I FORGOT!

Is it really September already? Did I really forget to post last week?!

Yikes, how time flies!

I have been pre-occupied with a new project in my garden, a large garden shed, one that is consuming all my time, and then some. I did have some help for a while but I'm now left dealing with this monstrous build, at times very physically demanding, on my own. So much so I have had to ask for help from one of my neighbours as I had an accident today which has slowed me down. Nothing serious, but it made me realise just how much I am trying to achieve in a short space of time, by myself.

But less of the negative. More importantly than this all-consuming project, is a new post in film making that I have recently been asked to take up. The actress Pauline Quirk is opening a new academy for the performing arts (PQA for short) in Edinburgh.  There are many PQAs in England but this is the first of it's kind in Scotland.

My post involves teaching three age groups of school students, from 6 to 18, film and television skills every Saturday, culminating in several short films under one minute, and a main film at the end of the academic year next July. Needless to say I am very excited, and honoured, to be at the very start of such an exciting project. Hopefully more academies will follow.

Of course, September also means we are at the first stages of Autumn, my favourite time of year, when my garden bursts into colour. There's already that familiar smell and temperature in the air. I had hoped to be away just now before I start my commitment to PQA, but that opportunity seems to have been lost. Great autumn weather just now as well, so it would have been great, but there's too much to do at the moment. Other priorities have taken over for the time being.

One short respite was had though, on Sunday evening, when, for a couple of hours, I met up with some of my friends to climb the nearby Arthurs Seat hill in the centre of Edinburgh City, to watch the spectacular annual display of fireworks launched from the castle, in celebration of the end of the Edinburgh International Festival. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra play five classical pieces of music whilst a perfectly timed aerial display of gunpowder goes whizz bang above their heads. We were positioned some distance away from the castle, though at a high vantage point, so I took along a portable radio to blast out the music being broadcast on a local radio station. Needless to say crowds gathered around our spot to listen in as Tchaikovsky's famous 1812 overture ended the concert spectacular.

So a lot has been going on, and will continue to do so for some time to come I fear. I hope I don't lose all the autumn time, and that soon I'll be rewarded for all my hard work and find myself in more relaxing and beautiful surroundings of the Scottish Highlands in their Autumn coat.

I'll try not to forget next weeks post.