The Proclaimers/ Roving Reporter

Last week The Proclaimers were playing in Colston Hall in Bristol, so I went there to support Zac, my "Roving Reporter".

I was delighted to see that they had used one of my photos in their Tour program- of their emotional show at Edinburgh Castle last year. So I will start with that followed by some images from Bristol- including, of course, the Roving Reporter:

Roving Reporter: Mariposa Festival

Something that I have a passion for is how the late evening sun can transform a landscape with an incredible glow- I am always chasing after this brief moment. When I was a child, I remember being particularly attracted by the visual image of these lines from the poem "Nod" by Walter de la Mare:

"His drowsy flock streams on before him,
Their fleeces charged with gold,
To where the sun's last beam leans low
On Nod the shepherd's fold."

Equally as a child I empathized with the Aberdeenshire landscapes of the Scottish artist Joseph Farquharson, who totally captured this magic light, regardless of whether it became a cliche.

Because of this, I was particularly delighted when Zac, my Roving Reporter, recently showed me these images, taken when The Proclaimers were playing at the Mariposa Festival in Orilla, Ontario:

Roving Reporter: Vancouver and Skye 1

Zac, my "Roving Reporter', has been roving again- this time in Vancouver and the Ilse of Skye among other places where he as The Proclaimers' guitarist has been playing.

In this post I will show you some of his pre-historic-monster-like trees. The first two are in Vancouver, one fossilized looking creature lurking on a beach and the next by an idyllic lake. The third one is on a beach on the Isle of Skye- tentacles rising out of the swamp.....

The Proclaimers at Edinburgh Castle

Trees? Yes, because I flew up to Edinburgh on Saturday to see Zac Ware, my “Roving Reporter” (posts 30/31 March), who plays guitar and pedal steel for The Proclaimers, a very popular Scottish band who were given their own concert at Edinburgh Castle. Zac has been a bit of a failure lately as a roving reporter because, although he has dutifully taken lots of great tree photos for me, he has been too hectic “roving” the World with the band to email them to me- but this will be rectified shortly.

Having been born in Edinburgh, I regard it as my hometown so am always happy to go there. I was given a fantastic seat in a box, high up in the grandstand on the castle esplanade, immediately facing the stage.

Coincidentally, adjacent to me and on my level was the top floor flat in Ramsey Gardens where my parents had lived until shortly before my birth- the prospect of manoeuvring two small children up 100 odd steps to the flat daunting my mother, in spite of the unbeatable views across Edinburgh. And there was the balcony where- as I got very tired (jealous?) of hearing- my brother Charles used to sleep in his Moses basket, only to be woken by the 1 o’clock firing of Mons Meg, the cannon on the castle ramparts.

This being prior to the Second World War when my parents had become staunch pacifists, my mother used to say how she was ashamed when she secretly felt her Scottish blood being stirred as the Highland regiments paraded on the Esplanade, to the emotional sound of their bagpipes.

The second image below shows Zac, before the concert started, pointing to this historic balcony where his father used to lie.

The other images are of the concert- Zac, the Rover, wearing a red cowboy style shirt bought in Los Angeles.

The Proclaimers performed magnificently and their fans were ecstatic, their rocking of the grandstand making photography difficult.












The Proclaimers

A Moreton Bay Fig Weekend

Last weekend was dominated not by Ficus trees but by their opulent relatives Moreton Bay Fig trees. It started on Saturday when I interviewed Treesaver Carol Purcell: her favourite tree? The Moreton Bay Fig tree at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel- the "Kissing Tree". On Sunday I went to La Mesa Drive to photograph its dramatic avenues of Moreton Bay Figs. Subsequently, when I emailed fellow Treesaver, photographer Scott Smith to thank him for telling me about La Mesa, he told me how that weekend he, too, had been looking at these trees at the South Coast Botanic Gardens- and he sent me the great sci-fi root image below. While I was at La Mesa Drive, I texted an Easter message to my nephew- Zac Ware- and he replied that he was going to send me some tree photographs. As Guitarist with the Scottish band The Proclaimers, he is on a World tour. Seeing a lot of interesting trees in different countries he has kindly decided to be my "Roving Reporter". Among the images he sent? A Spanish Moreton Bay! So here is the Moreton Bay Collection- from top: 1. Miramar Fairmont Hotel, 2. La Mesa Drive, 3, South Coast Botanic Garden: Scott Smith, 4 & 5. Murcia: Zac Ware:

South Coast Botanic Garden

The Proclaimers