Louise Macdonald / It’s only a walk in the Pentlands, but…

Beautiful day, and just needed to get out, out, out. Headed for the Pentlands - on the surface a relatively poor relation to Knoydart - but good enough. I never quite escaped the roar of the bypass, but it was so lovely just to walk in amongst the bracken and trees, listening to the birds, under a blue sky, and then sit for a while, looking closely.

Sunlight through the trees 1

Snatches of conversations that I’ve had with people about this project come to mind - about the danger of romanticising or mythologising the wilderness; or making sure we don’t start to apologise for our evolution - that lots of the advances that we have made as human beings are wonderful ones. So I suppose it is all about balance - finding ways to live together, or, to use that hackneyed phrase, “tread lightly”.

Solo flower

Someone made this fantastic comment on Emma’s blog: “I guess it makes me think we should find time for the wilderness in our lives, rather than try to (re)build our lives in the wilderness. And maybe we will get more from our experiences of nature when they are shared.” Hear hear. So I decided to do some more sharing - and bought a fantastic bird table on the way home, racing into the garden to set it up straight away. Sure, it’s only feeding the birds, but…

Grubs up - 'mon the birds!