Had one of Kirsty’s famous wee hiatuses there, back now and wouldn’t you know it, it’s festival time, both here in Fife, and to a lesser extent in Edinburgh.  We bought a picture at the Aberdour Festival whilst catching up with chums.   We plunged into the fringe last weekend and then had to commune with nature for a bit.  Every year, and I have been doing this for thirty two years now,  I’m a bit grumpy at the start, as a fresh batch of newbies arrives and the city shows its underwear.  Then I’m carried away with it, usually I see one really good show that drives me to find more (last year, amazingly it was Les Dennis of all people, in a play about the old style comedians, for which we bought the tickets completely on a whim, having just seen the fantastic David Hayman do a one hander).  Then, come the end, it’s thank you and we’ll have our town back now, please.   Hey ho.

It’s a fair comment that the sheer size of this cultural behemoth puts some folk off, whether it’s because they don’t know how to buy tickets or can’t choose a show.  This includes me, btw, and a great dread of mine is having people ask me what to see, because I live here so I must have personally vetted every single show.   My critical faculties can best be expressed as a gut reaction, honed over the years by deliberate exposure to various art forms, but don’t ever thrust a total stranger my way and ask me what they would enjoy.  Here’s a review site run by Geoff Evans.

Some pictures below, art critics to the fore in Aberdour, and random other images from Fife.  We like it here, you know.

17.08.13  Yes, Loch Leven is in the County of Perth and Kinross.