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Lessudden View 1 Tweed 1 Tweed 2 View 2 Mirrored 2 Gloaming Pig Entrance Dragon

Arrived at Lessudden House, on the outskirts of St Boswell, this afternoon. Lessudden was badly damaged in 1544 by the invading armies of Henry VIII, in what was called the “rough wooing”, when he tried – unsuccessfully – to force the Scots to allow their Queen Mary to marry the then Price of Wales. Elaine had stumbled upon Lessudden through the good offices of Alastair Sawday. Our hosts, Alasdair and Angela Douglas-Hamilton, made us feel very much at home – and her cooking is exquisite. 

Lessudden, at least for Elaine and I, was spookily reminiscent of Gogar Castle, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, which used to be owned by my godfather, Sir James Steel-Maitland. He shared it with  my two maternal great-aunts, Brenda and Dorothy, with whom he had a somewhat complicated, alternating history. Gogar is where my mother, who was living there at the time, first met my father, who then commanded RAF Turnhouse, now part of Edinburgh Airport.

Uncle Jimmy is one of the people I wish I could resurrect. Although his gifts to me as a child – an elephant-tusk-and-silver christening mug and twin hairbrushes made from ivory and whalebone bristle – would scarcely have stood muster in the 1960s, let alone today, I see his thinking on nature and building conservation as precursors of mine. Among other things, he collected animals for Edinburgh and London Zoos.

On arrival, Elaine and I walked down through the woods – where the horse chestnuts mercifully still show no signs of the devastating blight that is hitting their southern counterparts – and moseyed along the River Tweed, which runs alongside a golf course. The sun was setting, the fish were rising and all was well with the world.

 

Although what was meant to be a week of holiday has been gobbled up by a project for WWF International, I have managed to sneak in some other reading around the edges – and yesterday finished Philip Kerr‘s wonderful Bernie Gunther novel, If the Dead Rise Not. First time I can recollect reading a book that was both a prequel to earlier novels in a series – and that then goes on to extend the story. Have read all the Gunthers to date – and love the style and atmospheres conjured, be it in Germany, Argentina or Cuba. Saw this morning that he’s speaking at the Edinburgh Festival – wish I was going to be there.

Brilliant Noise (still) Black Noise (still)

Thanks to Gaia’s invitation, Elaine, she and I enjoyed the BFI ‘In the Shadow of the Sun’ panel discussion this evening, focusing on our brilliant neighbouring star. Among those taking part in the panel was Danny Boyle, who Gaia works for, and whose 2007 film Sunshine – in which the modest challenge is to re-ignite the Sun – was due to be shown later in the evening.

Others taking part in the panel, chaired by Dr Adam Rutherford of Nature, were Professor Brian Cox (whose recent BBC series ‘Wonders of the Solar System’ we loved), Honor Harger (Director of the Lighthouse in Brighton and one one half of the duo Radioqualia) and Dr Lucie Green of UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who works with NASA and the Japanese Space Agency. 

Among the highlights were brief showings of two films, Brilliant Noise and Black Rain, the second of which I had seen recently a glimpse of in a London museum. I still have in my study the Global transistor radio, made in Japan, which I used to listen to at night under my pillow at Bryanston, tuning into Radio Luxembourg to hear the likes of the Spencer Davis Group with Keep on Running and the Mamas & the Papas with California Dreamin’ – which must make it 1965-66.

I well remember the hiss and static when you switched between stations, particularly in short-wave, and now found that some of the noise I was listening to was the radio roar of the Sun. Some amazing sounds of space from Honor and imagery of the sun from Lucie, including this sequence of a giant charged cloud the Sun sent hurtling our way earlier in the month, taken from the Hinode mission.

A couple of things that stick in my memory: Lucie Green saying that she was getting to know the Sun in all its wavelengths, and Honor Harger talking about an attempt to make a perfume that spoke of the Sun, one that was slightly metallic, smelled of ozone, and made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, like an oncoming storm.

Oh, and the passion with which Danny Boyle spoke of the Humphrey Jennings book Pandaemonium, in which scientists (before the age of electricity) tried to understand what had happened when a shepherd was struck by a bolt of lightning, that killed many of his sheep but left him apparently intact.

Seem to have been quiet for a while, though have been doing a little on Twitter (@Volandia), Facebook and LinkedIn. Main reason has been that late last week, just as I was about to start a long-planned break this week, with Sam also away in Rio, a request came in from WWF International for a quick survey of where the NGO world seems to be headed. Quite a challenge, but have been consulting with a range of people around the world and getting some wonderful personal assessments of where things are–and where they may be headed. Should have an advanced draft ready late today to send to WWF this evening, with the final version due late Friday. More anon, I’m sure.

President Piñera has the Power

Nice to see Chilean President Sebastián Piñera brandishing our book The Power of Unreasonable People, though he has a complicated history, it seems. This was an event organised by our favourite Chilean social enterprise, Recycla, who feature in the book.