The Swan

The ship is pitching and heaving

Our limbs are bobbing and weaving

I think that this is something I understand

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giants

Despite my reservations about exotic animals in enclosures and in Scotland of all places, I love Edinburgh Zoo.  Being so close to such beasts is such a humbling and tender experience and they are absolutely fascinating to observe.  Okay, so the masturbating monkey wasn’t quite what I had in mind, nor the final act of watching him wipe up the evidence and sucking it off his hand.  No.  Fluffy.  Think of the fluffy.

Pandas.  Everyone loves a panda, no?  With those dark, morning after eyes and big cuddly arms I could imagine being fine chums with a panda, through the fence, of course.  Their dark eyes present a melancholic, weary expression that hints at a sadness inside, and I want to cuddle it.  Of course, this is coming from the person whose childhood teddy has a scratched eye (traumatic experience in a washing machine) that I can’t help but see as a tear, convincing me of his inner woes.

Yang Guang and Tian Tian arrived in Edinburgh in early December, ‘on loan’ from China, whatever that means.  During our Grand Zoo Adventure poor Yang Guang was sick with colic so was off show, but thankfully a group of us were crammed into a small room to peer through the glass screen at Tian Tian, slumped over a rock and staring into space, eyes dull and sad (I interpret).  It wasn’t the most pleasant experience of my visit – though the girl talking us through was great – and more like gawking than observing, but boy was she beautiful.

These pictures were taken (through a murky, finger-smeared window) a few days before she too was brought down by a touch of colic.  Sad pandas.  Yang Guang has nearly recovered and will be back on parade tomorrow though.  What a job.

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cornfields

Lacking in creativity and drive today.  Want to do but can’t; about to but not just now.  So here’s a picture taken in a cornfield in Somerset.  Sunshine days.

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a final ode to autumn

I’m sad to say it’s December tomorrow – and not just because I dread the festive season.  Although the winter solstice is still weeks away the end of November feels like the end of autumn to me, and if my blog has caught your eye for even just a second you’ll know I’ve been diving head first into it this year.  The fading sun will retreat further and soon we’ll have snow underfoot, not to mention sludge, muddy puddles and frozen toes.  However, I’m hoping a new page will turn with the season and I plan to stay positive through the cold days ahead.  For now this is the end of my autumn  ramblings, I’m ready to bid farewell to a dear friend for another year.  Let’s raise a toast – as long as it’s not eggnog

The Gardens // The Castle

The Hill by the Mile

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another reason to love this city

I love Edinburgh.  Every season brings fresh colours and life to the city, it truly revels in each one.  Here is autumn, sweeping across Princes Street Gardens setting trees alight with changing colours, blanketing pathways with leaves already shed, bathing the castle in light.  I could walk for hours around here.  Watching the sun set from Calton Hill gives a view of the sky and the city below, nights draw in harsh and cold and far too fast but but our compensation is the skyscape: as the sun fades, reds and oranges taken from the leaves below wash across the sky to make way for the moon, a trail of pink in their wake.

I’ve been feeling very low lately and finding it difficult to find things worth my time, worth thinking about, worth doing, worth looking at, worth anything.  So I’ve been walking a lot, trying to reconnect with the world and I feel nature is the place to start.  That moment when beauty hits you; a tree of a hundred shades of red; a leaf dancing past your window; a crisp day with clear blue skies; a sunset that lights up the sky; I’m living for these moments right now, they’re addictive.  The purity of their beauty and the perspective it can bring.  Of course, each to their own – you may detest the autumn, or maybe even Edinburgh (you crazy?), but beauty can be found in anything and sometimes it can make all the difference in the world to give yourself a moment to stop and appreciate it.  We’re always so busy and so caught up in our own minds it can be easy to miss out on what’s around us.  If I were to ask anything of you I’d say: be still for a moment.  Just stop worrying, stop rushing, stop passing these things by.  Sit in a peaceful spot and watch how the wind passes through the trees, watch the birds weave through the air, watch a sunset from above the city.  Stop and look at the world around us, watch nature, untainted, innocent.  As a great man once said, ‘Go slowly with yourself’.

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daisy, daisy…

 
I'm half crazy all for the love of you,

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