Tagged: advent calendar

The azure sea and beautiful white sands of the Outer Hebrides

Today’s unconventional advent calendar is a short in words but rich in imagery; in today’s rather dark and dreich weather I was thinking about the wonderful colours I saw on a happy trip to the Outer Hebrides.  It was a kind birthday gift, and a rare treat to see the world from an entirely different perspective as  we got to go on one of those tiny wee planes out to Benbecula.  The weather was stunning, we flew over lochs and islands and felt very privileged indeed.
Uist and Harris link

From a cultural planning perspective, I was considering the links between the islands and their shared heritage, but unique identity.

For other calendar entries, have a look at these posts.

In praise of free: December 17th unconventional advent calendar

Today’s unconventional advent calendar celebrates our cultural venues, formal and informal, and their place in the life of the community.

cafe

arts cafe venue break

I personally feel quite at home in arts venues but to some they can be alien spaces with an unwelcoming or elitist feel.  Living in Glasgow, I am very lucky to have a huge range of free museums and galleries on my doorstep, so I do make an effort to see the wonderful range of free events which are on.  I feel that free facilities and events are really important for people to be able to have the chance to see new cultural events and explore their area without the added barrier of cost.  That can be one reason why I don’t tend to visit the theatre or cinema much, I have to really want to see something to justify spending money on seeing something which is not free!  It is also why I love events like Doors Open Day, every September buildings are open for tours and events at no cost throughout Scotland (and Europe!).

Independent cafes and other small community halls or spaces can be really important in what makes the cultural map of a place work, where activities and get togethers are easy to organise and local groups or artists can sell or showcase their newest creations.  It’s not free to have coffee, of course, but I’ve seen some great free events at local cafes.

Do you have a favourite free venue?

Have yourself a ScotsGaelic Christmas… unconventional advent calendar December 11th

scoteng

Today’s unconventional adventure calendar is a little bit more seasonal than yesterday, celebrates lovely local museums, and I also have a go at a little bit of Gaelic.

I have been thinking about language and tradition in a cultural planning sense, our traditions and languages affect the culture of the area as stories and songs passed down generations will reflect the history of that area.  Local dialect and local words are something which fascinate me.  The picture above was actually not taken by me, but one of my family, and it is of the Scotland- England border at Berwick-upon-Tweed, a lovely border town which has a curious juxtaposition of Geordie, Northumbrian and Scots  accents.

To learn some seasonal Scots Gaelic, have a look at this Engage for Education site.  For some nice Northumbrian/Berwicker words, have a look at Northumbriana.

For previous unconventional advent calendar entries see this post.