Julie Dumbarton, Artist

Recently grown to love the work of the artist Julie Dumbarton, normally my preference for art is for gentle, pastel watercolours, but I love Julie's bright, vibrant paintings which are the opposite of my normal taste.

Photo from Julie's Facebook Page

A few days ago I drove to Langholm, where Julie has her studio situated in Buccleugh Mill. I was going there to pick up a mini painting in person. Julie's art sells for thousands of pounds, but every now and then she does a series of minis which sell for £75.00. I think it is a brilliant idea, it means ordinary people like me can afford to buy a small piece of her original artwork.

When I arrived at the studio Julie was not there but her husband Craig welcomed me warmly. The building was large, bright and airy, full of canvases ranging from small to huge, all alive with colour. In the middle was a table piled with tubes of paint and scattered around the space were comfy looking sofas. There was a little shop area that sold calendars, cards and other things.

My Mini (sorry about the reflections)

After a chat with Craig I was free to wander around the studio and it was lovely to see the paintings in real life, Julie is such an talented artist, I love the colour and life within her work, it makes you feel good just looking at them. The building itself, though large, had a warmth and lived in feel about it. That warmth also comes through in Julie's website and Facebook page which are both informative and friendly in tone. And it comes across strongly just how much painting means to Julie, it is her life.

I'm very happy with my mini, I love the mix of colours and the Monet-esque subject matter. They have lovely prints of many of Julie's pictures so that will be my next purchase, and I already know which one I will have, (one depicting the northern lights) so time to start saving for that!

I will be going back to the studio in the future, they have an open day every Friday from 10:00 - 16:00 and hopefully I'll get to meet Julie herself. She also does painting weekends and that is something I am seriously considering attending as, though I can draw, I cannot paint for the life of me! Anyone reading this who is local, pop round to the studio, you are in for a treat!

Shopping and Graveyards

Had a busy day today! I met up with friend Christine and we went out for a late lunch. We then drove a short distance to Gretna Gateway outlet "Just to look in M & S." There wasn't much there and the other shops somehow drew us in, especially shoe/handbag ones LOL!  I ended up buying two pairs of shoes, and, the bargain of the year, a lovely leather handbag for £10, I was well chuffed.

We eventually got round to doing the original purpose of the trip out, genealogical research. We were going to look round graveyards which are a haven of information for family research. Our first stop was in Langholm, where drove up a steep, narrow road through woods full of bluebells to the graveyard. You may think me strange, but I like graveyards, they are peaceful and this one was in such a beautiful setting, high on a hill, surrounded by mountains, and it was a beautiful day (we've had over two weeks of glorious sunny and warm weather.)  There were two areas, the older graveyard was surrounded by stone walls, this was the one we were interested in. Both Christine and I have ancestors from Langholm and though we saw the same surnames we didn't find any of our people.

Christine said she knew of a very old cemetery in the countryside just outside of the west side of  Langholm. So we drove there. It was indeed very, very old. There was a rusty iron gate that was difficult to open, and once we were in we were greeted by a totally overgrown graveyard full of stones and memorials, many leaning at precarious angles. The ground underfoot was uneven with knee high grass, we had to be very careful not to fall.  It was very peaceful there, the only sounds being birdsong, the river nearby and the occasional car passing by on the road.  I got photos of a couple of stones that probably were from my family of Dalgliesh, though not direct ancestors. As we walked back towards the car I heard a cuckoo calling, long time since I've heard one of those.

Next stop was the little church and cemetery of Ewes, a tiny hamlet a few miles out of Langholm on the A7 heading towards Hawick. I knew some of my relatives lived in that area in the 1700's but there were no gravestones that gave me any further family information there. Again it was such a beautiful location for a graveyard.  I noticed the symbols on the back of one stone (photo right) which were a bit weird!

We headed back towards Carlisle after Ewes and stopped off at Canonbie churchyard. A lot of Christine's relatives were from this little place. For the size of the place the church (built 1812) was large as was the cemetery. As at Langholm there were two areas of burial and we went to the old one. The whole place was teeming with rabbits hopping about in the sunshine, these places are havens for wildlife. We found a gravestone with lots of information about Christine's family which was brilliant.

By now we were getting tired, we'd trailed around shops and four graveyards for about five hours.  It had been a good day though, we'd got some genealogical info and the weather had been perfect. Plus it's always good to do something different and spend time with your BFF!

A Day Out in Another World

I met up with my friend Alison today.  We live about 60 miles away from each other and try to meet up once a month either nearer where she lives or nearer to me.  This time it was near to me and we met up in Langholm, a small town in the Scottish Borders.  Langholm is situated on the River Esk and surrounded by hills, the highest, Whita, has an impressive obelisk dedicated to Sir John Malcolm the soldier and politician, at its peak.  On a clear day the obelisk can just be seen from Carlisle 20 miles away.

