on arrival.

Rugby at Murrayfield to see Edinburgh triumph over Glasgow in  the 1872 Cup.

Then off to Keswick for New Year rescuing a damsel in distress by taking Miriam's passport down so that she'd get off to the snow with her auntie and others.

Stayed up till midnight and watched this wonderful firework display coming, courtesy of BBC iPlayer from Edinburgh.  Imagine being too idle to nip out to Keswick Market Square to rejoice with the populace there.

A few episodes of Armando Ianucci's Veep were great as was a wee fresh air stroll in the beautiful though occasionally spooky forest while Connor was hurtling himself downhill on a bike.

Then a week in Gran Canaria enjoying some winter sun as well as some winter mist, winter cold and winter rain.  They have fascinating climates these Canaries where within a few miles of one another are all year round sun-soaked beaches and well watered lush forests. Here are two contrasting views from different parts of the island.

Back in Blighty things got going in their usual manner, wine-tasting, Dunedin Band, U3A Italian, fascinating university lunch and talk about robotics, Pride and Prejudice (sort of) at The Lyceum (a fun-filled evening) and rehearsals for a show I was cast in before Christmas.  It's a Goldoni farce called The Venetian Twins in a scottified version that romped through The Lyceum four or five years ago.  If we do it well enough it will be very funny.  It's very much a comedy, indeed a farce centred on the situations of mistaken identity that arise from the simultaneous presence in Verona of the twins who don't know that each other is there and their interactions with the other characters.  As is fitting in an 18th century story the servants tend to be wiser than their masters.  There are three deaths but as my character says "you can't have everything" and all ends happily with no fewer than three weddings.