Autumn Aboyne 2018

Been a mild autumn thus far with only one real cold spell at the end of October that produced snow for the hills, a good covering in place.  But that is all gone.

Hielan Symphony - Composer Paul Anderson

Saturday evening saw the full orchestral premier of the Hielan Symphony by Paul Anderson at Aboyne theater. A full house audience was buzzing with anticipation.  Before the symphony Paul took us on his own musical journey and at the heart of that was the fiddle and the North East of Scotland fiddle tradition. A wee history lesson wrapped in around James Scott Skinner, Peter Milne & William Marshall and not just these local legends but Pauls own fiddle lineage to the great fiddlers and composers of Scotland, including Neil Gow.  March, Strathspeys, reels and jigs providing foot tapping rhythmic tunes and quieter reflective and simply beautiful slow airs.  Paul then turned to his own compositions and those he composed for the stage show of the Sunset Song in particular. For those he was joined by Shona Donaldson, Paul's wife. Shona got the audience involved with a chorus song before they both played a range of tunes that were used in the Sunset song.  Paul adding a literary review of the book, too boot. The first half came to a close.

The stage filled with seats arranged in arcs for the Orchestra, various instruments began to appear until the full Deeside orchestra was seated.  Paul introduced the Hielan Symphony with the story of how is started and his thoughts, ideas and observations as the symphony tells the story of the old hielan droving roads fae NE Scotland to Falkirk, reported to be the worlds larges cattle market in the 1800's.  Deveron Arts had commissioned the Symphony and their Chair talked about her excitement on receiving the finished symphony and that she was just minutes for listening to it.  The conductor entered the stage and the audience hush lowered.

The orchestra backdrop was a screened photo of Morven at sunrise.  The music came to life just like the start of a new day.  It was not long before the full orchestra was involved and in full flow, the string section reach to to the higher positions in a distinctive Paul Anderson style.  The photos updated as the symphony progressed, the symphony being in four movements.  One of my favourite arrangements of the music was where, in this case Paul played a strathspey or gig with the whole orchestra echoing the tune back until the melody was taken up by all instruments.  I found this real effective.  The other main arrangement I liked as when the orchestra provide a light musical back drop, two or three instruments, would take turns to play solo or duet, much like when you are walking through woodland, there is a woodland chorus of bird song but your immediate listening attention is caught by two or three birds close by in full song.  A musical harmony between the individual and the collective.

The third movement was where the emotional flowing music tugged at my heart.  Long flowing passages, combined with photos that were all known places to me and I expect many of the locals, Deeside through out the seasons, the landscape and wildlife.  I think the whole audience shared that experience.  The final movement began, the rhythm getting faster and faster leading up to high crescendos.  This giving way to one final delicate passage of music before the final flourish.  The conductor signaled the final chord.  The audience erupted in applause and that kept coming, with Paul and the conductor returning to the stage.  They symphony was a triumph, moving, emotional music with the distinctive North East style being championed. The orchestra is to be commended for their playing and how Pauls imagination brought this all together is a work of genius.  I hope all of Scotland and beyond get to listen to this music some day.

The Hielan Symphony on Youtube:

Lilt - David Anderson

A couple of weeks back a debut album recording was released by David Anderson - fiddler.  Entitled Lilt, the album delivers a session feel.  I was lucky enough to play a few tunes with David over the summer so I great to hear on CD.  Here are my favourite tracks from the Album:

Land of the Standing Stones - album review

Our local fiddling master Paul Anderson launched his latest CD the Land of Standing Stones last month.  While Ienjoyed the whole album here is my short list of favourite tunes




An excellent mix of moving slow airs and lively up lift fiddle tunes.

own your own marks -tribesports

I received my TribeSports half zip top yesterday. A community powered sports brand.  The product was funded via the kickstarter.com website. A concept is they channel the communities feedback into a design team and then they cut out the middle business marketing to give you a top quality product at an affordable price. The product feels real great and the fit is good.  Not had it in full outdoor action yet.  Will act as a buffer layer between my skin / vest layer and an outer fleece.  Then I d complete the winter setup with a waterproof shell.  I d like to see the personalization go much further, user uploads their size measurements so we don't need to adhere to small , medium or large sizing and for features like zips, vents etc. some interactive options online so we can provide feedback on our personal preferences.  Overall, this concept is the future of sports clothing and for all clothing at that.


