AROUND teatime and later tomorrow night, there will be the sight of 8000 independence activists laying down a message to be seen across the nation on Monday morning.
They will be laying a carpet of Yes Stones to mark St Andrew’s Day, and just 30 months after we exclusively reported on the start of the Facebook Yes Stones group – let’s face it, none of the Unionist press would do so – we can reveal that they have set themselves the target of laying one million stones in total.
That’s 130 each for every member of the Yes Stones group, but some members have stated they will be doing many more.
Yes Stones are stones or slates of any size, painted with a Yes message, usually but not always on a blue Saltire background.
Acrylic paint and a coat of varnish do the job best, as group founder Alison Rollo confirms.
The sculptor from Pitlochry – who will have her own display next year – is as keen as ever to spread the message behind the unique stones.
She told The National: “We are all aiming to do 130 stones which given that we have around 8000 members would mean one million stones, each carrying a lovely little message for everyone to wake up to on Monday morning.
“We did this last year in a much smaller way and we still managed to get a lot of people talking about how lovely the stones were.
“Our group has really taken off and people just love it because the members are fantastic and the creativity has blown me away, frankly. Check out our Facebook page to see how amazing they are.”
The ingenuity of the group is remarkable. Artist Cathy Holms said on the group page: “Just trying out what I’ve already got on the living room floor. Ninety-five done so far ... 74 Yes Scotland affiliated groups; 12 Eurostars, eight lines from Barbour’s Brus and auld Andra himself in the middle.”
Louise Swanson wrote: “Had a walk around Kilbarchan today with my parents – we planted some Yes Stones and some Yes Baubles and my mum and I also came across two Yes Stones, one that had “Bairns not Bombs” on it and the other a thistle with “Soar Alba” on it – both brilliant and I am well chuffed to come across my first Yes Stone so thank you to whoever made it and placed it!”
Lesley Sinclair’s slate has a Scottish tortoise beating a GB runner over the indy finishing line with the caption “in it to win it”.
Janet Prowse wrote: “Ten left to do and no blue paint left. Then big varnishing day ready to put 130 stones out for St Andrew’s Day.”
But perhaps the best of a brilliant bunch was posted to the group by Christine Kabashi. It shows the two members of Baccara, the pop duo whose song Yes Sir I Can Boogie has been adopted by the Tartan Army, with Baccara performing under the words “Yes Sir”.
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