On Doors Open Day my mother, sister and I went on a trip to Innerpeffray Library – Scotland’s first public lending library founded in 1680. It’s an amazing place full of fascinating books many of which are hundreds of years old. We marvelled at a tiny one, smaller than a thumb nail, containing the Lords Prayer, one full of beautiful illustrations of animals that the artist can only have heard about through story and song and laughed at sermons ‘Woe to Drunkards’ which were written in 1627 with much the same message that they are today.
Books are such wonderful things and it is fabulous that we have our own Book Festival here. This year our festival takes us back into our past and explores the 16th and 17th Century Scottish Witch Trials as well as The Birnam Oak's connection to Shakespeare's Macbeth. I’d like to believe the story that the Bard actually travelled through Birnam on his way north to Inverness with a group of players and while here gathered inspiration for the great Scottish Play.
Move forward 250 years from the writing of Macbeth and we would have found people in Birnam admiring our new Station building. Unfortunately, the building has not fared as well as the books in Innerpeffray and this grade 1 listed building is now in needs of help and of course the platform has been sinking for years. If you are interested in contributing to ideas about the future of the Station building, please go along to the meeting on 24th October at Birnam Arts, Tuesday 24th October 7.30pm – click here for more information.
It is astonishing what we, the human race, is capable of printing miniature books to building beautiful buildings. I find it amazing that NASA have managed to fly the Osiris-Rex spacecraft to the asteroid Bennu, land on it, collect samples and bring them safely back to earth. I ponder this fact as I wait to cross the A9 junction from Dunkeld home to Trochry. I wonder why is it that we are capable of flying to Bennu but can’t find a way to improve safety on these treacherous junctions? Maybe the only way to bring about change is to “screw our courage to the sticking place” etc. Please collect a car sticker from the JAG group raising attention about this issue on the 18th October at the Niel Gow Statue and place it somewhere where it will raise awareness of this ever present danger to our community and all who pass through it by road. Of course, if I was a witch I wouldn’t need to wait at the junction I’d just jump on my broomstick and fly up the Strath. Maybe I’ll write a fantasy book about that while I continue to wait …

Sally Robertson