nomark -tribesports, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Search for a Harvest Tune - Harvest Time by Bryony Muir

A tuneful and entertaining new harvest song.  A poetic farming story being told. Enjoy:

 

Caledonian Rainforest (Glen Tanar)

Last year I composed my first fiddle tune, its called,  Caledonian Rainforest (Glen Tanar)  A slow air.  Inspired by my many walks there and one day in particular when the mist was hugging the hills before a shaft of light broke through sparking of a few sprinkles of rain followed by a downpour.  I ve put together a video to go with the tune.  I recorded the tune on my fiddle with a headset so excuse the heavy breathing.

Frosty walk to Mortlich

The North side of the valley is the place to head to catch the sun when its out. I don't walk on Mortlich until the bracken has died down and it has now. The higher hills were in the clouds today but Lochnagar was out from time to time.


Frosty walk to Mortlich, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

StrataConf Tuesday

StrataConf Tuesday, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

First day at Strataconf.com today. Since I first found out about the event, its been a goal to make it along to learn from fellow data scientists. Its been an intense work out for the brain but all the topics have been of value and interest. Keep meeting friends from 5 years ago and those have been special catchups. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Sunrise rock November

The weather, clear sky and my motivations combined this morning to take in a sunrise. I think the last time I opted for a 3am July morning, this time November. The sun rises much later, 7.33am to be exact for Aboyne so 5.35am rise wasn't too bad. Of course the best views are from Sunrise Rock, 1500ft, first a walk up the Fungle path in dawn light, pretty light except going through the trees. Luckily the moon had already set so no fear of werewolves this morning. It's not until the last 10 minutes approaching sunset rock that the Deeside, North Sea Coast broad views are everywhere but before, golden amber's were flickering through the trees, a band of coastal cloud or mist was producing the magical colours before the sun made the horizon. 10 minutes to sunrise but who's counting the atmosphere is expectant. The colours intensify and yellows start to win out. The sun has arrived and new light starts to transform the landscape. Lochnagar corrie, crisp crags of granite folded from the anvils of time are clearly visible in great detail. Then Ben Avon's looks like its hills are covered in blooming heather as the amber light reaches. Then immediately, the light around me becomes alive, a intensity of light we expect every mid day had arrived. I'll never tire of these experiences, the only thing that I can think of to make it better would be to share it with someone, some sunrise.

Sunrise rock November, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Requiem by Mary Butterworth Artist

Yesterday evening marked the opening of the Butterworths Exhibition of paintings at the Foyer Restaurant Aberdeen. A walk down a dark Union Street and a turn left on to Crown Street until the welcoming light glow to the entrance to the restaurant and Gallery. An aptly reflective glass cube with a double door combination gave the first view of the art work on offer and what a welcome for the eye. A mauve night sky with its last tints of blue the full width of the Old Brig O'Dee over the River Dee lantern lit. A painting entitled, Requiem. Mary Butterworth, artist and the painting below for you to enjoy too.

Requiem by Mary Butterworth Artist, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

The lanterns had me puzzled for a start as I matched up the street lights with the reflections on the water, but the artist soon put me right on the story behind the extra lights, the lanterns. Howard Butterworth paintings reminded me of good times at Kings College Aberdeen University as the leaves gathered along the Chanonry. West coast Island crags and hills of Skye allowed Howard to capture their dark and moody nature in textured oil paint. Add in great conversations with friends old, new and reacquainted made for a very enjoyable evening out. Thank you for the invite and good luck with the exhibition.

Pulsar

Last week I became the owner of my first Mary Butterworth print. The painting is called Pulsar and I collected it on Friday from the @BallogieGallery that Mary's sister Sarah runs. I have been lucky enough to see Mary develop this ability to capture dynamic night time scene of Aberdeen, so I am really pleased to own Pulsar. The reason I like this painting is that is combines a place I know well with the mystic qualities of space (where does that tunnel go to?), captured in the picture's name. Now, this might sound a bit geeky, but I asked Mary to write the opening sentence describing a Pulsar from Wikipedia on the print, which she kindly did. Coolio. By the way, that white light in the photo is not a Pular, nor is it in the painting, it is the flash from the camera!

