by Phil Brammer — published on September 2nd, 2011
Yesterday evening I attended the preview of this year’s Heartwood event and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Regular Heartwood artists and guests have surpassed themselves, and the selection of photographs below represents only a small fraction of what can be seen wandering through Monkquell woods (near Blairgowrie).
Hidden away in the grounds of Murray Royal Hospital is a walled garden. Admission is free and there’s a café where you can enjoy delicious soup made from home-grown vegetables and desserts made from home-grown fruits. You can also buy plants which have been propagated in the garden as well as fruit and veg, and spend a good hour or more admiring the garden itself, which has many secluded areas where you can sit and eat your lunch.
What makes this walled garden all the more interesting is that it is partly run by people with mental ill health – the residents themselves – and is one of the many therapeutic gardening projects in Scotland supported by Trellis. My partner Genie, who works for Trellis, was keen to show me this garden and the perfect opportunity arose last Saturday during the annual open day. The theme this year was, of course, Alice in Wonderland. There was a “find the rabbits” quest for the kids and a hat parade for all the folk that had gone to the trouble of making their own crazy hats, art projects, and much more. We also had great weather.
Visit the Walled Garden at Murray Royal Hospital between 10am and 4pm, Mondays to Fridays. For more information about the charity Trellis, please visit their website, and/or check out the video below.
Here’s another of my videos. This is one of the six One-Minute Wonders on exhibition until 14 October at Threshold Artspace, Perth Theatre. Please pop along!
I never thought I’d be singing the praises of Facebook (FB). In fact I still don’t think I’ll be singing their praises exactly, but I will say this about FB: without it I doubt that I’d have been back in touch with my friend Paul H. Addie. We used to play in bands together in London back in the eighties. Then I met Genie (at a gig where Paul and I were playing) and went to live in Holland – for good, I thought at the time. Paul also moved on, and remember this was before the wibbly-wobbly world of web and electronic mail.
It was through FB that Paul H Addie and I got back in touch. I’ve also found other friends (or they’ve found me) through FB, but the reason I mention Paul is that he’s still making music and we could actually work together without the inconvenience of having to travel the length of the island to meet up (although it would be nice, of course, to meet up again).
Anyway, I made this video for Paul’s band Tracing Arcs and I hope you like it.
