#3goodthings [15 September 2013]

In honesty I find some aspects of the summer months on social media difficult, especially seeing those who only appear at these times because they have exotic holiday photos to share (and really how do they have the budget to take adult children with them too?)

Needless to say this now launches straight into pot-kettle-black because a bumper week for #3goodthings is based mainly round a few days holiday in Scotland, including landscape, the Scotsman's family history, local social history and some cake.. #grateful


9 Sep

afternoon tea at cloud 23 (a very late birthdays celebration)
watching the panoramic views while eating
seeing another rainbow


++++


10 Sep (in Scotland)

colourful architecture in Kirkudbright (a town of artist studios and a Scottish St Ives)
Wigtown, place of fifteen second hand book shops (and not much else), home to the Wigtown Book Festival and dwelling of the Scotsman's shoemaking ancestors

stones at Cairn Holy


++++


11 Sep (in Scotland)

driving past loads of fields of cattle and sheep and finally finding a whole family of 'belties' in a field by themselves (a breed local to Dumfries and Galloway only)

rain on the roof of the Leadhills Miners Library making the roof shine (it is the oldest subscription library in Britain, established in 1741 by a group of local Lead Miners)

Rab, the genial hotel owner and friend you never knew you had


++++


12 Sep (Leadhills, in Scotland)
being able to look inside the beautifully renovated cottage that used to belong to the Scotsman's grandfather (we happened to follow the new owner down the street)

sitting in the peaceful and beautiful cemetery at Leadhills, in untypical weather

exploring the site of an abandoned Lead Mine outside the Leadhills where many of The Scotsman’s ancestors once worked

++++

13 Sep (in Scotland)

a walk to another abandoned Lead Mine at Woodhead where more of The Scotsman’s ancestors once worked

totally unspoiled landscape on the walk with beautiful natural colours 

seeing an artisan stone mason at work restoring headstones in a churchyard

++++

14 Sep (in Scotland)

chance to take reflective water photos in Douglas

meeting ‘Jean’ who was at school with The Scotsman's father, her body is full of stents but her mind is sharp as a tack

and leaving Leadhills knowing we will return soon

270 gifts

stranger at the stones

When on holiday if we are driving with no time constraints and something looks interesting on the map we like to pull off the road and investigate. Cairn Holy caught our eye last week whilst in Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland.) Cairn Holy is the site of two Neolithic burial chambers situated on a hillside overlooking Wigtown Bay, a short drive up an unmade single track road.

I spent time lining up artistic shots with the camera, to frame the view with the bay in the background, lying on the grass, trying to avoid the plentifully scattered sheep poo, the wee timorous beasties (midges) and other flying insects. 

While we read the information on the display board, taking in the details on age and purpose of the stones, another man had noiselessly parked up and joined us in the enclosure. As we were about to continue up the hill to investigate the second cairn he approached us and asked a question ‘What do you perceive?’  

All those lessons about how much do you engage with strangers flooded in at once. But we quickly realised he was an earnest sort of facially hirsute fellow, armed with nothing more threatening than a notebook and pencil, so we stuck with him. Although his delivery was a little irritating and pendantic and he used those types of closed questions designed to make the answerer look a bit dim if they get it wrong (a teacher that likes to show off his knowledge), he actually had really interesting perceptions to share. This is the short-winded version.

If you stand directly in front of and facing the tomb on a particularly spot of grass that is well worn, you will see the sun set as follows on these days:

winter solstice – sun sets at the point of the stone on the far left

summer solstice – sun sets at the point of the stone on the far right

on the days of the equinox and those days only - sun sets exactly in the centre of the middle two stones

None of this information was available on the tourist display board nor does it seem to be readily available on websites. The tangible sense of history with the landscape was quite moving. That people could have stood on the spot we did for thousands of years and watched the same sun setting had brought an extra dimension to the place, because of an encounter with bearded bloke unknown.

Once we had returned from investigating the second cairn the stranger had disappeared down the road, gone as quickly as he had suddenly materialised.

more here on cairn holy

immensity beyond my grasp

The quote is via @twitturgies and the photo is Dornoch beach on the east coast of Scotland.

Almost 200 years ago, my 4x great grandfather Alexander Barclay left here and travelled pretty much directly 5000 miles south to St Helena (his story is here)

I love the sea, don't get to see it nearly enough and today I know it is all immensity beyond my grasp.

listen (5 minute friday)

Joining with the writing flash mob that is Five Minute Friday at the home of the lovely Lisa Jo Baker. Writing not for comments or traffic or anyone else’s agenda. But for pure love of the written word. For joy at the sound of syllables, sentences and paragraphs all strung together by the voice of the speaker.

Five minutes on listen

****

Chances are if you have listened to all the words in your lifetime you might not have come across this one - waulking. Since I am married to a Scotsman who has a percentage of Outer Hebridean ancestry it came onto our radar a few years back. 

Waulking is the process that beats cloth (mostly tweedy) to soften it and in the past was traditionally accompanied by song:

A waulking session often begins with slow-paced songs, with the tempo increasing as the cloth becomes softer. As the singers work the cloth, they gradually shift it to the left so as to work it thoroughly.

And waulking can be a little like arguing. Starting off with a few careless, barbed comments which accelerate gradually into a full flowing exchange of verbal hand grenades. 

Cloth beats hard on the table.

We retreat temporarily behind our walls of hurt and lob our jagged phrases without regard for collateral damage. Often (for me) reaching a peak with:

YOU

Are

Not

Listening

And in the full throes of heated exchange our words are like the meaningless vocables of the waulking song chorus sounding like 'tra la la' or 'hey hey hey' to the other person.

But do clashes soften the hard parts of our hearts when we have walked and worked through them? Enhancing the brilliance when reconciliation comes?

Perhaps just sometimes not being listened to is the means by which we are really truly heard.

    Kathleen McInnes - Gaol Ise gaol

(a Waulking Song)

    

 

(With thanks to the words in the Wikipedia article on WAULKING SONG)

place

Dornoch Cathedral, Scotland

Place of ancestors whose steps on these streets are part of their story

Place of awareness where You are before and behind me

Place of celebrity when madonna and guy married to the sound of a thousand fake flashbulbs

Place of faith where generations have worshipped You

Place of hope which leans into a cornerstone

Place of light where Your Son aligns with our eyes to reflect glorious colours of the spectrum

Place of refuge when my own child speaks from Your wisdom, words of love straight into my heart, smoothing healing balm on bruises

Place of transition where the master craftsman painfully places every element and hue in its place, forging a unique masterpiece

Yet

place of gazing into the window of Your soul

knowing that if all falls away

You still are

#lentphotos - 15 - a quiet place

OK so Scotland wins again, Fort William this time.  This was one of the few times we have stayed in or passed through the town in good weather.  We took a post-supper walk down towards the shores of Loch Linnhe and found a viewpoint in a car park.  I was still at the stage of hit and miss with the technical aspects of the camera and took a few photos.  Happily they turned out pretty well and capture the stillness of this quiet place.

Sadly attempts to photograph the top of Ben Nevis, which was just about visible behind this vista on the horizon failed and by the next day the clouds were back.  Can’t win them all!