Not often I do anything as topical as an update to a previous post, but since my last blog about the missing poetry-inscribed paving slabs, there have been developments – specifically, the Council never lost them in the first place!

I can exclusively reveal (as I believe proper journos say) I got a phone call a week past Friday from a Council employee, one of whose street cleansing team had taken upon himself to put the slabs in a Council facility for safe keeping, having noted they were now in a fenced off area slated for demolition.

The thing I found a bit concerning, but also understandable, was that both the guy and his boss felt stressed by all the hoo-ha that had ensued, and were wondering if they’d done the right thing. I think folk (and I guess I was part of the problem here) forget that Council employees aren’t made of stone (or indeed concrete) and do really care about how their actions are perceived, both to their superiors and the community they’re a part of.

If you can get beyond the paywall, you can read all about it in this Courier article by Neil Henderson, who somehow finds time to read this blog (thanks, Neil) and, despite no longer officially being the Glenrothes reporter, still retains an affection for the town and had been chasing this story up independently of me. We had a good old moan to each other on the phone about the subversion of post-World War II ideals the other day.

Anyway. The Cooncil’s left hand has some idea (however briefly) of what its right hand is up to, and Area Management have promised to tighten things up in future as regards town art.

Meantime, as you’ll see from the photos accompanying this piece, courtesy of my pal Keith Foster, the locals continue to stage their own artistic interventions. Given they’re what you might call examples of temporary guerilla expressionism, I’m sure David Harding would approve!

Since you’re here…

I might as well update you on my activities this month, which is February Album Writing Month. Like the original November Novel Writing Month, nanowrimo, the idea is you join a community of fellow creatives all trying to give themselves a kick up the arse to write something within a month – in this case an album of 14 songs. Well, I’m never going to do that, at least while I’m still working, but I’ve already beaten my total last year, with more to be recorded before the month’s out.

Here’s one. You might like it!