Hame Sangs approached care settings to offer workshops incorporating song, image and conversation inspired by the Living Voices project from Scottish Poetry Library. (Christine is an LV team member). Four care homes, some of which were familiar with the model, agreed to have a mixture of workshops - The Singing Ceilidh and LV-style workshops to encourage interest and conversation.

Riverside, Beechgrove, Moncrieffe and Abbotsford homes took part. Themes included boats, berries, pearl fishing, salmon fishing and the glass work of Ysart.

Residents enjoyed singing, talking and seeing the quilts made by Piece Partners in Perth, which also depict aspects of the themes covered in the workshops.

Piece Partner members came along to the final sessions, showing their work to the residents.

Anecdote and story emerged in the homes, and based on these stories, songs were written by Christine and Ewan, and also the children of Abernethy PS.

Hame Sangs pulled together work by older people, celebrated their knowledge and ideas, and made connections with Piece Partners, Ceilidhmakers and a local school and Museum, and knowing about the quilts being made acted as a catalyst for one home to complete a large felting work they’d been working on.

We are pleased that we were able to continue to develop ways of working in care settings and making connections with the community.

Christine Kydd

NEW TLP SANGS MADE BY CHRISTINE WITH PEOPLE IN HOMES

AWA TAE THE BERRIES AT THE CARSE

Tune: Awa Wi Ma Sailor Laddie

Some say we’re just aboot the boats, the Fifies oer the Tay

Jute and jam and journalism, the Broons and Oor Wullie

But ye might no ken there’s mair tae us and oor sunny childhood days

For then we traveled west along the carse tae get some pay

Ch

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie on a bonnie Simmer’s day

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie, a braw time we will hae

The sun shines bright along the carse, the raspberries grow high

Ripened sweet and juicy for folk to pick or buy

When school was oot we’d pay the clippie, along til the terminus

We’d fill oor luggies brimful high until the very last bus

Ch

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie on a bonnie Simmer’s day

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie, a braw time we will hae

Pennies for our trouble, it wis work and it was play

Blackberries and raspberries, and fine blackcurrants tae

We picked them and we ate them till we eaten of our fill

We took them and they weighed them, it didnae need much skill

Ch

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie on a bonnie Simmer’s day

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie, a braw time we will hae

An if you saved yer money from every day ye did

Buy a braw new pair o shoon for less than just one quid

Some say we’re just aboot the boats, the Fifies oer the Tay

Jute and jam and journalism, the Broons and Oor Wullie

Ch

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie on a bonnie Simmer’s day

Awa tae the Carse o Gowrie, a braw time we will hae

PEARLS O THE BONNY TAY

Tune: Caller Herrin

Through the glass a looking glass, 

but no a glass to see yerself in

haud it in the water 

you can see below the surface

No a mirror, it’s a box that 

has a bottom made o glass

see if you can find the shell

the shell that hauds the secret

Ch

The pearls o the bonny Tay

they used tae fish them day on day

and in the eighteen hundreds they 

could make a living just from selling

pearls o the bonny Tay.

Can you find the very shell

the one that’s ripe,

the one that’s ready

maybe it’s the one that holds a very special something

Canny as ye prise it open

see it smooth and silken roond

the mussel prize, the iridescent

pearl o the fresh water

Chorus

In the early morn licht

aff to Cairncross jewellers

bricht and breezy, fu o hope

to get a guid price for yer trouble

Chorus

The pearls o the bonny Tay 

ye canna tak them oot today

they took too much they had their day

The fishers o the latter day ....... and now the pearls are we’ed away

pearls o the bonny Tay

THE STORY OF SALVADOR YSART 

Salvador it wis his name

It was his art was at the heart

Of travelling tae Scotland

He had an eye he had a heart

This man they christened Ysart

He created Monart

The finest glass you ever saw

From the North down to  Perth

Paul his son he did return

Brought the men and brought the skills

To North British Glass works

For Caithness glass is still renowned 

In country far, in village and town

And where it ever can be found

It’s still the toast o aw around

The sand they chose so carefully

Off they went to ….

The finest raw material to make it

There at Monax

The world watched as it grew

Moncrieff was clever and he knew

that with the right folk at his side

He could…….

Joyce of Beechgrove’s ain man

He also came for Caithness

Left that bonny grey coast

to get a start with Ysart

She telt us aw about her tale

How she left that coast as well

Now she helps us aw feel grand

in the heart of Scotland