At the weekend we had the Pipe Bands festival in Dunbar.
Apart from trying hard to keep my children from the expensive rides and from eating too much cake from the soon to be launched Community Bakery, I had a few nice encounters.
The first was with a lovely artist who’s done some brilliant paintings of the area. Now I think about it, she was pretty as a picture herself. Anyway, I bought a handful of prints in the hope that it will ease my family Christmas present shop when December comes.
I was also really taken by a jewellery stall selling the wares of Lilac Millie. As it turns out, Lilac Millie is a friend of mine who’s been hiding her light under a bushel.
What I particularly like about what she does is the use of the local environment, collecting worn bits of glass (we call them precious stones in our house) and pebbles from our beautiful beaches and creates something entirely new from them.
And I think we have things in common, my jeweller friend and I. Both of us are on the lookout for interesting things around and about. Both use raw materials that many might think are utterly useless (in my case ideas, stories, faces, you name it) and both create something new, individual and utterly splendid (at least she does) in our re-shaping.
And apart from that, I’d love to write a story about someone called Lilac Millie. I’d say she’s either a gangster’s mol or a street girl from Paris. We’ll see if the idea develops from there – like I say, I’m a collector of random articles.
Should you find yourself in need of a gift, you could do a lot worse that supporting an entirely local enterprise. As you can see, the products and the prices are very appealing.
Till soon.