Wallace - Smith Gallery, Stirling

Is it possible to get TOO MUCH of Wallace?
I ask this question after attending the book launch of "The Wallace Muse" at the Smith gallery, edited by Lesley Duncan and Elspeth King. The book's fine, a gathering together of poems inspired by Wallace. The Provost had recently returned from New York where a quarter of a million people had viewed Wallace's sword - taken over from Stirling for Tartan Week. In the gallery was an amazing installation of a coffin, it looked like a regal lying in state devoted to Wallace .Our national hero ( "thank you Braveheart") died some 700 years ago and never got a burial- he was hung drawn and quartered and his limbs dispersed around the country. Now he is to be a proper burial....

Prague

Having a few days in Prague. Stop off at the cafe used by Kafka, in the Jewish Quarter, and now named after him.

Walking along Charles bridge listen to an unusual rendering of Fur Elise- played on wine glasses.

They say the Sex Museum is the top tourist attraction in Prague and that the city is rivalling Amsterdam as the sex capital of Europe. In the night the city is heaving with hen and stag parties.

Having already been robbed on the underground in Chicago and Paris I was on the alert in Prague. Just as well cause I spotted that we had been targeted. Three men followed us on to the Metro then once they realised we were watching them they jumped off.

Discovered Black Theatre. The Wow! theatre group were opposite our hotel. Amazing!
(www.wow-show.com/wow/main.html)

Old Man of Storr

Environmental artist Agnus Farquhar created the most amazing noctural art project on the Isle of Skye this summer. It involved walking to the top of the Old Man of Storr- at midnight! Well, you set off at 11pm to be precise. I was there two days before the launch and walked up in daylight. There's a fantastic view from the top- which you wouldnt see if you did it in the dark. However, I can well believe that the memory of the experience of doing this walk, tricky in daylight and even more perilous in the night, would remain with you for a very long time.

Ian Hamilton Finlay

Some pictures taken during a visit to Little Sparta, a remote hilltop where Ian Hamilton Finlay , an international artist who is finally getting the recognition in Scotland that he deserves. He's in his 80th year and has three retrospectives in Edinburgh.