Betwixt Lakeland & Edinburgh
Ricoh GRIII – click photos to enlarge
Blossoms, blue sky, cloud and sunshine made for a fabulous Sunday in Edinburgh today. Days that look like this one make people’s spirits soar. From cherry blossom walks, to the Royal Mile and onward to Waverley Station, Princes Street, or a peaceful ten minutes on a bench in St Andrew Square – Edinburgh (anywhere, really) comes to life under the sun!
Seize that loveliness
It has always been yours
Yrsa Daley-Ward
untitled 2
Time has flown by since my last post from Denmark – a wonderful road trip involving a ferry crossing, time in the Netherlands, driving Northwards through Germany, and onwards to a fabulously snowy Northern Denmark, before returning by train and plane.
I’ve been a bit preoccupied since my return to Scotland, having signed up with enthusiasm for what is turning out to be a life-changing 3 month long programme called WildFit in pursuit of better overall health and – especially – energy in the wake of Covid and all it changed in us, all over the world. My daily food consumption (and physical outline) has changed beyond recognition, with a move towards a daily litre or so of, first blended fruits and raw vegetables, and latterly just the raw vegetables, with chicken and other quality protein provision. It’s a demanding programme, no doubt about it, but it is very well supported by a cohort ‘tribe’ and coaches from all over the world. I’ll write more of this, perhaps, in future posts, but for the time being just wanted to note it here as an explanation, largely for myself, as to why time seems to have taken wings in the last month!
In addition to the above I’m still thriving on dancing, dear friendships, poetry, photography, Maria Popova’s magnificent Figuring, delight in Edinburgh, and signs of upcoming Spring. Just imagining a rise in temperature, blue sky and sunshine lifts my spirits …
iPhone 14 Pro Max | Nikon D850 and 135mm f2 DC
more @gardenstudiogram | click / double click to enlarge
When you close your eyes and daydream about what makes you happy and glad to be alive, what do you see? Are you aware of a kaleidoscope of images? Are you aware of your responses to all that you see, hear, smell, touch and feel? Are there elements of life – activities, art, nature, people, places, things that have the effect of making you feel particularly happy?
Spring scenes in Edinburgh are among the sources of joy in my life just now, as so often before. I saw a bright poster the other day that featured a blossoming tree and the words ‘something’s stirring …’ and I’ve resolved to keep an eye out for the number of times I recognise ‘something stirring’ in my own life, and in all the life around me, in the coming days.
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iPhone 11 Pro Max
I’ve been meditating on the juxtaposition of two words in my mind today: bitter and beautiful.
Bitter – because this afternoon’s cold recognises no barrier in five layers of clothing and a felt hat. I am chilled right through to my very bones.
Beautiful – because this is Holyrood, Edinburgh, a place where both natural and humanly-fabricated elements of the city appear to revel in their own illuminated loveliness. A bit like the light in some of Rembrandt’s glorious portraits, one witnesses something of a warm glow, from the inside out. Soul-shining.
It’s an odd and delightful sort of thing, isn’t it, that the two can co-exist in the same moment? – the extreme discomfort of bitter cold, coloured and warmed by awestruck appreciation of the bared beautiful. It’s only a little while since these trees were dressed in all their best finery, peaceably overlooking the delights of garden parties in the great Palace of Holyroodhouse. Today the bitter cold has nipped the last of the leaves at their stems. Fallen and blown, they will now nourish the ground of future’s green glory. Limbs are bared as they face the months of winter, just as our human frame and spirit is bared – and ultimately nourished and grown – by assorted forms of all that we describe and experience as bitter.
All life has deep roots – temporal and eternal. We, with cities and trees, learn that bitter and beautiful work together. And those of us who have learned, and are learning this well, will wait quietly for Spring. Patient, and shining, from the inside out.
I can already smell the apple pies when Autumn’s harvest arrives …
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Edinburgh looks and feels beautiful to me in all weathers and seasons but, my goodness, the smiling crowds, the street music, the flowers, the blue sky and sunshine, the relaxation of mask-wearing rules – all these add up to the city’s being a more than usually fab place to be right now. I’m endlessly fascinated by how much sunlight and fresh air lifts everyone’s spirits. Like communal liberation 😊🌱
Build it, and it will come
Empty out a drawer for someone
They will fill it
Share your work every day
People will find it
Walk and your legs will strengthen
Open your hours and your days will fill
Speak as though you’ve arrived
And reality will realign
Brianna Wiest
Salt Water
Spring’s awakening in Edinburgh is wonderfully underway and I’ve been out and about early. Delicious coffee and cake @kates_edinburgh preceded one of my favourite sorts of morning: an amble – in no particular rush and in no particular direction. This is a city that ‘offers itself to your imagination’ (as Mary Oliver might have said of it) – no matter where one roams. Birdsong everywhere speaks today of their having ‘arrived’ (again) and of the energetic building of nests in empty spaces. A beautiful new coffee shop shares its work every day and ‘people will find it.’ My legs do grow stronger, and hours are containers for rich colours and conversations. I speak of my thankfulness and – awakening thereby – the realities of a new season do indeed ‘realign.’
Ne’er cast a clout
‘til May is out
I acquired a mildly tanned visage when reading in my garden earlier this week. Tonight there’s frost in the air and a decidedly chilly few days forecast. But brighter, lighter, warmer days are on the horizon now and I stand ready to welcome every one of them.
The woes of winter pale in light of the euphoria that comes with being able to air bedding in warm and direct sunshine! Oh, the little domestic joys 😊 🛏
A hugely rewarding and satisfying day, but every muscle in my body aches tonight after a sunshine-inspired bout of extended Spring cleaning – indoors and out. Tomorrow I shall try to follow Nature’s way. Budding leaves and flowers take things slowly … 🌱☀️☕️
what is in sunlight
that so energises my
rising to a day?
April is welcome every year, of course, but perhaps especially so in 2021 😊🐣
What’s to be done with 1st March Spring Springing in Edinburgh – other than than to celebrate it? Edinburgh does celebration so well – every day.
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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.comthis early end to
the second month points towards
longer sun-filled days160
Photo Fiona Naughton at Unsplashquietened enough
by daffodils – I believe
I hear them laughing159
wind in my wheels 🌱 