Pulsar, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Lochnagar Spring Skiing 2011

I did eventually make it out back country skiing in late March.

Lochnagar Spring Skiing 2011, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

Just 5 weeks ago and now not to far from this location heath fires have been raging this week! This picture shows some turn on the Glas Alt valley, super fast spring snow, so much fun I climbed up again for a second go. Then a more substantial walk up (in ski boots) Cuidhe Crom 1083 meter summit. Some tricky boulder fields to cross before the steep ski down the east side. An excellent 8 hours out on Lochnagar shame the snow melted so fast this year.

skiing 2011

I have not got my 2011 ski season underway yet. 2010 was such a rare year, backcountry skiing opportunities nearly every month, Jan to May and even December has enough snow depth for skiing but I did not make it out, well with the skis on. The South facing slopes around Deeside are hold the best cover and those west facing so I was planning on a trip up Pressendye this weekend, or somewhere up the back of Tarland but this cough bug keeps too big a hold for now. The back side of Gathering Carin is also loaded with snow but that is a 3-4 hike in, I'm not in that shape yet but give me a few weeks.

CharityHack presentations

1. mobile webapp for scan in quirk icons

2. Volunteer Report Card (team I was part of)

3. Mobile app of recognising change, adding it up and making a donation

4. givey.me pre approved payments, all platforms single sigin on arcross devices track plus api for charity or developers

5. mobile swear app to give to charity and chuggr little game text adventure, avoid chuddr

6. pitchinin for artist to unlock or release content once enough of the community have donated to the profile.

7. aggregating amounts for a whole event ie adds up the donations of all the volutneer for a particular event

8. rollcall mobile app. eg. list of kids on a school trip

9. charityschock.com internet shock like online version of through sponges at people at a country fayre.

10. veryhardchoices.com improving donation forms capturing data behind the scenes

11. biggive take out reason that stop people giving on the street. Hostile profile, each homeless person, hit list what they want/need e.g. food to haircut

12. charitybox browser extention buy e-commerce links and converts to affiliate lists, so the charity get the commission on the affiliate link.

13. blesstheweb.com feel good confess your sins

14. trainwreck remote control train and move train by donating

15. justrunning.com e.g. maps real time a runner ie. marathon api mashup

16. wegive aggregate friends round a charity twist, challenge friends to add more, make it sort of a social game

17. mycharity aggregates your charity twitter followers in a list, links to donations

end

Charity Hack Richmond london - live blogging

Welcome to event from Paypal wizard.

Participants introduced themselves.

Now, presentation on 'how to give to charity'

e.g direct indirect now use digital world to reduce friction.

Types of charity, oxfam, now lots of different types. Gives wider appeal to audience. Tap into online GOODNESS? (what does that mean) A. Look cool, UI , ie stack up against commercial alternatives.

New govt. big society, need to self fund (charities). Charities now feel pain more now as reality of credit crunch arrives.

iphone app charities like e.g ihobo

red campain example, perception tech is free? But from tech point of view they are in ie6 world not bang up todate, ie listen to what charity is at.

Not aware of the data the charity creates and how they can use or share.

How, can the charity be FOUND? google ranking, communicate what they do twitter, location based

Urgent charity needs, how to keep stories in the media after the initial top story status

giftaid use api to make this easy, automate the paperwork

relationship between giver and direct impact on cause, not just handed over into admin box. Feedback, update on impact/change. Like tangible benefit to giving, what does it buy box of medicine, one item or change of stuff?

Make everyone 'feel good' of why to give to charity, change the world.

MISSION FISH

ebay, paypal api plug in for charities

donations as a services

api to get into payment api s a e.g. paypal ebay and others (probably) Self service within a widget? (my understanding)


JUSTGIVING - expanding the market for

get rid of the friction via tech.

what they do:

e.g. fund raising page, e.g. kid bike round the park, got into media raise 200k

take away the giftaid hassle, provider takes 5% of giftaid part.

now expand from their website to any distribution social network to mobiles etc.

start. rss widgets then on to API

tech run throught .net api url or api xml rest method and sdk for .net developers

JUSTDOIT

Olly

do-it charity hack

volunteering now opening up through api xml rest search to application form etc.

PAYPAL

now able to syndicate donations and like direct debt payments (puts limits on the value ie group donating)

now in app mobile (apple donate does not allow like ) but way round it option 2 paypal

MEC hosted as a service

APP's are check but takes days rather than weeks.

