Sunday 24.04.2011

Continued raining yesterday evening but was clearing by bedtime:woke up to a sparkly spring morning,sunny, freshwashed and irresistible.
Mild air, raindrops hanging on leaves and pine needles,still wet grass a luminescent green, rabbits scuttling away with a flash of white tail, deer bounding into the cover of the trees and - just as I was ẁondering if it was about - the woodpecker (so synchronised with my thinking about it that it was actually slightly spooky.)

Then there were the hares, one ambling towards us as we rounded a bend, turning and running into the adjacent field, but then sitting bolt upright on its hind legs to give me and Dog a long, hard stare. And suddenly two others ran across the path to join it and they all went leaping away, chasing each other in dizzying circles before disappearing over the horizon.
An ordinary walk transformed.

Saturday 23.04.2011

Kept glancing out of the window at work this morning hoping the cloud would clear from the top of Bennachie which it duly had done by one-ish when Dog and I were driving over there.
Still hazy but really mild, almost close in the woods but with a welcome breeze above the tree line and even a few drops of rain. Swathes of blaeberry plants between the trees, the leaves bright green and the flowers beginning to come.

Having mentioned to friends last night that there never seem to be many people on the hill it was really quite busy today which was good to see and Dog was delighted to meet a few more of her own kind than usual - provided they didn`t want the particularly large stick she`d found.
Stopped to study the info about the fort on Mither Tap which I`ve never really done before.

One of those friends last night remarked that it`s the social history of Bennachie that`s as interesting as anything - who`s lived there, when and what happened to them:
"From 1800 to 1859 common land on the east side of Bennachie was home to a community of squatters known locally as the Colony.[4] A small number of families led a Crofting life often doing skilled work, such as dyking and quarrying, for local landowners. After 1859 the Colony dwindled as the common land was broken up and divided amongst the local estates. However, the last of the original colonists, George Esson, lived on the hill until his death in the 1930s." (Wikipedia)


There have even been two plane crashes on the hill at points in its history:
"Both were RAF planes, the first was a Wallace bi-plane fitted out to tow targets that was being moved from one base to another but was flying too low when it crashed, ironically on the day that war broke out in 1939. The Wallace was an aluminium framed cloth covered design so there isn't much left to see other than struts.
The second plane was a Meteor jet which hit the summit of the hill during a low flying exercise in bad weather some time in the early 1950's. Going at somewhere in the region of 500mph the jet must have dug a big hole in the peat before exploding so that bits of wreckage can be found over 1/4 mile apart. Most of it was buried where it lay by the RAF but there are still big bits to be seen including a large piece of the starboard wing."

Raining more steadily by the time we got back in the car so we timed it well - and hot cross buns* for tea.

*I`m with Elizabeth David who said you don`t need to faff around with pastry crosses provided you just mark the cross on the buns before you bake them - it`s the gesture that counts, although she may not have used the word `faff`.

Tuesday 19.04.2011

Sped off for an hour round the woods this morning before the day escaped.
Bedlam out there: sheep and their lambs bleating non-stop,larks overhead, the still apparently solitary lapwing tumbling and `pee-witting` in an attempt to attract a mate from somewhere, cawing rooks, coo-ing wood pigeons, woodland birds still chorusing though it wasn`t that early and cackling pheasants.

Hazy and damp but mild, the air thick with the smell of earth and grass - and no doubt other scents I couldn`t detect but Dog certainly could, excitedly darting in and out of the trees until she was worn out and had to cool down in the stream.


The `expendable` energy theory (see post Sat 9/04/11) proved again because on my return baked bread, danced around a bit to Billy Joel and hoping to go on a tidying blitz in the garden.*
Mind you, probably be cream-crackered after work this evening.

Interesting book right now too: Risk by Dan Gardner, a Canadian writer, about why we fear what we fear and how we make choices - lots of psychological studies cited which after a while can become a bit repetitive but nevertheless gives pause for thought e.g.
"in the months following the September 11 attacks, as politicians and journalists worried endlessly about terrorism, anthrax and dirty bombs, people who fled airports to be safe from terrorism crashed and bled to death on America`s roads"
Hmmm.

*No time for that last bit in the end but never mind: enjoyed the dancing, the bread was delicious and I`ve all day off tomorrow for garden blitzing.

Saturday 16.04.2011

Right back into roamin` in the gloamin`, hopefully until the autumn now. Dog and I set off after eight this evening with a pale nearly full moon sailing between grey clouds as the sun disappeared in a short sharp burst of crimson on the opposite horizon.
The rooks lifted with a clamour as we approached their copse but then hung in the air as if they`d forgotten what had alarmed them and were simply enjoying one last glide around.

Shapes became more starkly outlined as the light faded,the moon grew larger,a solitary bat darted between the trees in front of us and a curlew gave its fluting call somewhere over the top field. It really doesn`t get much better than that.

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?