4-6 September

It was an absolute delight to drive to Callander for the annual Callander Poetry Weekend hosted by Sally Evans and Ian King in King’s Bookshop. It’s the first time I’ve gone for the whole weekend, and had I not made a navigational error (satnav-free car, but not for much longer!) I’d have got there for the start. As it was I caught the last of http://www.redsquirrelpress.com/ founding Editor Sheila Wakefield’s poems. You can see from the programme http://www.desktopsallye.com/page22.htm what an exciting and varied programme we enjoyed over the weekend. I was honoured to play my clarsach again (the image on Sally’s page is of me from two years ago, on the weekend when City of Adelaide was taken off the slipway at Irvine in preparation for her voyage to South Australia).

I made many new friends that weekend, and it was lovely to catch up with those I know already, including Kevin Cadwallander, who generously made the film as well as read my poem City of Adelaide Bleeds, (see below) the first of many dedicated to my special ship and our voyage together. On Sunday morning some poets gathered at the Memorial Garden along with Magi McGlynn to pay respects to the memory of Tessa Ransford – Founding Director of The Scottish Poetry Library, Elizabeth Burns – poet and good long-standing friend of Sally’s, and Ian’s, and Dominique Carton who was known to many for his excellent photographic recordings of past CPW events http://www.alba-photography.com/

Following this, several of us explored and enjoyed the beautiful vicinity, catching inspiration to write a poem relevant to the weekend. We later shared the feast of glorious words and some music in Sally and Ian’s magical garden where the sun continued to shine on us, the chickens clucked and a dog barked their appreciation, and one of us was lucky enough to be stung by one of their bees. Obviously not a fan of poetry! See also
https://paulbeech.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/callander-poetry-weekend-2015/

I left Callander enriched by the wonderful hospitality, company, words, music, laughter, congeniality and environment.

With thanks to Sally and Ian for giving us this very special Callander weekend to put in our calendars!

Rita