The Ness Open Day………The Cuckoo And The Meadow Pipit…....From Kilmorack Gallery…….
by Bernie Bell - 08:15 on 29 July 2025
The Ness Open Day………
As the actual excavation finished at the end of last year’s season – the Open Day this year was held in the Stenness Community Hall…...
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/open-day-2025-2/
And, would you believe it, they even made a new discovery whilst cleaning a pot as part of the Open Day activities!
I mean – it really does just keep on giving – and post-excavation work keeps on needing funding…
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/donate/
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The Cuckoo And The Meadow Pipit…..
The Meadow Pipits build their nest. Mrs Pipit lays her eggs and patiently broods them.
Then…..feels stirrings….such excitement…… they’re starting to hatch! She thinks…. ‘Well, that’s a fine, strong young ‘un’.
Then…… it grows and grows and grows and grows.
It’s alone - did it kick the others out of the nest?
The parents are feeding and feeding the monster – having to stand on its back to reach!
Weird thing is – their colouring is so similar that they could be related.
The whole tale of the origin of the saying….. ‘A Cuckoo in the Nest’ can be seen in the images posted by Ron Macdonald and Roger Houghton on the Orkney Wildlife FB page…….
https://www.facebook.com/groups/133013273445588/?locale=en_GB
Who’s for naming the Cuckoo - The Donald? Trump that is - similar approach to life.
From Kilmorack Gallery….
“We are very pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Robert McAulay. This includes three new series – blocks, sheds and McAulay's small pilgrim series. This starts this Friday and runs throughout August.
Also just arrived is a selection of Lotte Glob books. Fired into these are geological tales, poems and thoughts. Few objects tell the story of the land so well.
And there is much more too. Explore our collections pages to whet your appetite.
Further details are below and please contact us for more.
ROBERT MCAULAY | Pilgrim - three new series of work
1 August - 31st August
Robert McAulay was up delivering these paintings, staying nearby the gallery. I asked him what he did in the evening. He sat in a cloud of smoke looking through the long grass. 'There is so much life there,' he told me, 'I can just look.' This is where much of McAulay's work comes, from looking at a nature which rebelliously grows upwards claiming what is rightfully hers. There are figures in McAulay's work - and sheds and buildings too - but these human things are the interlopers. The world belongs to the tall grass, the trees and the sky.
Robert McAulay was born in Glasgow where he remains, quietly observing and paintings. We have shown his work for over twenty-five years, and these latest works fall into three series: Blocks that appear to float like vessels; Sheds, that could be a still from a noir film; and a Pilgrim series, where figures, travellers, walk through the land. And there is McAulay’s Garden with Tridic Screens, inspired by a Fransis Bacon triptych and from sitting quietly in a cloud of smoke looking. These are powerful works that should be taken seriously.
LOTTE GLOB | Library of the Land
Lotte Glob is one of the greatest artistic innovators currently working in Scotland. From beautiful rockpool-inspired bowls, floating stones, creatures and her sculpture croft, Glob has always beat her own, very northern path - but nothing captures the spirit of Glob's work more than her ceramic books. Fired inside its pages might be a melted and vitrified poem, gathered stones or a skeleton. It would be hard to find work with a more beautiful and heart-felt connection to the land and we are very excited to share with you six books, a preface to a larger exhibition in 2026.
Kilmorack Gallery
Inverness-shire
IV4 7AL
01463 783 230
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Lotte Glob’s Book Broch on her croft by Loch Eriboll….
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