2012 began with the great news that our good friend Donald John MacKay of Luskentyre has been given an MBE in the New Year Honours List. Donald John wove the tweed which Sgioba Luaidh waulked at Auchindrain last May. Meal do naidheachd, a bhalaich, ‘s math an airidh!

Early in January we had our usual New Year house ceilidh. A mug of mulled wine soon warmed us up on a cold night. As usual the poit-mhùin (well-washed) made a useful punchbowl! Good to catch up with old friends to have a blether and a singsong. Some pics here.

There was no practice the following week as Innes and Frances had a date with Largs Historical Society. Innes gave a brilliant talk on the mysteries of spinning; Frances worked the projector and sang a few appropriate songs. As soon as she stepped in the door of Largs Museum, Innes made a beeline for the two old spinning wheels on display. We could hardly tear her away to start her talk! Since it was the Society’s first meeting of the New Year there were nibbles and wine on offer beforehand, which provided some welcome ballast and lubrication!

Now we'll get down to practising in earnest. We intend to work on developing our programme which compares some of Marjory Kennedy Fraser's Songs of the Hebrides with her traditional sources. This allows us to feature Eleanor on the clarsach, and allows some of us to indulge in "posh" singing for a change! 

We have a busy few months ahead, starting with Paisley Abbey Friendly Hour on 26 January. See our Calendar page. Steall oirbh, a chairdean!

2011 ended for Sgioba Luaidh with a flurry of activity. We performed in Paisley, Ayr, Port Glasgow, Erskine, Prestwick; and Glasgow, for a return visit to the Gaelic Meetup Group.

We had an extra trip to Auchindrain in October to be filmed for a BBC2 programme about local food production. Children from nearby schools had fun harvesting Auchindrain’s potato crop. We were joined by some visitors from Zambia, and waulked to an African song about pounding maize! Click here for some pics.

In November we had a session with Kilmacolm Scouts – a slightly daunting prospect! But the boys were magnificent: they sang, they waulked, they asked intelligent questions. We picked quite macho songs for them – boats,  battles and blood! Great fun!

To celebrate St Andrew’s Day, second year pupils at St Columba’s High School were taking part in various Scottish-themed activities – including waulking. We have been in primary schools many a time, but this was our first secondary. We worked with five different groups throughout the day – hard work, but enjoyable. They gave us lunch too!

Then in December we had a surprise visit from Kasia, one of our workshop students from Poland. She arrived with the worst weather we have had (so far!) this year. Scotland didn’t really look its best, unfortunately! But we hope the warm welcome made up for the gales, rain and cold! We had a night’s waulking, and a wee ceilidh the second night. Kasia tried to teach us a Polish song. The sounds are much more difficult than Gaelic – but we’ll keep practising!

Some pics here.

And now we have our Christmas break. Nollaig chridheil dha na càirdean gu léir!