Hoist the Lantern

A Great Hall need a great light  - and I mean great in both senses! On the 29th August 2024, the huge Art Deco lantern, collected from an architectural reclaim yard in Wolverhampton, was finally hoisted into position at the top of the Great Hall.

A special bracket had to be made to attach the great weight to the floor joists on the level above. My first view of the installed lantern was through the scaffolding as per the image  below:

George the sparky had spent many days patiently re-wiring the lantern with modern bayonet fittings to replace the old/broken/missing Edison screw ones. With 66 light bulbs, he declares it the largest he has ever worked with. Thanks to George for his steady, calm and efficient services at Balintore. The photo was taken at the moment of the first illumination. I love the way the light reflects warmly off the gold of the lantern.

There are more metal pieces to fit to the lantern, and then it has to be re-glazed because all the original glass has been lost. So there are more chapters ahead in the story of the lantern.

The Infinity Box

Last Saturday lunchtime, I dined with a delightful lady whose right-side was painted white and whose left-side was painted black. I urged her to not spill the beetroot soup, for its resemblance to blood, be-spattered over her gothic-inspired black and white costume would take her already terrifying appearance over the level that would cause me to flee.

I had assumed, rightly or wrongly, that this was not a stray spirit loosed in the castle basement, but an actor taking part in the filming of "The Infinity Box" at Balintore Castle over the weekend.

Joel, the director of the project had made contact with me through a mutual friend called Karen. When I dealt with Karen she was an antique dealer; when Joel dealt with Karen she was a Bollywood location scout in Scotland. All this goes to illustrate that each of us can do many things in life. One of my personal bêtes noir, is that a CV has to show a career path struck in a single discipline rut.

Anyhow, the film cast and crew were lovely and though one might feel one is not part of that world, you have to realise that not all members of the team will have worked together before, so they are open to meeting new people including oneself. And indeed, we all share a deep love of film.

The scenario of the 15 minute film, which forms just part of a multi-media art project, makes little sense to me, but here goes. A Scottish maker was commissioned to create a hand-written book. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a hand-woven fabric bag in which the book is placed. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a box, in which the bag and ultimately the film/DVD will be placed.

The filmed sequence features two creatures: one inside the mirror in a parallel universe and one in front of the mirror in the real world: very much in the tradition of "Alice through the Looking Glass" and Jean Cocteau. I know no more, but will be fascinated to view the resulting film sequence which was shot entirely in the "Gentleman's Dressing Room" at the castle.

the shoot

It was interesting to observe how much of the production effort took place in the corridor outside the "studio" as the crew studied monitors, etc

technicians in the corridor

Here are some images from the black and white production.

the result

Book your tickets now!

Cineastes amongst us will not fail to note the commonality with the similarly named British technicolour film "The Magic Box" (1951) and the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (1969).

still from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" 

Gregor's Secret Door

As I passed Gregor in the carpentry workshop at the end of a working day recently, I asked "What have you been up to today?". "You can see for yourself.", replied Gregor.

So I walked into the Great Hall which is where we are currently working. I failed to observe any visible change, and was too embarrassed to pursue the matter further, so I slipped past Gregor discreetly and exited the scene hastily.

The next morning, as I walked into the Great Hall, the difference was staring me in the face: where there has once been a blank opening with a stone wall behind it, was now a Gregor home-brew Victorian door.

Gregor's Door

It's a pretty decent recreation of the surviving Victorian doors, all done without the intervention of a specialist carpentry workshop.

Here is a surviving Victorian door for comparison. This is still covered in the detritus of the building's ruination, which we haven't even attempted to clean off.

Original Victorian Door.

The only different is the paint job! The Victorian door has a paint effect using light and dark brown paints to emulate oak. Gregor's door is just painted in the light brown colour (Mexican Tan). If anyone knows how to apply the paint effect using the dark brown paint on top, then please get in touch! I know that the technique is called graining or scumbling.

