Friday 15.04.2011

Green, green and more green:it was all about different shades of green this evening in the woods - lush grass green, dark pine green, pale new leaf green. Only the ash trees, biding their time, keep their winter silhouette for a little while longer.

Thursday 14.04.2011

Not much walking as such but home from work in time to put the birds away myself thanks to the lengthening days. Probably,if I hadn`t had that to do,I`d have just gone straight in and slumped. Instead I had to get out there and was rewarded with a beautiful still spring night, rosy sky, multilayered grey and white clouds and our (newly) resident pheasant making a great fuss somewhere in the shrubbery.

Monday 11.04.2011

Do love this climate: yesterday sunny and very warm (and we`re already being warned about water shortages in some places)but when Dog and I set off for a quick canter round the woods this morning before work it was overcast and much cooler.
As we returned we were caught in a sudden sharp shower and now it`s raining steadily.
Still, the "yellow`s on the gorse" (if not yet on the broom**) and we have golden daffodils and lemon curd (thank you for the prompt Frankiesoup) so all is as it should be in nearly mid-April (including the showers!)

**
YELLOW ON THE BROOM

I ken ye dinna like it lass, tae winter here in toon.
The scaldies aye miscry us and try to put us doon
And it’s hard to raise three bairns in a single flea-box room
But I’ll tak ye on the road again, when yellow’s on the broom.

CHORUS: When yellow’s on the broom, when yellow’s on the broom
I’ll tak ye on the road again (last line of verse)
When yellow’s on the broom.

The scaldies cry us “tinker dirt” and sconce oor bairns in school
But who cares what a scaldy thinks, for a scaldy’s but a fool.
They never heard the yorlin’s lark nor see the flax in bloom
For they’re aye cooped up in hooses, when yellow’s on the broom.

Nae sales for pegs or baskets noo, so just tae stay alive
We’ve had tae tak on scaldy jobs from eight o’clock til five.
But we call nae man oor master for we own the worlds room
And we’ll bid farewell tae Brechin when yellow’s on the broom.

I’m weary for the springtime when we tak the road ance mair
Tae the plantin’ and the pearlin’ and the berry fields o’ Blair
We’ll meet up wi’ oor kinfolk frae a’ the country roon
When the gan aboot folks tak the road, when yellow’s on the broom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cidr7t0c6MQ
An Teallach "When Yellow's On The Broom"

Saturday 9.04.2011

Too much of the "toad work" this week but it makes you doubly appreciate it when you eventually escape.
Up Bennachie on a beautiful Spring afternoon between shifts. Warm and bosky in the woods, quite a wild wind up top.

Our small group took pics and admired the view though the real mountains in the distance were hidden in haze.
Made the evening shift in a stuffy building more bearable: it is a truth maybe not universally acknowledged that the more energy you expend the more you have available to expend.
If only bank accounts worked in the same way.

Monday 04.04.2011

Working all day but with enough time between shifts to finish the book. Ah yes. The book. Don`t normally have trouble knowing which people to recommend which book to but, despite the fact it has had me engrossed from start to finish not sure what other people`s response might be.
It`s called Ghost Rider and is by Neil Peart, world renowned drummer (amongst other things) with the band Rush.
And despite the fact I`m into my music I confess I knew nothing about him.
So - if you were going to give it `tags`, you could look for it under:
grief and loss
motorbikes
being on the road
journeys
Canada
America
Mexico
reading and writing
books
birdwatching
nature
food
smoking and drinking

A musician of my acquaintance said "Is it as cheesy as his lyrics?" Well, yes. In places. But then I like cheese - the stronger the better sometimes.
It`s a hefty 400 pages: my badly bound paperback copy broke apart.
And it`s a bit geeky in places - he`s very meticulous about recording mileage, meals eaten, atmospheric temperature.
And it`s self-centred because it`s about the emotional journey he`s on as well as the actual one.
Funny, poignant and with a neat turn of American phrasing I want to copy.....sayin`? (As in "Do you see what I`m saying?")

I loved it. It`s the kind of book that I want to copy bits out of to pin on the wall. (I may well quote from it in future posts). I want to follow up a lot of his book references. I want to read it again with a map at my side to see exactly where he travelled.

In short I may have to buy it: I don`t feel the need to own many books these days but this may have to be in the select collection I keep by the bed.

Sunday 03.04.2011

2 walks today of 2.4 miles each. Only know this because I looked it up: they were town walks in the fair city of Perth, one down from the Megabus drop off point and one back up in bright spring sunshine,dodging the "showers" (for which read mini-deluges)and nosying in people`s gardens which were full of daffodils and brilliant yellow forsythia (always forget how much I like it - must plant one this autumn).
Daydreaming hours spent on the bus alternately staring out of the window and reading my current book (of which more when it`s finished which I don`t want it to be); a Sunday roast and a pint of Guinness, followed by (good) coffee and a huge, scrummy poppy seed and lemon muffin (all bought for me, it being Mother`s Day an`all).

More daydreaming and book reading on the return journey. What an extremely delightful way to spend a day.

Friday 01.04.2011

A relief to get out after a week with too many working hours in it. Thank goodness for the lengthening days. Brilliant for walking this evening: grey, breezy and damp but much milder than of late.
Birds everywhere (first pied wagtail of the year)and that fallen larch from last year throwing out yet more new flowers.

Dog nearly as gleeful as me, found the best stick she`s ever found (until tomorrow), chased deer, scattered pheasants and paddled in the beck - most satisfactory.

Patterns and shapes and textures everywhere you looked, heightened by the evening light.

Blowing a hooley now and forecast to get colder again so tomorrow will be different - who`d live somewhere where every day is the same?