Claire MacKay

Lincolnshire, an old legend speaks of a girl whose life became bound to the cowslips that flowered around her home. She fell ill in the winter, and though her family hoped she would live to see the spring arrive, there was still no sign of it in April. 🧵 #FairytaleTuesday

Poems for Lent (5th Sunday) • Mary Oliver •

@nee_massey Yesss!✌️

Whenever I make it into my tree for the first time in the year, and I see the park full of folk, I feel like shouting ‘Victory for the people!’

Petition: Stop the Guga Hunt Please sign to stop this vile tradition. petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE22…

'Hey John' Picked up the guitar after a dream today and this just came... #newsong

What an absolute f’ing honour to sing Marianne Faithfull’s self-scribed song  ‘Sister Morphine. Marianne was the living example of something women are notoriously encouraged to fail at: being free 🤍

@beth_orton You absolutely channelled this! She's definitely smiling down 🤍 X

@nee_massey Such precision!

Cutting up ginger with nail scissors 😉✂️

@DGS120 @tedgioia That's horrific! I was reading about female prisoners being handcuffed to the bed or a prison officer while giving birth. Couldn't believe this still happens. Poor Billie :(

The Tragic Final Days of Billie Holiday. Drug cops chained her to the hospital bed despite the fact she was dying. @tedgioia open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p…

@Beathhigh Sure you won't need to investigate further...?

The Vennel tonight, heading home from yet another successful ‘research trip’…

Glachbeg Folk Club last night was such a beautiful night. I’ll be back next month and also have some gigs to announce soon !!! Here’s a wee clip of me covering “Asleep on the Wing” by Boo Hewerdine, at last night's performance. If you're local to the Black Isle, come along to a night at Glachbeg. Third Tuesday of the month. Photos: Steve Bull

The news is out…

@Beathhigh Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Future Calling... I decided to make it my mission to write positive songs in 2026! Here's my first one: Future Calling I called the future up today To let her know that I'm still on my way I'm holding onto every hand That reaches out for safe land And I'm pulling through If it's the last thing that I do 'cos Tyranny can't dictate our destiny If we don't let it, and I'm not going to I called to let the future know I'm holding on and I wont let go For our children to see That good people can make history I'm pulling through If it's the last thing that I do 'cos Tyranny can't dictate our destiny If we don't let it, and I'm not going to I want the same as you. #scottishsinger #songsoffreedom #fightingfascism #Positivesongs #singersongwriter

Cromarty ❤️

Meet the Spindle Berry winter flower fairy. The berries are beloved of robins & are known as robins’ bread, as the little birds will jealously guard them from other birds & animals trying to get to them for food. #FolkloreSunday Image: Cicely Mary Barker

Oh! I have finally finished my chapter on the Four Humours for Outlander Herbal. Humoral medicine was practised right up until the twentieth century in the UK and was the dominant mode of medicine for hundreds of years. So much of herbal and medical history is entwined in its roots. I hope I've done the subject justice. I really LOVED this playful scene between Jamie and Claire in Versailles under these gorgeous statues of The Four Humors of Man. (There's a garden in Arco di Pietra in Northern Italy with replicas of the same. I'll share the photos when I find them!) It's hard for us to imagine a mindset when an imbalance of humours is what was considered the source of all illness. However, much of humoral medicine remains useful in modern diagnosis, particularly when looking at Signs of diseases. As a symbolic way of describing illness, I find much of humoralism fascinating and still valid. Who remembers this scene ?? From Dragonfly and Amber: "I paused beside a statue of a half-draped man with grapes in his hair and a flute at his lips. A large, silky goat nibbled hungrily at more grapes that were cascading from the marble folds of the draperies. “Who’s this?” I asked, “Pan?” Jamie shook his head, smiling. He was dressed in his old kilt and a worn, if comfortable coat, but he looked much better to me than did the luxuriously clad courtiers who passed us in chattering groups. "No, I think there is a statue of Pan about, but it isna that one. That’s one of the Four Humors of Man.” “Well, he looks fairly humorous,” I said, glancing up at the goat’s smiling friend. Jamie laughed. “And you a physician, Sassenach! Not that sort of humor. Do ye not know the four humors that make up the human body? That one’s Blood”--he motioned at the flute-player, then pointed down the path--“and there’s Melancholy.” This was a tall man in a sort of toga, holding an open book... “Do physicians not learn about humors in your time?” Jamie asked curiously. “No,” I said. “We have germs, instead.” " Excerpt From: Dragonfly in Amber 2, Diana Gabaldon #outlanderherbal #outlander #dianagabaldon #thefourhumours #germtheory

Arcadia was part of a group of short films made through a Scottish Documentary Institute scheme and part funded by the BBC. The other films were broadcast but this was not as it went against the BBC’s eco agenda. youtu.be/vIutdXGpZ6I?si… via @YouTube @AZeglicki @JamesMelville

I wrote this wee tune one the bus going to see Rachel Sermanni. She was pure soul medicine! Where is my line? Everything changes in time Shifting sands with the tide How am I defined? We all walk the line. Skirting edges of what's yours and mine Oh where is my line? Oh where is my line?

Saddened to hear JQ is gone. We first met at Mojo and I went on to work alongside him in Lowdown and Quigley's over the years. He was a lovely person and kind to me. So many stories like this one. I used to think he made them up! Frank Sinatra asking him to heat up a can of Campbells cream of chicken soup. I still don't know if that's true... He will be missed by many in Glasgow. Love to his girls and family, whom he adored!