The Stories: Aberdeenshire Folk Tales

Aberdeenshire Folk Tales By Grace Banks & Sheena Blackhall, Pub by The History Press, 2013 ISBN: 9780752497587. The folklore of the North East provides a rich tapestry for the tales within; from Celtic and Pictish origins meet witches, selkies, smugglers, fairies, monsters, despicable rogues, riddles and heroes. Tragic events, spellbinding characters, humour, romance and clever minds are bound together by two well-established storytellers living and working in the city and shire of Aberdeen. Some of the tales in this collection are based on historical fact while others are embedded in myth and legend. All the stories are set against the backdrop of this lovely and varied landscape. Sheena and Grace have both been inspired in their storytelling and singing by the traveller, raconteur and balladeer, Stanley Robertson. - See more at: http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/index.php/aberdeenshire-folk-tales.html#sthash.hKbnWtDU.dpuf

The Poems: Shards

Title: Shards. Poems & Tales in Scots & English by Sheena Blackhall. Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire.Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen. Cover: Based on The Door to Freedom by Rene Magritte, 1936. Cost: £3.00.Copyright: S. Blackhall 2013. For more information on other publications by Sheena Blackhall, visit http://sheenablackhall.blogspot.com or the on-line catalogue of the National Library of Scotland www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/index/html. Some of these poems have previously been published on www.poemhunter.com. ‘They Feared’ will appear in November published by Rain Poetry Books (Keith Murray). ‘A Royal Baby’ will feature in New Beginnings by Forward Poetry, 2014. ‘A Young Iguana’ will be published in Animal Antics by Forward Poetry 2014. ‘The Inconstant Lover’ will appear in Poetry Obsessions by Forward Poetry, also in 2014. ‘Screivin in Scots’ will be published in Lallans 83. ‘The Wall’ was the winning entry announced at the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival in Glasgow on 19th October2013. (Bipolar Scotland ran a short story competition on the theme of ‘First Love.’) ‘Chardonnay’ and ‘The Rowie Song’ were specially written as performance pieces to celebrate Aberdeen Arts Centre 50th anniversary in October 2013, at a civic reception in Aberdeen’s Town House. ‘The Yowes an the Tortoises’ is a Scots owersett of a traditional Nigerian tale told by a parent on an Aberdeen Reading Bus Project. The current project, Global Blethers, is funded by the Fairer Scotland Fund.

The Poems: The Aye-Aye

Title: The Aye-Aye, Poems in Scots & English by Sheena Blackhall.Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire. Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen.Cover:Aye-Aye (from the www).Cost: £3.00.Copyright: S. Blackhall 2013.The first poems in this pamphlet were written in response to mysterious paper sculptures appearing in Scotland: Catriona Low, publisher of Severin Books, is constantly on their trail. This pamphlet is dedicated to her for alerting me to each new discovery. http://severinbooks.blogspot.co.uk/ Most of the poems were written during the summer of 2013, during stays on Jersey and St Malo. The Dream o the Restless Bairnickie is published in ‘Pushing Out the Boat, Issue 12’. Thank You Spring will feature in ‘Spirit of Spring’, a Forward Press Anthology due out in October. Memorial Day & Birthday are due to appear in ‘Shadows’, a Malfranteaux Concepts publication compiled by Keith Murray. A Puckle Doric Wirds I like and Fitbaa were written for inclusion in a forthcoming anthology compiled by Mark Pithie for a 2013 Doric Festival event. The Japanese tanka owersetts appeared in Southlight magazine. Thanks are due to Les Wheeler for his continued encouragement and support in agreeing to publish this little pamphlet. Re. The Cro-Magnon Poem My half brother, Charles Middleton Ritchie, died in Canada within a year or so of our first meeting. My younger brother, Ian Middleton, predeceased him. A woman can only access paternal DNA via a close male relative and I was delighted that my nephew Scott Ritchie, in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, agreed to submit a sample for analysis. The result was as follows:

The male line of our family DNA carries the mutation M343. The paternal haplotype is R1b. Haplogroup R is thought to have appeared some 30,000 years ago in Central Asia and is widely spread all over the world. The mutation M343 is linked to one of the subclades of Haplogroup R called R1b which is thought to have been part of the recolonisation of Europe following the Last Glacial Maximum. The R1b expansion was closely linked to the spreading of the Indo-European languages. This makes us direct descendants of the Cro Magnon people, the modern humans who painted the "Lascaux Cave" in Dordogne in the South of France. These paintings can be regarded both as a testimony of the artistic skills of our ancestors but also as a sketch book of their life during the last glacial age. R1b can be found in more than 80% of the population in England, France and Spain. In western Ireland, R1b is found in nearly 100% of the population.

