Rolling stones do eventually run out of restlessness, if they are lucky. I came to rest in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, by an accident of fate – by putting a wrong number on a university application form. ( long story – some other time…) it was a fortuitous twist of fate, since I have been happy here, and have no desire to move again, ever.
But every so often, I need a ‘fix’ of the land where I was born and raised. The land, sea and skyscapes of the North-West of Scotland inspired me from my earliest days. I can still recall lying tucked up in bed listening to wild January gales tearing the world apart outside, wondering what Power drove all that mighty energy. The Northern Lights transfixed me with their beauty. The unpolluted night skies revealed magical star patterns to my youthful imagination, inspiring my writing from a very young age. I still need scenic wildness, scenic beauty regardless of weather or season.
So – here we are, for a few days’ vacation. I thought I’d share a few of my photos. The bottom one is me, spaced out on horizons and fresh air…What is the landscape which calls you Readers to return? I’d love to hear!
200 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2015
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page
Thank you, Anne, for sharing. I am now envying a poet friend who is traveling to Scotland this month. In the U.S., I’m called to the red earth of the Southwest and the grandeur of Puget Sound.
I think your poet friend might get better weather towards the end of June, than we had at the beginning of this month! And thank you for your ‘calling place’. I’m now away to google it!
I visited the Orkneys years ago… we went to Papa Westray, Scara Brae, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness, Maes Howe, all these amazing neolithical structures. The wind, the sun, the rain, the colorful layers of the land against the horizon, the harsh beauty you find only in the North. I did not feel at home there, but I still feel the experience.
More lush is the south part of Lower Saxony in Germany. There is a place in the woods which is my inner center, I need to go there physically from time to time.
Thank you for sharing those places of deep meaning for you with us, E.P !
Interestingly, the Orkney Isles are a place of deep meaning and healing for me too. You may enjoy this post, which I reposted after a recent visit.
http://anne-whitaker.com/2014/07/18/places-of-healing-returning-to-the-orkney-isles/
Ah, I remember St Magnus! Thank you! Lately I found the photos I made on this trip, classical black and white film, including some images of Kirkwall. I should finally scan them.
I had a strange experience in a stone circle in Wales, close to the quarry where the bluestone for the inner circle of Stonehenge comes from. A very intensive vision which left me speechless for hours, and only while I was in the centre of the circle a dense fog appeared in the North.
There are so many places which mean something to me, all are part of my inner soul landscape… mostly they are up North, like Iceland and Norway, empty and rough, or in the mountains.
Hi, E.P., good to share our experiences of Orkney – and especially uncanny ones at those ancient power places, the stone circles. Yes, my soul places are also mostly in the North.I vividly recall standing in Iceland, staring in awe at the cleft where two tectonic plates could be seen, splitting apart…I found Iceland beautiful, stark, and scary. All that wild Nature called to my Pluto conjunctions, leaving me compelled but threatened at the same time…if I’d been writing a blog then, I’d definitely have written about that visit!
You look happy as can be, and with good reason! It’s beautiful country, and your early ties to the land no doubt add a certain resonance.
Your question brought a response I didn’t expect, but it helps to explain something about my travel preferences. What I find most delightful and most restorative is — the horizon! There’s the link that makes it possible for me to enjoy both open ocean sailing and the Kansas prairies, the coastal plain and the open highways of the American Southwest. I’ve casually thought, from time to time, what’s with my inability to settle on one kind of landscape as a favorite? Now I know — there may be a light, summertime post in all this!
Linda – so glad that my offered love of the horizon may stimulate you to write about that same alluring teaser…Be sure to include some horizon images!
I love the ocean…the sound of the waves lapping against the rocks and the fishing villages scattered along the East Coast of Canada. I also love the sand dunes in the Sahara Desert and the magnificent sunsets! You look happy and at peace in your photo…as though you belong there.
Yes, well, most of my genes arose from the Northern land, seas and skies , so I love visiting, reconnecting: but would not want to live there again. And yes, the sound of the sea is the backcloth to my growing to adulthood. We have similar landscape loves, Bev!