Gorky's Sun Dog

On the 12th of July this year, I organised a dinner party at the castle for my great friend Görkem (Gorky). Gorky was last in Scotland 10 years previously, so it was very much an occasion for celebration. I sneaked-in some surprise guests who Gorky had not seen, since we last worked together for a computer games company in Dundee.

Just before the meal, Gorky announced there was something interesting going on in the sky which he had seen from his bedroom at the castle. We all rushed out, and the amazing phenomenon lasted another 5 minutes or so before fading away.

We all savoured that special moment of being together as mother nature did her showiest best. I am presuming this is a sun-dog, but if anyone else knows to the contrary please let me know. I had seen sun dogs before, but this was against an otherwise dark sky which spectacularly highlighted the rainbow colours.

telephoto shot from Gorky's bedroom window

standard shot from Gorky's bedroom window

Botanical Notes III

Further adventures in trying to master wild flower identification. I often see this small purple flower growing at ground level, but have never given it much thought. Down on my hands and knees this evening with the 7x digital zoom on my mobile, the flowerhead is a complete revelation: looking almost like an exotic orchid. The Seek App tells me this is the Common Self-Heal. It is edible and used in Chinese medicine. Never-the-less, I doubt it could provide a substantial meal - look at the Clover leaf in the background for scale! :-)

Common Self-Heal (Prunella vulgaris)

Even I can identify this deep pink beauty as the Dog or Wild Rose. Amazingly Seek could not get any further than the rose "family". A tiny victory for me. :-)

Dog Rose (Rosa canina)

On my botanical peregrinations, I could not resist the following vista of the Daisy and Buttercup meadow below the castle. This evening was not sunny like yesterday, with the low cloud smudging the tops of the nearby hills, but it was pleasantly warm in a T-shirt even with the touch of mist on the skin.

Meadow Buttercups (Ranunculus acris)  and Daisies (Bellis perennis)

High Summer Mowing!

It's High Summer at Balintore Castle!

This year we have neither had the usual biblical plague of rabbits, nor the annual invasion of sheep. I usually rely on said fauna and livestock to tend my lawns for free. So this year, I asked my friend Andrew if he could give the terrace a once-over with a flatbed mower.

Yesterday, as I looked out of the high castle windows at the work in progress, I realised what a glorious summer day it was and how lucky Andrew was to be outside. I was doing simultaneously stressful and dreary admin at my desk.

The field below the castle is awash with buttercups, thanks to the organic farming practices of the local estate. If you zoom into the images, you will see how beautifully intense the yellow is.

high summer mowing - looking west

high summer mowing - looking east

Botanical Notes I

I am a great lover of nature but do not know enough species names. The philosophical question is whether there are always more names to learn so one feels perpetually inadequate, or whether at some stage a degree of mastery can be achieved? I suspect the latter will forever be out of my reach.

Anyhow at this time of year, the wild flowers are out and surely this sub-category of nature must be more tractable? Joyous colours and forms must also surely make identification easier as well as pleasurable?

This afternoon's walk up the Dairy burn in the rain and thunder was at least a start.

I spotted both pink and blue Forget-Me-Not flowers on the same stem! All the other Forget-Me-Nots on my walk, were the standard blue.

Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis scorpioides)

These pink orchids are very different from the purple Marsh Orchids growing in the castle's formal garden:

Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsia)

I would call this Scotland's Baby's Breath, but I was finally able to identify the plant as the Marsh Bedstraw:

Common Marsh Bedstraw (Galium palustre)

I was looking at "small buttercups" this afternoon, and speculated that they perhaps were not Buttercups after all. The Seek App told me there were Tormentil.

Tormentil (Potentilla erecta)

And of course, Tormentil have 4 petals and Buttercups have 5. Duh! How had I never noticed this before? I thought I had seen the name Tormentil before in connection with Scotland but I couldn't place it. Was it the name of a ski run or was it the name of a whisky? Anyhow, some frantic googling revealed that there is a Tomintoul (different spelling) whisky and a town of the same name in the Cairngorms.

It goes without saying that you should alert me to any plant mis-identifications in the above!