Posts tagged with "autumn"

Guilty or not?

I have bloggers’ guilt.  Or have I just been avoiding blogging recently cos I’ve lost the trail…  Either way, I’m back on line cos I’ve had lots of brilliant conversations with you lot - and you’re still commenting on stuff, so I just need to get over it!

The last 2 weeks have been quite strange.  Is it just the unsettling changing of the seasons, or is the time gap increasing between Knoydart and I?  Whatever - but things are slipping, definitely.  Do the effects of the wilderness leave you if you don’t go back often enough?  This is something I hope isn’t true, because lots of conversations with folks have been about how we can bring a bit of the wilderness into our everyday lives, rather than going to the remotest parts of Scotland to find it.

But is this really possible? Moving into the DARK season after one of the coldest weeks ever, how can we still be inspired to go out and find it?

My boyfirend and I took a trip up to Aberdeenshire the other weekend for a night away - I suppose I was trying to regain a bit of that Knoydart feeling - and it was beautiful - especially the stretch from Braemar to Ballater (autumn is amazing up there).  But I kept on feeling guilty because we’d driven up there.  What we learn from nature is key to the future of the human race, but being in nature is detrimental to the future of the human race - vicious circle - no?

How can we enjoy and learn from the wilderness without feeling guilty?

The other thing I’ve been feeling guilty about it lack of action.  I feel in some ways the questions I’m asking are too big for my brain to cope with, which  has partly led to my recent frustration.  I’m having a massive sense of it, but trying to squeeze this in - new job, busy lives, etc. - how can you create action that matters?  And my organisation gave me the opportunity to do this - and I feel very responsible - but the links between health and nature are huge, so what can we do about it?

Had a brilliant conversation with a pal last week and he was quick to point out that this could come across as being a bunch of middle class folk going out and finding themselves in nature.  While I know this isn’t true (we’ve found ourselves already BTW), I think it’s important that it doesn’t come across in this way. Language is so important in whether people feel included or excluded.

Action and focus is what’s needed though - this will be at the forefront of my mind for the next trip away which is looming next week.  Surely they won’t make us do another solo day this time of year????  Better get some more thermals just in case.

seasonal adjustment disorder

I planted 12 sunflower seedlings in March. I thought only one survived slugs, cats, dogs etc but look what’s come out in October.

Also my ceanothus (california lilac) is having a second bloom.

More usually seen at this time of year though, our pumpkin

The nights have drawn in, its time to hibernate in all the beautiful autumn leaves. Aren’t the colours fantastic?

Autumn dog walk

Now, when I take my dog for her walk along the usual pathway route on the Kelvin Walkway, I make sure I don’t miss all the little details. So much outdoor stuff. Where once there was: mud, grass, trees. There are now so many autumn berries; hawthorn, elder, cotoneaster, alder buckthorn and blackberries. So many trees, shrubs, I must learn them. My illiteracy of nature in my locality has really surprised me.

So I have been making a gallery of images to try and capture the wonderlets of autumn just minutes from my home. Revelling in the aesthetic is all very well and as I have been doing this I realised the dog’s view may be different. Although the level sensory appreciation available to dogs is denied us (probably just as well!) it struck me that what dogs see may be besmirched by our lack of regard for the environment. Here are some of the dog’s findings.