Bartimaeus

Valentine’s Day is a day to do things you love with someone you love, so my friend Margaret and I planned a day together midway between our home cities and Shane planned a cycling trip with his friend Ewan. Ewan and Margaret were the witnesses at our wedding, and Margaret even made my wedding dress so these are friendships that have been going longer than Shane and I have been together.

I booked my bus then Shane told me Ewan had suggested a trip that involved catching the same bus from the same stop, so he would accompany me to the bus. Ewan and Shane have found the Ember electric bus lets you bung your bike in the boot and hop on and it’s all free for over 60s. There isn’t even a booking charge.

Ewan also had a ‘romatic’ job for me. He brought one of the hats I had knitted for him and his spouse, a ‘merrie dancers’ design from Shetland, as a wedding present. It is an unusual gift but they had said they didn’t need household gifts but personal handcrafted gifts were welcome. Shane made a map of where he and Ewan cycled together and I made matching hats. He had snagged a hat in a bush and wondered if I had appropriate wool to repair it. He handed it over at the bus stop. Last time I repaired one the hole was near the top and I resorted unpicking the crown and pulling it back and putting it on my needles to work in the round and reknitted it, rather than trying to sew or darn or patch it. This time the hole is near the brim so I have not yet decided how to tackle it. Remaking the whole hat is a possibility. Ewan suggested darning it with pink. I will have a think.

I was impressed by the tapestry exhibition in the V&A in Dundee last time. I had seen more of it than my friend Margaret as she had had to divide her time between it and the Kimono exhibition. It was a busy day last time, so I knew I hadn’t managed to study all the panels and also we tried to encourage our other knitter friend Rhona to come and see it with us. She was far too busy on the weekend we suggested though. It didn’t stop Margaret and I reprising our Dundee visit and enjoying a braw time and on the bus, after Shane and Ewan had got off, I cracked on with knitting the baby garment, which is a nice small travelling project. We knew craftwork was going to be a theme for the day.

I met her off the train, the bus handily dropping me at the station. Lunch was first on our agenda. I thought we might be going to the Thai again but Margaret had another idea. She knew of a Lebanese restaurant she had tried a couple of times. A tried and tested place was fine with me so we went to Tahini. I was told the stuffed peppers were good. My Loanhead friend had given me stuffed pepper for lunch and I had really enjoyed it so decided again to take the recommendation and have that again. It saved me poring over the menu when the attention at the table was so prompt and the fresh mint tea was an easy choice. We were very happy with our choice and the fresh water melon and Turkish (Lebanese?) delight that arrived after was a refreshing surprise. Margaret pointed out the attractive window. I had my back to it, but our friend Pete had snapped it last time so I did it again on our way out.

I remembered that on our anniversary visit to Dundee a couple of years ago we had gone to a different restaurant where I had chosen stuffed pepper so it’s a good choice to have again on a romantic date.

We headed back to the V&A to admire the Dundee themed tapestry exhibition. Straight away I saw there were panels I had missed last time. One such was a panel on the theme of music. As we studied the music panel, a lady, one of the embroiderers came to explain her story of the making of it to us, both the triumphs and the tests. There are many bands, musician names and song titles sewn on to this one. Deacon Blue, which I knew were Scottish was no surprise (I had used one of their song titles before Dignity, which has a boaty connection). I hadn’t realised Snow Patrol had any Dundee connection but they certainly do (I used one of their titles In The End  last month) and likewise The Average White Band (I’m using one of theirs now). 

Margaret had suggested we get photos next to a favourite panel. I chose to pose next to the Nature panel. It has a great deal of stitch cover and a beautiful subject too.

I had looked at this one in some detail before, but there was a lot to see, both flora and fauna. A red squirrel had made it into two panels and I loved the blue tit and heron. Though it was not just cute fluffy ones that were depicted either, even arachnid, caterpillar, snail and dragonfly made an appearance.

In the health panel I saw blooms in lungs and an oyster catcher and tiny gull were by a fish too big to catch, hanging out at Slessor Gardens, where I would catch my bus home.

Being by the sea, water was a frequent theme, but it wasn’t always the Tay and Sailing ships. I had never thought about why the hospital was called Nine wells before. Another heron is in flight here.

While the common thread through all of the embroidery was Dundee, there were some international and global and travel themes too. Whilst admiring the details we had been looking for a helicopter as the embroiderer had told us there was a helicopter  somewhere but we would never have seen the plane in the music panel if she hadn’t pointed it out.

The layout grouped topics thoughtfully. Beside the music panel, dedicated to many musicians was one dedicated to one Dundee folk singer song writer, composing in the vernacular, who offered an alternative to bombastic national anthems of gore and glory, a song called Harmless. I was sorry I only first learned of him after he had died. The panel next to his was devoted to the dialect of Dundonians, the language he used.

The visual arts also got a panel to themselves and was suitably varied and colourful and linked with the heavy emphasis elsewhere of women in arts, industry, medicine and socio-political reform. Most of the embroiderers are women so no surprise there. Dundee, as any city has many faces and communities.

Slavery is not a cheery topic but past industries, such as jute and jam making surely rest  their success on slavery America and poorly paid labour in India, probably poorer than those in the Dundee factories. Jam used sugar cane from plantations worked by slaves. Jute was imported before being processed. Later the jute industry transferred to the countries that grew it. The  panel focussed on a slavery abolitionist and a man traded into slavery in Jamaica as a child but who successfully won a case in 1778 against the man who had bought him,  He had been brought to Scotland. It was successfully argued that he was now not a slave but a free man as slavery was against the law in Scotland.

Others I had missed before but were of particular interest were one on journalism – in primary we learned Dundee was famous for the three Js: Jute, Jam and Journalism. I particularly like the scattered typewriter keys. Then there was one that featured a fourth J -jumpers.. How had I missed that knitting centrepiece first time round?

A woman there was knitting socks with four needles without looking as she wandered round the exhibition. She approached Margaret spotting a fellow knitter for a chat. Then Margaret and I decided we could have our own knit and natter at the cafe. That was as soon as we had dispensed with our coffee and cake, a Moroccan one for me and and a heart shaped iced biscuit for Margaret, since it was Valentine’s day.

The time flew by and in no time we had to start packing up the wool and making our way out. The whole exhibition had vanished. It is still on display but moved to another room. Thanks to the information from the embroiderer we knew where it had gone, but we never did find that helicopter.

Looking to the sky as I headed towards Slessor Gardens and my bus home I saw a structure that from this angle looked like a murmeration, and on the ground, lit up fountains. Art is everywhere in nature and nature in art. We hadn’t made it to the Art Gallery today but we can go round again another day.