Grief is a Stone in sandstone

 I have had two of my Grief is a Stone metal calligraphy pieces cut into Corten steel, which should weather and rust.

My plan is for them to be outdoor sculptures that might sit in a garden, tucked away and folk might come upon them quietly.

So I have popped them outside to get the rusting action happening a bit more quickly - we have had a fair bit of rain! I got one of each style cut.

And they are beginning to rust nicely on the front.

But I have had to turn them over to get a bit more happening on the back.

 Barry cut the groove for me in a couple of small pieces of sandstone we had set aside for another project.

Broadly speaking, I think they are going to work well, they just need little bit more time weathering.

Innerpeffray and a twist in the tale of Sannick Bay...

 Well, we are back in Australia and settling in to things here, and gradually de-fuzzing our heads from jet lag.

We meandered our way back down to Glasgow over a couple of days and left as Storm Babet was beginning its run. We managed to skirt the edges of it most of the way, but there was rain, wind and the rivers ran high.

As we crossed Sutherland in the rain, the soft greys and browns were at their best.

We spent a couple of nights in Crieff, which meant we could re-visit Innerpeffray Library and Chapel which we happened upon so serendipitously last year. Always so special, and I hope to make it a regular visit whenever we are there.

Again, we were fortunate to have Lara, the Keeper of The Books to show us around and talk us through the collection and the displays.

We also spent some time in the school house where some lovely displays had been made - the stories of children at the school, and the books they had borrowed, were on all four walls.

But back in the Library itself, after having seen the magnificent Register last year, dating from 1747, I had wanted to know how many women had borrowed books? Lara said there were quite a few, and that in fact,  on the very first page of the Register there was a woman, called Beatrix who had borrowed a book. Not on behalf of her Master or Mistress, but for herself. And that made me happy.

Her name is the very last on the page, and I think the book she borrowed was something like Following Christ the way, the truth and the life. And she returned it.

Then. 

We mentioned to Lara the words of Pablo Neruda carved into stones on the far north coast of Scotland, and the magic of that discovery. She asked had we visited the Corbenic Poetry Path (we exclaimed, we had! Just yesterday!). And then Barry mentioned the second stone we had discovered way up North. I tried to recall some of the words and said something like - "and put my body back together...". 

Lara immediately said "The Marquis of Montrose"! We said "Yes! Something about On the Eve of My Execution". She went straight to a room next door and brought out a book - The Poetry of the Marquis - and read the whole poem to us.

We shared with her how our Librarian friend Liz had done the research and made sense of the words for us, and were excited to think that we had discovered the words and they were so well known and recalled. But as we stood there, Lara turned to the cabinet I was standing in front of and said "That's his Bible. And those are his seals".

Can you believe it? 

Sure enough - The Innerpeffray Library Collection holds the Marquis of Montrose's Bible and some Seals. How uncanny is that connection? How serendipitous the conversation? How amazing are Libraries and Librarians?

We all had a little shiver as we thought about it.

On the left hand page at the bottom, you can see his name Montrose.

And two seals from letters he had written in 1639 and ?1650. I still shake my head at the thought of it.

On our previous visit it had been pouring rain and we didn't venture out into the gardens and grounds at all, just made mad dashes between buildings. This day was glorious and we wandered along a short path and down to the river.

Along the way, we found this.

So many moments of coincidence and serendipity, we marvelled upon them for quite some time.

We hope to return to Sannick Bay to continue our quest to discover more carved stones; and to Innerpeffray Library where there are always magnificent discoveries to be made as well. What a lovely coming together of special places.

An update - the Stone at Sannick Bay

 Who would have thought that a follow up post about the most recent find at Sannick Bay would need to come with a trigger warning, but I think it should. The words inscribed are quite graphic with some violent imagery, so please take care if you proceed.

At the end of the most recent blog post I welcomed folk to come along the journey with me to try to interpret/translate/transcribe the words.

I had worked out several of them, and was surprised that this stone was engraved in English, which at least made it easier for me to pick out the occasional word.

So, I got an email from my blogging friend Liz Ackert who had done some googling. 

She had put these five words into a search: ashes, hopeful, recollect, confident and just. 

And from this search she arrived at these places:

Lines Written on the Eve of His Execution

Jame Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose

So here is what I had thought I had found:

8 lines

1. Let

2. (Open) all my

3. 

4. (then place)         upon

5.                    my ashes (throw)

6. Lord since thou knows    here all these (alon)

7. I'm hopeful once             recollect

8. And confident           with          the just

And here is what I think I can now read on the stone:

8 lines

1. Let them bestow on every earth a limb

2. Open all my veins, that I may swim

3. To thee, my Maker, in that crimson lake

4. Then place my par boiled head upon a stake;

5.  Scatter my ashes throw them in the air

6. Lord since thou knows  where all these atoms (alon) are 

7. I'm hopeful once  thou recollects my dust 

8. And confident thou'll raise me with the just      

 So, pretty weird and pretty interesting.

In the end the discovery by Liz of these words has made me now wonder if all of the stones are different - do they each involve a different person's quote? This is clearly not a Pablo Neruda poem as we found on the first visit! The contrast between the two sets of words is intriguing; both I think are about death. One seems beautiful; one macabre.

So the mystery deepens, and the desire to return and discover more increases. That, however, will have to wait for another time as we have started slowly wending our way back to Oz...

With many, many thanks to Liz for her enquiring mind and expert googling!

Grief is a Stone

 One of the joys of being in Scotland is the access to stones, and pebbles and rocks. They are such a feature of our north coast and I revel at all the different types and how each beach or cove offers particular 'types' of stone. Or so it seems when we go looking.

