Monday, 27 April 2020

LOCKDOWN PAPER FLOWERS

Still working from home, Christine Kydd and Maureen Crosbie are translating the ORLANG project in a digital format.  Here is the most recent offering.   This edition was also followed up with some Zoom sessions for Kirrie Connections members. Launching many of us into tech hyperspace!

Everlasting:goes on for ever



Appropriately, the ORLANG art activity is week is everlasting, paper flowers.  The irony of the Covid 19 lockdown lasting forever is not lost!















A video of how Maureen prepared the paper is available here

and a demonstration of how the flowers can be make is available here




Thursday, 9 April 2020

A new Way of Working

A NEW APRIL

We are living in difficult times.  
Here in Kirriemuir we are aware that the members of Kirrie Connections are also living in isolation and we are developing ways of reaching out to them.  Our ORLANG projects is being delivered by the postie, in the form of a newsletter.  This is our first attempt.  


















Tuesday, 24 September 2019

AUGUST MEMORIES


MAKING AN IMPRESSION

Country Summers

During our August session, the members were encouraged to remember their childhood outdoor summers.   We visited our community garden to look at the plants flowers and vegetables and came back armed with foliage for further investigation.  This added to the foliage Christine and Maureen had already collected and brought with them.  We tasted and identified herbs, even remembering how they could be used in cooking. 





Christine read us Mr Fox, a story, from Living Voices resource.  A round robin tale of cooperation and cause and effect, it caused quite a philosophical response!  




Christine sang us Fordal Ball by Jim Dunn.  Sung to the familiar tune, Kelvin Grove, it made it ideal for the group to join in. 






Francis, Ian and Evan all read a piece of "Sweet Forget-me-not", a popular poem from Vancouver.  






The Sweet Forget-Me-Not

Fancy brings a thought to mind
Of a flower that's bright and fair
Its grace and beauty both combine
A brighter jewel more rare
Just like a maiden that I know
Who shared my happy lot
She whispered when we parted last
  "Oh, you'll forget me not"

    She's graceful and she's charming, Like the lily in the pond
    Time is flying swiftly by, Of her I am so fond
    The roses and the daisies, Are blooming 'round the spot
    Where we parted, when she whispered, "You'll forget me not"

We met, I really don't know where
  But still it's just the same
For love grows in the city streets
  As well as in the lane
I gently clasped her tiny hand
  One glance at me she shot
She dropped her flower, I picked it up
  'Twas the sweet forget-me-not

And then there came a happy time
  When something that I said
Caused her lips to murmur "Yes"
  And shortly we were wed
There is a cott' down in the land
  And a tiny plot
Where grows a flower, I know it well

  It's the sweet forget-me-not

The Members reminisced about the summer, we spoke about how the time was spent, climbing trees,  making dens.  Francis and Geordie have photographs of themselves during a summer there families spent living near each other up the glen!  Ian remembers summers when he was busy "doing nothing".  Ginny's memories of childhood were coloured by her love of Enid Blyton stories.




As a nod to famous Scottish West Coast holiday activities, Christine told the members a visual story, involving folding and ripping paper, about "Sam's Day Oot, Doon the Watter"
A moral tale about the perils of sailing, the members were reminded of some parental warnings they followed during the summer months.
"Bide awa frae the watter!"

Christine sang a traditional song, to the tune Johnny Cope about cutting the fields by hand.  Evan talked about heuks, sickles and scythes, demonstrating scything across the room!

The Band o' Shearers

Oh summer days and heather bells
   Come blooming owre yon high hill,
There's yellow corn in a' the fields,
   And autumn brings the shearin'.


Bonnie lassie will ye gang
   And shear wi' me the hale day lang?
And love will cheer us as we gang
   Tae join yon band o' shearers.

Oh, if the weather be owre hot
   I'll cast my cravat and my coat
And shear wi' ye amang the lot,
   When we join yon band o' shearers.

And if the thistle is owre strang,
   And pierce your lily milk-white hand,
It's wi' my hook I'll cut them down,
   When we gang tae the shearin'.

And if the weather be owre dry,
   They'll say there's love twixt you and I
But we will proudly pass them by,
   When we join the band o' Shearers.


And when the shearin' it is done
   And slowly sets the evening sun,
We'll have some rantin' roarin' fun,
   And gang nae mair tae the shearin'.


So bonnie lassie bricht and fair
   Will ye be mine for evermair?
If ye'll be mine, then I'll be thine,
   And we gang nae mair tae the shearin'.




We had a trip to the garden to gather more foliage for our afternoon visual art activity.



 


Maureen introduced the group to clay.  An unfamiliar medium to most, but using familiar techniques to roll and press using rolling pins.  The members selected plants and cuttings to press into the wet clay to create designs and record the textures and shapes of the foliage. 




When the clay dried, the panels were sprayed black and then had a gold paint burnished over them.




At the end of this ORLANG session we put together an exhibition in a local gallery to display all the visual art work that the members had worked on over the year so far.  Family and friends were invited too.  It was a great success, the members received some really positive responses and Kirrie Connections was able to promote the meeting centre and all the amazing work they do.









   


Wednesday, 21 August 2019

SUMMER HOLIDAYS


LIFE REALLY IS A ROLLER COASTER

At our July Orlang session we explored our memories of the Summer and in particular summer holidays.  Amongst other things, Christine brought her swimming costume and a bucket and spade with her in her basket this week.


Evan remembered the changing huts on the beach at Montrose, he recited "Learning to Swim" by Eunice Buchanan for us.  We discovered that not all the members in the group could swim, as, in their youth, it was considered to be a dangerous activity.



For Frances a day trip to Dundee, with a film at Greens picture house 
was a Summer event.  Or even a fish tea at Franchi's in Kirriemuir.  




An impromptu version of Donkey Riding ensued after viewing this image and the tune was identified as the marching song of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders by one of the members.

Edwin Morgan 
"The Picnic"

In a little rainy mist of white and grey
we sat under an old tree,
drank tea toasts to the powdery mountain,
undrunk got merry, played catch
with the empty flask, on the pine needles
came down to where it rolled stealthily away –
you lay
with one arm in the rain, laughing
shaking only your wet hair
loose against the grass, in that enchanted place
of tea, with curtains of a summer rain
dropped round is, for a rainy day.




The group had many memories of "the berries" and how the money earned picking them paid for the next years school uniforms.


Christine read the group a beautiful story called "Going to the Zoo" by Marriot Edgar





Maureen introduced the photographs of Grace Robertson a photographer of Scottish origin (daughter of Fyfe Robertson) who produced a series of images of a group of women going on a day trip to the fair.  



The roller-coaster in this image was the basis of the art lesson.


The group members used simple strips of card and glue, attaching the bent, twisted and curved pieces to a card base to represent the tracks and the movement of the roller-coaster.  


In doing this the group created simple 3d card sculptures describing motion, height and scale.  To emphasis the scale, the group placed tiny figures on the bases.




Even also volunteered to take a virtual tour on a roller-coaster!