Speyside Way - part 2 - Day 6 of 6 - complete! - Part 2
Continued from
At one point I was walking by a field of sheep and most of them were lying down, heavy and motionless on the earth like big white stones. As I walked by I found their stillness deeply calming and it occurred to me that counting sheep might work to put me to sleep if I counted sheep not running and jumping over a fence but lying on the ground so still that it looks as if they have always been there and won’t ever move again.
Just writing that makes me almost sink down into sleep (like a stone). I hope I can write a little more of this before I do.
I was noticing shapes of clouds and trees and began to imagine they were having a conversation (or a dance) with each other in a language of shape and gesture.
I had a nice experience of a natural frame like all those bridges and the eye in the sky.
Shortly after that I walked over an actual train bridge and paused to look over it and noticed a trail along the old track and wondered why the Speyside Way hadn’t used the former track - only to discover that I had just missed a turn off and that the Way did follow that track! This photo is looking back at the bridge I had just been standing in, wondering…
Thanks for coming along. Just a little more now to be added in Part 3. Hang in there if you can, we are almost to Buckie and the end of the trail.
Speyside Way - Day 6 of 6 - complete! - Part 1
I was surprised as I approached the mouth of the river to see a swan. Then I noticed another too far away to get them in the same photo. Almost immediately as I thought that the swan started moving quite rapidly toward its mate (leaving a noticeable wake). Do you think it was the boys in the pub again? I don’t exactly believe in this stuff - I tend to dismiss it as woo woo, but it did seem as if that swan overheard my thoughts and simply wanted to make me happy. Sorry the pictures are fuzzy. I wasn’t very close to the swans.
At one point I was walking by a field of sheep and most of them were lying down, heavy and motionless on the earth like big white stones. As I walked by I found their stillness deeply calming and it occurred to me that counting sheep might work to put me to sleep if I counted sheep not running and jumping over a fence but lying on the ground so still that it looks as if they have always been there and won’t ever move again.
Just writing that makes me almost sink down into sleep (like a stone). I hope I can write a little more of this before I do.
The last half or slightly more of the walk was along the coast of the North Sea. It was fun to see seals - they were far away - not sure you can see them. They are gray - in the center left. As the tide came in they lazily let it roll their quite hefty bodies just a little and shift their positions. Maybe counting seals would work too.
I was noticing shapes of clouds and trees and began to imagine they were having a conversation (or a dance) with each other in a language of shape and gesture.
I had a nice experience of a natural frame like all those bridges and the eye in the sky.
Shortly after that I walked over an actual train bridge and paused to look over it and noticed a trail along the old track and wondered why the Speyside Way hadn’t used the former track - only to discover that I had just missed a turn off and that the Way did follow that track! This photo is looking back at the bridge I had just been standing in, wondering…
Thanks for coming along. Just a little more now to be added in Part 3. Hang in there if you can, we are almost to Buckie and the end of the trail.
Oh, yes. I especially like how the sheep seem to be scattered all the way out to the horizon - meaning you have to pick them out in order to count them.
ReplyDeleteAh there is that - gazing farther and farther into the distance as one counts and the way the distant gaze tends to soften ….
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