Betwixt Lakeland & Edinburgh
Lovely, albeit fiercely cold (wind chill factor 4 degrees centigrade), to have lungs full of clean sea air tonight. Sandcastle-building children and happy burrowing dogs don’t seem to feel cold and they, actually, always warm one’s heart. As for the wild swimmers – well each deserved a medal this evening. Well done them!
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Whichever way you look it’s beautiful …
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Then suddenly the Mole felt a great awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no panic terror – indeed he felt wonderfully at peace and happy – but it was an awe that smote and held him and, without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august presence was very, very near.
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Spring coupled with coastal beauty stirs heart, mind, body and soul. Here on Scotland’s East Coast – no matter how long and grey the preceding winter – Spring reacquaints a person with what it means to stand in awe and wonder.
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And it seemed that the wind stilled and that stars above our heads prepared themselves for the night lighter’s quiet encouragement to twinkle. A single lamp behind a window animated a framed oil painting in much the same way that toys leap and dance around a nursery in the moments before nanny tidies them into the stillness of the night hours. And the painting, and the toys, and the sunset watchers alike breathe softly, profoundly aware of the gift of a great, deep, silence – a silence that is itself an abiding friendship; for all of our many busynesses, words and music are steadied and reassured when they find their treasured place between sunrise and sunset, sunset and sunrise, stillness and silence – glad companions …
Have you noticed forgetting even the most piercing, wind-driven cold when faced by astonishing beauty? Friends have been sending me glorious photos of sunrise and sunsets in Edinburgh. Two drove South for a happy day in Lakeland today, and as we watched the sun go down, albeit that we had to watch our footing on ice, I don’t think any of us felt the cold!
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Momentous seasons give way, eventually, to quiet watching and thankfully slowed evening breathing …
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A fabulous evening on Eycott Hill to watch sunset behind Blencathra after supper. And moonrise too.
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Lone dancer, 90 minutes, after supper. Kind of a meditation. Indescribable peace high up on the Crags. Duet next time. Beauty that photographs really only hint at …
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Quiet joy of early morning Easter Sunday – before a day full of life and energy in the delightful company of surprise visitors. So some lovely meals, a tour of Edinburgh’s ‘underground city,’ another of the Castle in warm sunshine and (for me, deeply moving) sight of ‘The Honours of Scotland’ (link) which include the crown that once adorned the head of Mary Queen of Scots. Finally, onwards and upwards for sunset on Calton Hill. All this added up to our having walked so far and for so many hours that three pairs of feet are quite worn out! That’s the joy of life’s ‘Eastertides’ in a million different ways – the gifts of ‘new life surprise’ (and – after a good night’s sleep, reenergised feet, I hope!) 🐣
The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not graven only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other men’s lives
St Margaret’s Chapel – circa 1130
The Palace of Holyroodhouse
‘at the end of the day …’
Sunset, Calton Hill, Edinburgh | 9 April 2022
How can I keep from singing?
Enya
… of the hill
… then marched them down again
And home again at the fireside, mellow and thankful, I’m already planning to be there for further sunrise and sunset, up on Castle Hill.
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evening comes and breathes
another prayer by way
of nature’s fine art174
Matthew Bryce – a rescued surfer told his family he had ‘made himself at peace’ with not surviving after 32 hours adrift at sea, but – thankfully – of the crew of a Search & Rescue Helicopter, ‘these guys were the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. I owe them my life.’ – BBC News
I’m filled with gratitude for rescuers and the rescued as Matthew tells of how he’d at first thought the crew had missed him, but hadn’t. And I am deeply moved by his account of watching the sunset over the sea, ‘because I was sure I would never see it again.’
Thank you, Matthew. Thank you for reminding me to be extra glad I’m alive and safe tonight. I am so glad you are – and something in me reaches out, as I’m sure it does from you, and from your loving family, towards any and all who feel – or know – they’re watching the western sky for the last time. Thank you for reminding me of the heroism of the world’s willing rescuers and medical teams, the courage of countless people who find themselves in extremis, and of what it means for humankind to be able to watch sunset. And sunrise. Keep well, Matthew.
