Iona

Locating the Word

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photo at pixabay

From the programme for Words by the Water, Sunday 18 March, 4pm (£9)

Angela Locke has run writing retreats on Iona for 20 years, a place that offers powerful inspiration. For Ian Hall it was the sale of Thorneythwaite Farm in Borrowdale, his childhood home, that prompted his extensive research into the farmstead’s 1,000-year history. They discuss how writing can be animated by a sense of place.

Thorneythwaite Farm, Borrowdale (Orchard House Books) & Whale Language: Songs of Iona (Indigo Dreams Publishing)

Timeless Island

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Screenshot 2017-04-06 17.11.38

Do you remember an island?
White sand extending into infinity
Warm and sensual underfoot
Born in time long since lost
A playground for those
Who choose to cross.

Rocks uplifted by the earth
Scattered across the beaches
Stained with veins of pink and white
Statuesque as each one reaches
To stand atop the highest point.

Anemones, basnade, fish and crab
Twice daily tides abandon
Treasures to nature but
Life giving source to to others
Secrets to find and cherish.

Seaweed tendrils carelessly curl
On the incoming tide.
In sheltered nooks and crannies
Thrifts pink flowers shyly
Nod and stir.

Safe within Iona’s embrace
This timeless scene endures with grace.

Ros White

Canal Journeys

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Screenshot from Channel 4
Screenshot from Channel 4

Angela Locke writes

Friends, I hope you managed to catch last night’s wonderful Channel 4 programme ‘Great Canal Journeys’ – the second of two with actors Timothy West and his wife Prunella Scales. Last September we saw them both filming in the churchyard on Iona, and there was a big section about Iona, including Prunella and Timothy sitting in the Argyll! Both that programme and the one before are worth catching up on if possible, as they are both about the Highlands, and the context of Iona.

– M&P