There's a radio programme called Scotland Outdoors broadcast early on a Saturday morning that I quite often hear as I drift in and out of wakefulness.  An item on the Winchburgh Willow Cathedral caught my attention and I set off one day to see it for myself.

I had expected something a little bigger than the construction that appears in the photograph. Indeed I walked past it thinking "surely that can't be it" , my eyes scanning the horizon as the driving rain swept over a well-nigh deserted Auldcathie Park.  A couple of young lads planting trees denied all knowledge explaining they were Glaswegians imported daily for the purpose.

After some more fruitless wanderings I decided that the structure I'd seen must be the cathedral and went back to it where I came across a park maintenance crew one of whose members turned out to have been a contributor to the broadcast I'd heard.  We chatted for a bit and agreed that it would be worth coming back once there is some foliage on the structure.

Like the cathedral the park is just getting off the ground as it were with extensive tree planting and other work going on.  The area outside the park was thick with recently built houses and many more were under construction. They've opened a marina off the Union Canal and have lots of other development plans. It's a growing place and while road access to the M9 is good the townsfolk want a railway station.

I've been to a variety of musical events in the past few weeks.  The RSNO gave a sublime performance of Mahler's 9th Symphony which I don't believe I've ever heard live before.  The last movement was extraordinarily beautiful.  The SCO and their chorus performed Fauré's Requiem and Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs.  The fine baritone Roderick Williams was soloist and it was a lovely concert.

Described by Wikipedia as a jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux seemed to me much more poppy.  The gig was pleasant enough but I wouldn't rush to hear her again.  A friend suggested her recorded music is a more rewarding listen. One thing I did admire though was the version of A Man's a Man for a' That with which she opened. Nicely spiced with topical digs, replacing Burns' "birkie ca'd a lord" for example with reference to Trump.

More recognisable, to me at least, as jazz was Helena Kay's quartet at the Queen's Hall.  I could have done with a few more upbeat numbers (the music was generally restrained) but the tune she finished with, called Virago, from an upcoming CD, promised the prospect of vigour.  Her guests Norman Willmore and Corrie Dick played the first set of the gig, a set of tunes on sax, drums and computer based on Shetlandic folk music.

The fruits of The Lyceum's 2024 trip to New York was a performance of The Merchant of Venice here in Edinburgh by Theatre for a New Audience.  I went intending to enjoy the post-show discussion as well as the performance but it finished quite late and I hadn't been so appreciative of the show that I wanted to know more so I just shot off home as the curtain fell.  This is quite an extensive review and I agree with more or less everything it says.  I'm glad to see it too thought the hints at an Antonio Bassanio homosexual element overdone and the Jessica Lorenzo relationship twisted a degree out of shape.   

There's an interesting little exhibition on at the Central Library about the renovation of the North Bridge. Should be finished this year - yippee!  While I was there I noticed a poster advertising a meeting of the Open History Society about political jokes under Stalin.  I went along.  It was very well attended, at least 80 people I'd say.  It was entertaining.  The speaker, Jonathan Waterlow, has written a book called It's Only A Joke, Comrade in which he discusses not only the jokes people told but why they ran the risks associated with joking in 30s Russia. I enjoyed the talk and the jokes but didn't buy the book. 

A book I did buy recently, prompted by a post on Facebook is This Was My Africa by June Kashita.  Andrew Kashita was Minister for Mines when I arrived in in 1974.  He had married June when he was a student in UK and they went to live in what was then Northern Rhodesia in 1962. The book covers their life together, personal and political from then to 1978 when she left the country plus a further chapter covering a visit she made in 2020 just after Andrew's death though that wasn't what had prompted the visit.

I found the book totally fascinating and raced through it. Lots of public figures whose names and to some extent whose lives I knew something about feature as well as a couple of people I knew personally.  The story of the transition from colony to independent country and the subsequent trials, tribulations and successes is very interesting.  It's doubly interesting having seen or heard of events from the expatriate point of view to see them from the inside. It's similar in that respect to how I felt about Andrew Sardanis's book that I read a while ago.

On radio I've been enjoying Czar of Hearts about  Vladimir Romanov's tenure at Heart of Midlothian.  It's a hoot with more to come since the series hasn't finished yet.  While I was living in Nairobi the BBC produced a TV version of A Scots Quair. Some time last year I saw the first part, Sunset Song when I think it cropped up on BBC4 and have now seen the other two, Cloud Howe and Grey Granite thanks to iPlayer.  Wonderful stuff.

Just last night I saw a programme about Armando Iannucci and learnt that The Thick of It is now on iPlayer, 23 episodes in total.  I shall be rooted to my couch till I've watched them all.