environmental

Power of place, 

Because we live on an extraordinary planet, we celebrate her poetics.

Kindred spirit & Environmental artist, Ruth Macdougall, toils inside the same streamline 🙂

Here, her website. 

   

magic

rejoicing heart as the island regains light, clouds and frees itself from night’s shackles; celestial scapes gain in grandeur,

there,

I feel insignificant among earth, sky, the many voices in the wind,

relentless,

barren to the will of renaissance,

life’s many seeds still 

to be born out of

a womb free

from 

sorrow 

and icicles.

© Nat Hall 2015





Per mare per terra

Shetland, terre océanne, comme vous ne la connaissez pas – la face cachée d’un bout du monde, 

Avec trois portraits bien distincts: Bressay, Sumburgh  et Fair Isle, contés respectivement par Jonathan, Kieran père et fils, Neil & Lise. Et même si les visages demeurent familiers à mes yeux d’habitante, tous se rallient derrière une même âme et vision d’un territoire épris d’un océan et d’une mer, auquels nous nous appartenons mutuellement, sans concession.

Cliquez donc sur le lien pour découvrir cet archipel (ou du moins trois de ses facettes) SHETLAND un film de Laurent Cadoret pour une chaîne de télévision francophone.

Peut-être connaissez-vous un peu ces Iles du grand nord écossais en tant que visiteur estival – au carrefour du monde nordique… Eh bien, voici Shetland dans toute sa majesté hivernale, interdite aux croisiéristes pour des raisons de nœuds et tempêtes dignes d’un roman de R.L. Stevenson ou de W. Scott.

Bien sûr, ce documentaire ne fait qu’effleurer l’archipel et sa communauté. Néanmoins, il vous y fera goûter l’iode et vous donnera peut-être l’envie d’y dénicher bien des trésors. 🙂

Contactez-moi donc si le cœur vous en dit. A bon entendeur, bon voyage et que les vents vous soient favorables 🙂





musical

Went to Mareel last night for something very special.

Not only was I treated to sheer fiddle & piano extravaganza with Hansel, a group of young talented musicians led by no other than Margaret Scollay, but Inge Thomson opened up uncharted musical scapes through her collaborative project entitled “Da Fishing Hands”.

And what a feast for the ears & heart.

Her creative realms encompass not only Lise Sinclair’s poetry which Inge (Lise’s own cousin) sprinkles with flair & beauty, but the sheer musical habillement defies the laws of musical poetics.
Accompanied by a string of musicians whose dexterity flows through any musical venue, Inge is as bold – and this is by no means any pun – creatively as (and I shared this thought with her after the show) my own music heroin, Kate Bush (to name but one).
Other names could include Bjork, herself a offshoot of Kate in terms of sheer musical boldness.
Inge’s Da Fishing Hands felt a true voyage of musical & poetical discovery. Inge creates fantastic poetical scapes through both voice & instrument. I felt back in Fair Isle. Lise was back in the auditorium with us. So emotional. It was so ethereal.
With grateful thanks to Mareel & Shetland Arts for such a hansel, it was magic.
Now eager to delve back into Inge’s constellation through sound files / a CD.
Am hooked!

True, vibrant, as luminous as this phosphorescence at sea. 🙂

power of place

Let’s look at it at sand level.

Our every move begins on shore.

When Shetland Arts’ Karen Emslie began to share ideas about a community project celebrating Shetland’s Architecture & Place,  a few ideas ignited my creative heart. 

Placemaking,
Past, present, future,
Passionate about rocks and stones,

Power of Place was born

http://www.powerofplace.co.uk/

To my humble understanding, man builds, demolishes and rebuilds through love and anger. However, man’s twist of fate or choice of shore determines his will to erect edifices. And when I look at the island, I touch and feel its every stone.

I owe my life to a sextant.

Today we walk that bridge of sand –
we wade in haste tangled in lace in such earthly
rubberband grace,
we long to reach that green
island.

I look for stars drowned in ocean.

World traveller
W by NW,
let’s taste each mile,
nautical dream, where we slip away from pale sun;

you write your name on a storm beach
with a pebble from my homeland –
from tide to tide,
where shadows stand
rollers won’t breach,

what does salt mean away
from lips?

I owe our love to a
sextant.

Nat, northern garden,
30 December 07

 

Tonight, my world belongs to dusk. 

…Tomorrow, I shall add my stone to this great community’s adventure by sharing a few lines of poetry at lunchtime in Room 12 during our annual local book festival. And then, leg it to one of Shetland’s most exciting buildings erected at Hay’s Dock to celebrate the place through another collaborative project entitled Four Seasons in Shetland.

Four Seasons in Shetland exhibition 2010

My love for the Auld Rock grew out of its mystic powers – sheer ruggedness, raw, dynamic power of place 🙂