The Poems: Goosebumps for Beginners

Goosebumps for Beginners:Poems & tales in Scots & English.by Sheena Blackhall Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen Cost: £3.00Cover: Image of Geese ( in the Public Domain) by Tom Kelly, US Fish and Wildlife Service Copyright: S. Blackhall 201 3For more information on other publications by Sheena Blackhall, visit http://sheenablackhall.blogspot.com or the on-line catalogue of the National Library of Scotland www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/index/html). The Trouble with War has been selected for publication in The World at War- Poems from the Battlefield in September 2013 (Forward Poetry). Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Mother has been selected for publication by Forward Poetry in the anthology A Mother to Me, due for publication in September 2013 Valentine Card has been accepted for publication by Forward Poetry in the Anthology Endless Love- Heart’s Desire, due out Sept 2013. A Day to Remember has been accepted for publication in ‘A Day in Time’, Forward Poetry, due out in September 2013.

Most of these poems were written in June (22nd-28th) 2013 on retreat at Dhanakosa, Balquhidder. The English poems will eventually be published on http://www.poemhunter.com/sheena-blackhall. Thanks are due to Les Wheeler for his continued encouragement and support in agreeing to publish this little pamphlet.

The Poems: Grey Matter

Grey Matter:Poems & tales in Scots & English by Sheena Blackhall Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen Cost: £3.00 This book is dedicated to Les & Sheila Wheeler.Some of the poems are included in Volume 4 of Canvases, published by Rain Poetry Books. The story Destiny Stone appeared on the Scottish Book Trust feature ‘Treasures’. Several poems were inspired by the annual Aberdeen Artists’ Exhibition, and the St Andrew’s Song was written for ‘Families First’, an event organised for disadvantaged families in St Andrews. Various poems have already been published on http://www.poemhunter.com/sheena-blackhall. The cover photograph of Blackhall was taken at the Psychology Department of Aberdeen University, during a research project session conducted there.

The Poems: Walking in Blake's Garden

Walking in Blake’s Garden: Poems in Scots & English by Sheena Blackhall. Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire.Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen. Cover: Samuel Palmer: Early Morning. Cost: £3.00.Copyright: S. Blackhall 2013 For more information on other publications by Sheena Blackhall, visit the on-line catalogue of the National Library of Scotland www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/index/html. Some of these poems have previously been published on www.poemhunter.com. Most of them were written during the spring of 2013, on a visit to Derbyshire. Queen Mary, jyled was prompted by a visit to Chatsworth, one of her many places of imprisonment. The Village of Eyam was the result of an exploration of a scene of death from the bubonic plague in 1665-1666. In the book ‘Eyam Plague 1665-1666’ by John Clifford ISBN O-9544666-0-8 pub 2003, the author refers to a suggested ‘cure’ at the time for the disease, by attaching a live chicken with its anus over the patient’s bubo, the warmth being thought useful in drawing out the poison. He goes on to observe that traces of aureomycin, a drug now used as part of a cure for the plague, were found in the soil of Vietnam where poultry continually ingest the earth as grits, to aid defecation. Meltwater, Jock Thamson’s Bairns in the Ship of Charon, Shellyman and Fear-Bhata were all inspired by Waterlines, an artistic partnership of Will Maclean and Marian Leven. The exhibition featured items from the Special Collections and Museums at the University of Aberdeen. In the production of Waterlines, they created a new sculptured marker in the landscape that is dominated by the ambitious Sir Duncan Rice Library. The Short Story Help! was written for the event Inventions and Experiments from Scotland, 9/5/2013, part of the Children’s programme in Aberdeen University’s May Festival. Stone Age Orcadians was written during a trip to the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the Scots poems will be published in the anthology Dialect Poetry ISBN 978-1-906845-47-6 due out in Autumn 2013.

The Poems: In Faldy's Wood

In Faldy’s Wood:Poems & Tales in Scots & English, Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire, Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen.Cost: £3.00 Copyright: S. Blackhall 2013. This book is dedicated to Philip & Vicki Watt and family, Fadlydyke Farm, New Deer. The poem Pine will appear in the anthology Into the Forest - A Celtic Alphabet of Tree Poems to be published by Saraband Books in autumn 2013, edited by Mandy Haggith. The 3 Flash Fiction tales were published in Northwords Now in 2012. Poems on the Scottish inventions and inventors were written as part of a school Science project for the Reading Bus. The poem for Dr George Philp appeared in The Scotsman. Thanks are due to Les Wheeler for his continued encouragement and support in agreeing to publish this little pamphlet.