Hello Joanne,
Since contacting you my boat has made ready to sail and will soon be skimming over the waves to your shore. The boat and its crew will be leaving Kirkcudbright, a fishing port in S.W. Scotland, on Monday. They will leave the port on the River Dee on an outgoing tide and slip into the Solway. With a favourable wind and a clear night sky to navigate by, they should be with you quite soon.
Since contacting you my boat has made ready to sail and will soon be skimming over the waves to your shore. The boat and its crew will be leaving Kirkcudbright, a fishing port in S.W. Scotland, on Monday. They will leave the port on the River Dee on an outgoing tide and slip into the Solway. With a favourable wind and a clear night sky to navigate by, they should be with you quite soon.
NOTE FROM THE HARBOUR MASTER:
The boat has now safely docked in my studio - arrival time logged at: 1047 hrs on Tuesday 17th March 2009. The crew are tired, and are slowly finding their land legs again before tucking into some food.
There are two crew; a guitar playing owl and a beautiful cat. They are looking for somewhere to set up home together. I do hope that you will be able to help in this matter. They have honey to eat on the journey and hope to catch a few red herrings to eke out supplies. They may be hungry when they arrive so I would suggest that you have some mince and sliced quince in the larder with which to feed them…..don’t worry they have money and a five pound note with which to pay you.
Their boat is made from the things I found in my studio and apart from the honey jar and the stick for a mast, is made from different types of paper. For the sail I photocopied the back of a Scottish £5 note, pasted it on to stronger paper for durability. The picture on the note is of Robert Burns who spent some time in Kirkcudbright during his time as an Excise Man. His image is being used in Dumfries and Galloway to promote the year of the homecoming, and it is an interesting fact that the first ship carrying emigrants to sail off for the New World actually sailed from Kirkcudbright.
The owl and the Pussycat are cut outs made from card, embellished with paint and paper, they have slits in them so that they can slot onto the side of the boat. The boat is made from thick green paper with gold metallic threads, the sea is of mulberry paper, painted and embossed with different powders, gold, silver, green and blue. I painted the pennant blue and decorated it with stars then I drew the fish on white paper and painted them red. There is a good reason for this as if you look carefully you will see that there are five round and about the boat (unless they have caught and eaten a couple!). The Studio behind my home in Kirkcudbright is the setting for ‘Five Red Herrings’ by Dorothy L Sayers. In her book the hero Lord Peter Whimsey stays at Bluegate studio, in reality Greengate Studio. My house is The Greengate, former home of Jessie M. King who was one of the Glasgow Girls; she was an artist and book illustrator and is well known and collected in Scotland.
I hope that the Owl and Pussy cat boat helps you in your endeavours to raise funds .
I hope that the Owl and Pussy cat boat helps you in your endeavours to raise funds .
Regards
Pauline Saul
Pauline Saul
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