Sunday 7/7/13

What a lovely day the sun was shining and I went down to Leham glen and set up a gazebo next to the craft centre (mybus)

On my table I had colouring in pics of animals who used to be in Pet’s corner in the glen and pics of Hercules the bear who used to visit the glen.

There was a craft stall event and the glen was busy.

To make the day even better when I got home I watched Andy Murray win the tennis!

The gazebos for the craft stalls and the crazy golf

nice dappled shade of the tree I was under

visitors reading the stencils

people walking through the glen reading as they go!

drawings of some of the animals who visited ( Hercules the bear) and those who lived in the glen

Here are some of the comments people made to me about the stencils.

What a fantastic idea! please make this idea(Letham Glen stencil trail) permanent. It is great for loads, visitors and especially children to see this so attractively presented. we need to see our history of the Glen so readily available!

Where are Rusty and Trudy? the foxes? Great display and interesting info- miss the Go as you Please with the majorettes!

Great idea, love it very informative, a great local history lesson x

she told me she had read every single stencil all the way up the glen!

old postcards of Letham glen

My dad has a lot of old postcards of local areas and he gave me these two old postcards of Letham glen. I changed the appearance a little….

Letham glen

swimming pool, Letham glen

1930

Friday 5/7/13

Went down to put in one last stencil with information about mybus who have taken over the craft centre. It was a lovely afternoon and the park was full of families enjoying the sunshine.

I had left information about the park and the project in the craft centre. I also printed out pictures of animals who used to live in pet’s corner for children to colour in. These had nearly run out so I had more printed to take back on Sunday when I will hopefully be under a gazebo outside the craft centre if I can put it up! if you see me struggling come and help!

an interested young visitor keeping an eye on things!

his friend came along to have a look too!

some info about trees..

not so sunny 4th July

On my own today finishing the rest of the stencils. It was supposed to be a lovely day! It was raining in the morning but I was determined to finish so I loaded up the car and was able to park next to the craft centre ( mybus).

Got out marked a few crosses where I was going to stencil and the rain came down again, so I sat in my car and had my scrambled egg roll and cup of tea I had got from Stuarts the baker.

The day did clear up but there was an awful wind and the stones I brought with me to weigh things down were not heavy enough.. I think I needed bricks!

rain

craft centre in the rain!

Sillerhole ( one of the previous names for the glen)

look what I’ve managed to do after the rain stopped!

I can see the end in sight time for another cup of tea I think!

There was an article about the project and a photo of Lorraine and I in the East Fife mail on Wed July 3rd. It was titled ‘Hoping to chalk up a few visitors’

Green Wednesday!

Nice day on the Wednesday, had fun with Lorraine trying out my hand cut stencils of bear paw prints, frog prints, paw prints and footprints.

These were done in a lime green colour but the spray was a different brand than the white and was a lot chalkier and messier! we were covered in green chalk which took a while to wash off!

we taped the stencils to card this time hoping it would be easier than using paper..

the little frog came out well! we avoided putting them all over the place but it was hard to resist!

onto the little frog prints!

An interested visitor and her dog who had been admiring the paw prints!

a green footprint! look how green my shoes are..

When I was reading this it sounds like Hercules was there in 1956 and as a lot of people know it was in the 80’s and 90’s ! Here are some bear paw prints, which we also stenciled at the old bandstand in the woods.

Look what we found in the woods children having a teddy bears picnic it looked yummy!

I had a lovely chat with Tom Auld today, he built the structure around the well and other things in the glen, he was a maintenance joiner for Leven town council.

He liked what we were doing and said ‘It lets people know what Leven is about’

Wash out Tuesday

It was really heavy rain on the Tuesday and I went down to the glen to check how the stencils were doing.

Previously I had tried some small stencils in my garden and they were still there after it had rained, but in the glen there was more traffic to consider and some stencils were in puddles overnight!

Although it was a pretty miserable day I had a chat with these visitors to the glen! who were reminiscing about the history of the glen!

1925

1930

taking cleo a walk in the woods

looking down at the burn

Is it a wolf? no it’s cleo, scary eyes though!

the best laid plans!

Today I had hoped all the stencils would finally be sprayed….then I woke this morning to the sound of rain….

We had a lovely day on the first day of the project on Monday! followed by a  wash out on Tuesday. Yesterday we got got some stencilling done with the green spray which was fun there are now frogs, dog prints, bear prints and footprints!

I had hoped to go back yesterday evening but life got in the way, a dentist appointment late afternoon (a huge filling) and an invite for a meal ( not to be turned down!)

Here are photos from our first day…many thanks to Lorraine, Juliet, Angela and Kirsty for helping out.

Lorraine and Kirsty pacing the path working out the gaps between each stencil and marking with a cross.

Angela and her daughter Kirsty who stayed all day helping with the project!

It was really busy with car after car entering through the gates, here is a nice considerate driver trying to avoid the stencils!

Lorraine trying to stop traffic for a few minutes! she does look like she is behind bars!

Ice Age-Kirsty grappling with the paper, in hind sight card would have been better as we had to keep taping it down and putting stones on top to avoid the paper blowing away…

welcome to letham glen!
not the best one but it was one of our first stencils..

lovely shadows… the stencils look huge in these photos but are actually quite small and compact when sprayed..

spraying the stencils, the cans did not last long and I had to order more white!

some visitors reading the stencils..

Spring 2013

This art project came about after having a brief conversation about creating something temporary in an outdoor space. Something which would be accessible to the public and perhaps incorporate some historic facts.

I had recently seen an artwork which used temporary chalk spray with stencils and I was keen to try these new materials. The idea formed of having a stencil trail running through  Letham Glen and  people could take a stroll and learn a little of the history of the glen.

Like all public projects there were a few hiccups along the way, but I had great support from Buckhaven Beehive and John Falconer from Parks and Countryside services, Fife Council.

I have always loved Letham Glen and often walk my dog Cleo in the woodlands. My first photographs here were taken in the Spring 2013 as I wandered around and looked at possible surfaces to stencil on. Of course I ended up taking the same photos of my favourite bits of the glen again! which is beautiful all year round.

Patricia Bray

lovely mossy covered logs!

ye old graffiti!

one of my favourite trees even with no leaves!

still some leaves around..

What or who could be hiding under there?

lovely soft colours