Accord Zoom Burns Day

We couldn’t let this time of year pass without a nod to the bard. So today we celebrated Robert Burns on Zoom donned with a piece of tartan and fuelled by a little Scottish libation and gift packs of shortbread and table made by Alex in the Accord Hospice kitchen.

We enjoyed live music from Alison Patrick, Fundraising and her husband Alastair with songs like A Man’s a Man for a That (“The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor, Is king o’ men for a’ that”), Charlie is My Darling, My Love is like a Red, Red Rose, Green Grow The Rashes and more.

Ian gave us a recital of To a Mouse with the very apt line in these strange times of  “The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley” and then a  lovely modern poem written in Burns speak by his grandson Harris about the mouse getting into the biscuit tin and pinching all the biscuits (or was it the mouse?!)

We then had a chat about our thoughts on Burns, whether you loathed him (no names mentioned Kathy!) or loved him… with memories of fathers singing My Love is Like a Red Red Rose, or teaching primary school children their recitations for the annual Burns Festival. Remembering unrequited loves and the tribute to the bard with Star o Rabbie Burns “But brightly beams abune them aw’ the star o Rabbie Burns.”

George gave us a few lines from The Banks O’ Doon “Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon, how can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?” and to broaden the day (what, other poets than Burns!) Claire treated us to a little of Yeats and The Lake Isle of Innisfree “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin built there, of clay and wattles made…”

And so with a toast to Burns and his ability to pen to paper in ways that we can’t (and sometimes don’t understand!), we appreciated our time together… we were connected and concluded with an impromptu Auld Lang Syne…for old time’s sake and for new times…

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,

For auld lang syne