Winter clothing 2010-11

The first Autumn long range weather forecast I read has been issued. Looks like the Scottish hills might be in the running for an early winter coat again. This would not be that unusual, the last two Novembers have produced heavy snow falls and skiing has gotten underway. Late epic and long lasting snow in the Deeside hill meant my skiing jacket took a fair amount of wear and tear, plus it was getting on, it now in the recycling bin. What is the best new jacket to look for? In terms of extreme performance I was taken by the performance of the new hilltrek ventile Nikwax outdoor jacket. It been tested to the extreme in arctic conditions. The noticalbe feature I liked about in this review is its performance in removing moisture after exertion. As a back country free skiier this is a big deal. The effort of climbing up a hill or mountain produce a lot of body sweat but once you stop this moisture chills you and even on a clam day the windchill produced by speed of skiing down hill makes descents chilly. So, I am keen to explore this jacket for next season. Hilltrek's made to measure tailoring allows for personalization of the pockets and design, us free skiing like pockets as the rucksack will be holding our ski boots!

NAFCO review

NAFCO, the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention 2010 was held in Aberdeen last week. This was the first time I had attended the Convention although two others have been held in Aberdeen and a couple overseas too. The Convention covers a wide range of activities, a conference, workshops both music and dance, concerts and ceilidhs, and not forgetting sessions.

I attended three workshops, the first two were to do with learning new tunes, by ear and by learning techniques to memorise a tune from the music script. Both were great. The first tutor was Carley Williams and the tune to be picked up was 'The Road to Banff'. But no fiddle was required initially only the voice. Carley's no.1 starting tip, learn to sing the tune out loud. Not the whole tune but measure by measure. So, as a group we repeated back and forth with Carley the first measure. The structure of a tune often follows a pattern, first question, first answer (second time round might have first answer part b) and second question, second answer (again second time through the second answer might have an answer b, or even repeat a previous part of a tune). With this new insight, the fiddles were tucked under the chin. And the same process was repeated, a section at a time was repeated between the group and the tutor until the first measure was put together. Then the second measure was tackled. Could we remember the first measure after reaching the end? It was time to find out. OK, not every note but not bad effort, sounded good as a group.

Learning from sheet music was the next workshop. James Alexander was the workshop tutor and he started by pointing out some gernalism about the structure of tunes and how to find certain bars that were easier to memorise, e.g. a scale run. If you could remember these then the rest of the tune could be built around that or many years down the line after not playing a tune that bar might ignite the rest of the tune back to life. Again the same technique was used. Tutor played a section, the group played and eventually the tune was completed. Along that journey James shared technique, bowing to finger placement, even the benefits of practicing a tune at half speed. Then we had some time to learn about improvisation. Techniques that help learn new tunes but also how to contribute to a session while learning a tune. I'm not all the savvy with musical theory so learning about Chord, counting to 5 notes to the fifth chord and then using the arpeggio notes to. The key being to add to the rhythm of the tune and to play quietly i.e. not over sound the main tune. Other main take away, was to trust the ear, if it sound good, it will generally but a good addition to the tune. A great workshop again.

The third workshop was to put some of that learning in to practice, learning a brand new retreat march, a pipe march. Carol Anderson was the workshop tutor this time and learning to play pipe style was the theme of the class. But first the tune had to be learnt. By ear was the technique, building the tune bar by bar. Ok, we did this for this first measure and then we started the learning about how to make the March sound more Pipe like. Adding grace notes was the first step, but where and what note or notes? Carol started with the basic, not above or below or the note before. The goal to find that pipe like 'drone' or spirit via the fiddle. Finding a tame piper was recommended. The music was then handed out, a 9/8 march, no key signature in pipe music. The grace notes were indeed along the lines Carol mention, however, the piper can get in 4 grace notes and what would be across 2 strings on the fiddle, which requires amazing skill at speed and thus need to be tackled in a different manner. A triplet or burrell can be used but not with a loose wrist as normally taught but with a stiff bow arm, right up to the shoulder so the bow sort of vibrates of the string to bring out a pipe like character. One to be practice alone until mastered. In this style of march two the main beat would often be in the middle of a bar and each bar would start down bow, up bow alternative, unlike the 2/4 4/4 down bow to start each new bar.