Alison and I had a lovely, and very cheap, lunch in the Crown Hotel on the town's main street.  We then set off for Eskdalemuir and the Kagyu Samye Ling Tibetan Centre 13 miles away.  It was one of those beautiful, crisp winter days with blue skies, sunshine and frost that didn't melt.  We travelled on a road through beautiful countryside of rolling mountains, pine and deciduous forest, a landscape that was mainly uninhabited except for occasional farms and the tiny hamlets of the odd-named Bentpath and Eskdalemuir.  We passed only a handful of other cars on the road.   At one point we noticed people in the fields on a grouse shoot, it was weird to see men walking along with rifles.

Just beyond Eskdalemuir we came to Kagyu Samye Ling Tibetan Centre.  This was set up by Tibetans in 1967 and is now a thriving community complete with temple.  Many, many years ago this was where I saw the Dalai Lama when he visited the centre.  I stood amongst the crowd and listened to him speak.  I have aways been a bit of closet Buddhist and was entranced by the Dalai Lama.  He was so wise and charismatic, yet he also was very human and had a wonderful sense of humour and an infectious laugh that made you smile too.  I feel lucky to have seen him in person.

You can wander around the complex freely.  We passed by an avenue of multi-coloured prayer flags flapping in the wind that led to a huge white stupa shining brightly in the winter sunshine.  A short distance from this was a huge golden gateway covered in brightly coloured paintings of gods.  We passed through the gateway and saw a beautiful golden Buddha in an area that seemed to be being developed into a garden area.  The statue it was so serene and the gold shimmered brightly in the sunlight. It had a plaque on it saying 0700 hrs 7.7.2007, obviously an auspicious date.

We walked on into the complex where we first headed for the temple.  We could hear that a ceremony was going on as we took our shoes off outside.  We stepped inside and  into another world.  It was an intricate kaleidoscope of colours and gold featuring gods, golden Buddhas and animals on the walls and ceiling, monks were chanting accompanied by the clash of cymbals and huge, loud drums.  The steady beat of the drums and cymbals was almost hypnotic and it was also quite relaxing, it was really like moving into another world. 

We left the temple and put our shoes back on and went to the shop.  There was building work going on and we had to walk round the building twice to find the entrance!  There also is a lovely little cafe on the site that has homemade vegetarian food, but as we'd had such a good lunch we didn't go in there this time.  After that we headed off back to Langholm, sufficently chilled out by our little steps into Scotland's Tibetan world.

ZU2 Tribute Band

Ever since our favourite U2 tribute band NU2 split up earlier this year my friends and I have missed seeing a U2 tribute band every now and then for a fix of U2 music. So when my friend Dawn asked if I wanted to see ZU2 I jumped at the chance.

They were playing in a small Scottish town called Langholm, not that far from where I live. I met Dawn there and fist of all we decided to have a meal. Langholm closes in the evening and there were just two places open. The first place we walked into seemed to have been suspended in the late 70's, complete with garish, flowery carpets. We walked into the bar and there were three people in it who all stopped talking and just turned and stared unsmilingly at us. Dawn and I looked at each other and turned and walked out!

A short distance up the street was the Douglas Hotel and we went into the restaurant there. It was lovely, modern, full of people with friendly staff. We had sausages and mash which was absolutely delicious.

After this we drove the short distance to the Buccleuch Centre where the gig was being held. The venue was small but very nice, modern with a bar and large seating area and spotlessly clean toilets. The auditorium too was small but comfortable and perfect for the gig.

ZU2 came on at 7.30pm. The beginning of the show was based on the Popmart Tour opening with a screen at the back of the stage showing various graphics accompanied by Pop Muzik by M. It all brought back the feeling of excitement I'll felt at the real Popmart shows as this opening number blasted out. Can't believe all that was 11 years ago now!

The band came on and started with Vertigo. They were very good, and "Bono" was very like the real thing from the side with his glasses on. He had a good voice too, again very close to the real Bono's. He had Bono's movements off to a tee, all the little nuances were there.

The band did a very varied, well-balanced set which included surprises like When I Look at the World and Spanish Eyes - it was really nice to hear them played live. They did a scintillating Bad which gave me goosebumps! Just before the interval the band asked the audience to write down any requests during the break and hand them in at the merchandise stall and then the band include some of the requests in the second half of the set, a really good idea.

ZU2 are a full time tribute band and are very professional with the screen at the back showing animations throughout the show and very good lighting too. They even had souvenir tee-shirts and CDs for sale as well. I really enjoyed the gig I'd recommend them and would definitely go to see them again.