We are possibly the only folk I know who head off on a beach wander with a metal tape measure in our pockets, picking up stones and giving them a quick measure to see if they will be fit for purpose.

As mentioned previously, I brought the Grief Is A Stone calligraphy in steel with me, and we have been searching for rocks that might suit the work.

Barry has kindly carved a straight line the length of several rock stones to test the idea. We have learned a lot along the way.

The groove needs to be cut 1cm deep so it is important that the stone has enough depth along its length.

I enjoyed playing with pebble placement afterwards.

Different rock, different pebble play. I do like how it echoes and references the 'o' in stone.

Same stone, turned around with the wording towards the back.

This slightly different calligraphy is longer (about 20cm) which has made it that much harder to find stones that will let it shine.

Having a flat surface for the full length of the stone is also important, otherwise some of the lower bar sits too proud, but this one works pretty well.

Because we have so much driftwood and so many timber off cuts in our shed here, I couldn't help but wonder how it might look in a long length of timber, and Barry obliged by carving a recess into this piece.

If you look closely you will see how beautifully the curve of the 'o' in stone references the rusty staple in the timber. I do love those moments.

And of course piling pebbles alongside to see how they might balance the work, or balance themselves is fun as well.

We collected a stash more stones on Sunday afternoon and are beginning to think we have enough to go on with!

There is also the choice between brushed and shiny metal to work my way through. Any thoughts on whether shiny or brushed works better would be welcomed!

Stones of the Sky...

 Barry has already posted on the adventure this quest ended up being, but I thought I should fill in some of the detail around what inspired the trek across the North to find lettering carved in stones...

I saw a picture on a FB page where somebody said something like hooray, I finally found them!  I thought wow, what an epic story, we should try and see them too.

The little research I did before heading off, said there are these words, carved in stones, only found at low tide. The words are from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's "Stones of the Sky" or "Sky Stones". The words are from number 17 in a suite of 30 from this series. I think...

I fell in love with the words, and the idea that they only revealed themselves for an hour a day.

Some folk asked in the comments where exactly?, and the answer was half the fun is finding them for yourself. All we knew was Sannick beach, walk towards Groats. No particular detail.

I figured that would be enough to go on with - how hard could it be to find a lengthy slab of rock with carved words on it?

Answer dear reader - very hard.

Barry took some photos of me attempting to work out where on earth we should be looking. I had two iPhones with me - one with a Scottish Sim and my trusty one from Oz, and neither of them helped at all because no, or wavering only, signal.

Maybe over there???

Because the words are only exposed at low tide, everything we clambered over was very slippery, and didn't really encourage ongoing exploration. But, we had a purpose and we hoped to fulfil it. I felt bad taking B on what increasingly appeared to be a wild goose chase without much clear direction, just a lot of enthusiasm and hope.

On the way back after a fruitless, almost hour long search. I stopped and stared at slabs of rock, making my eyes go fuzzy to see if there were shapes revealing themselves anywhere. It was with disbelief that I actually spied the line of poetry. After all that time.

Some of B's photos and some of mine follow.

The carving is very fine, but nobody has ever owned up to doing it and their identity remains a mystery.

It emerges from the water...

and goes around curves and corners...

I love the way the seaweed is embedding itself in nooks and crannies.

And how barnacles are beginning to fill some of the letters

So beautifully carved...

Such lovely movement and character in the letters.

And some beautiful moody shots with the iPhone on portrait and stagelight mode.

The rock poem was first 'discovered' in 2013. In 2022 a fellow found some more lines, carved in different stones and in a different place on the beach (again, no details as to just where). Some reports indicate there may be 20 more lines of poetry - mostly short, many excerpts, to be found. So I imagine we will try to head back at low tide and take another wander.

In the interim I think about how hard it must have been to do the work. With the rocks only available for an hour or so at time, it must have taken weeks. Plus the Scottish weather. Plus the slippery surfaces.

I quite love the mystery too - the quiet achievement of wonder and beauty, not trumpeted, just gifted.

Here and here and here are some links to articles about the poem in the stone...

Innerpeffray Chapel

 My last post was all about the Library at Innerpeffray; but onsite was also this Chapel. It was in the upstairs, almost mezzanine room, of the Chapel that the first Library books were stored.

I didn't know what to expect - it was during rain, we dashed across thinking yes, we should probably have a look before we go, and my breath was simply taken away. Its serenity. Its beauty. Its simplicity. A place of calm.

We were fortunate to have the space to ourselves and could observe, contemplate and absorb.

The doorway in, font by the wall.

Looking down from the altar.

Looking up towards the altar.

Alongside the altar the door and narrow spiral staircase to the 'upstairs' room.

The original Library space, from the top of the staircase.

Looking upon the Chapel from the Library space window.

At the altar end, my attention is drawn to a highly decorative, carved headstone. The carving looks naive;  or in a way, modern. Yet I stop and check - it has dates like 1678 and 1707. It must be really old. In the short time we have left, I can't come to a full enough understanding of who it is about, who may have commissioned it, who is represented. I am a wee bit baffled. Intrigued, but definitely unsure.

It seemed to be very much about a couple's children. So many children. I am still not sure.

Each child's name is carved into the stone and a figure rises above the sone to represent them. I think.

The style of the carved lettering also looks naive-modern to my eye, so I check the dates again. It still says 1707.

The play of light and shadows on this side made the figures even more interesting.

I have done no homework on the Chapel; and especially none about this headstone.  I may find that it IS a modern replica, or a modern original to commemorate a special family.  But there is a deep story within it that makes me want to know more.