There was much more learning shared over all three workshops. Hopefully, I can put all the teaching to make me fiddle better.

Overall, a great 5 days. From opening the Woodend Barn concert with Banchory Starthspey and Reel Society to a 3am session at the Bluelamp. The organisers laid on the best of events.

What to do on a bank holiday Monday? Answer: walk from Aboyne to Aberdeen. The warm sunny days had slipped away, so the vision of wearing shorts and t-shirt for the walk was no longer on. What to wear on a day when the weather forecast suggested a band of rain early morning that would clear the sky come evening along the coast but with a northly wind, stronger nearer you get to the coast? Well, when I woke at 5.15am it was a clear sky and frosty in Aboyne, -2c but with a quick scan of the radar image, a band of rain was steaming south. So, I chose my ventile ‘made to measure’ hilltrek walking trousers and the inner lining of my skiing jacket. Sure enough it started to rain just after crossing Aboyne bridge. My first leg of the trip was to walk to Potarch Bridge via the south deeside road, 6.6 miles according to google maps. By then the rain had past and it cloudy but with sunny spells, and it remained like that for the rest of the day. The Deeside Way, was the walk I was wanting to follow, the only snag is, that it does not exist between Aboyne and Banchory so I free walked it along the river bank to Invercranny before walking along the road to enter Banchory, a 6.9 mile leg.



Then I met up with a friend in Banchory and we started on the official Deeside Way path, the old Deeside Railway line walk. The train was in operation at Milton of Crathes and 6.5 miles from Banchory we arrived at Drumoak. Not far from the edges of Aberdeen, Peterculter being the first sign of Urbanisation. It was windy by now keeping it cool but feeling warm in the glimpses of the sun. Now I thought, my 4 month old ventile trousers may still be in need of some wearing in but no, they felt great the whole way. More than I can say for me feet. I chose my hiking boots but by Peterculter I opted for my trainers. Us hill walkers are used to soft hill tracks or soft peaty ground but the deeside way path is hard and tarred for good stretches. I met up with another friend for the last 7 miles from Peterculter to Duthie Park but the finishing line for me was the north seas at the beach esplanade. I think about a 32 mile walk in about 10 hours.

lochnagar backbowl skiing

A Spring day that turned just about into summer at the valley bottom still provided a great day of spring skiing on Lochnagar yesterday. Two hours of walking brought the arrival of the big snow patches but still enough gaps to make walking quick snow free. I left the carpark just after 6.30am and arrived at the summit of lochnagar just after 9.30am. A strong wind gave moderate buffering but that became light around lunch time as the milky sky turned more blue. The front of lochnagar corrie has snow but was more patchy in nature, the apple core run was complete but narrow, even the front of Meall Corie Na Saobhaidhe wasn't that inviting but I skied down the ridge to its summit for further investigation. But the funny thing is the closer you get the less you can see, the wind was still buffeting. The big story of the winter has been the snow coming on an east wind and loading the west facing slopes with snow and they are still loaded. The decision on where to ski was easy to make. See the photo.

lochnagar backbowl skiing, originally uploaded by ecotorch.

The new snow of last week was only spring for about 2cm, but still soft snow below and sitting on a hard frozen spring base. On the steeper slopes, I felt the avalanche risk, it was rated moderate for the day and there was evidence of a couple of cornice collapse avalanches in The Stuic Corrie. I navigated my way quickly out of the soft stuff and on to harder spring snow. The firmer snow made for marking a good stair case for walking up the slope again. Ended up walking up four times. Then it was time to think about heading back home. I had noticed on the way up that the west facing slope of Cuidhe Crom was sitting with snow top to bottom and the Glas Alt valley was full of snow but with the burn now returning to site in place, the snow bridges looked real dodgy! The ski across to the Crom was difficult soft snow but it firmed as I climbed again. Skiing down was great up top, and fairly steep but then the soft stuff returned, up to 12 inches of loose spring granular snow. A cross between powder skiing and spring skiing. Tough technically but I eventually got some rhythm going. Then it was a case of following Glas Alt, well until the snow ran out and that was at the waterfall. Then it was a tiring walk back to the car park in the heat of the afternoon sun. Maybe 20c or so. What a day. Scotland you are magic place.