When you feel down, go up
I awoke this morning feeling depressed and harbouring a sense of dread that today will resemble yesterday. The only positive thing about my waking was that I awoke by myself without any outside influences. I lay there dreading the idea of trying to write, or think, or paint, or do anything creative and being repeatedly disturbed by unpredictable, unwelcome interruptions.
It is not good or healthy to wake up feeling like that, it doesn't exactly move the day forward, so just for today I put my boots on and set off to Holyrood Park. I was there so early that I almost had the entire volcanic plug to myself. There was the odd dog-walker, jogger or cyclist but nowhere near the usual people-density of normal daytime hours. What I like about that is that there's more wildlife doing wildlife things, and everyone nods or smiles or says "mornin".
As I huffed and puffed up Queen's Drive towards Dunsapie Loch, I thought about the Toad Patrol that took place yesterday. I heard about it too late to go and take part - but I wondered if I would see any toads or evidence of their spawning at the loch. Well the universe works in mysterious ways and as I rounded the loch I caught sight of a heron dealing with its breakfast. As I drew closer I saw the unmistakeable shape of toad legs dangling from the heron's beak. Even if mr and mrs toad get across that road and into the loch, danger lurks in the most beautiful forms. I hope the toady got to do its thing before it got recycled - the heron cannot be a heron if it doesn't eat.
Dunsapie Loch is my favourite spot in Holyrood Park, there's an energy there I pay attention to. It feels remote, despite its situation in the middle of the capital city, but I am not sure that is what it *is* that I like about it. This morning the loch was mostly calm, a dark mirror reflecting the pink and lilac hues of the sunrise over the Forth.
I walked on around the High Road to The Hawse and enjoyed the chorus of bird calls. A pair of jackdaws eyed me suspiciously and flounced into the air swearing as I passed their spot. I decided to take the Piper's Walk into the heart of the park and as I climbed the path I caught sight of mr and mrs pheasant. Mrs pheasant tiddled off into the undergrowth, but mr pheasant posed for a couple of reluctant camera phone photos which didn't come out too well. He is in the dark bit somewhere, but anyway I like the way the sky looks...
I walked back down via the Dry Dam but decided that I wanted to walk more so instead of coming down beside St Margaret's Loch, I connected with the Volunteer's Walk and returned to the Hawse. I retraced my steps to Dunsapie Loch and despite feeling somewhat less energetic I was still inspired by the feel of the place. The heron was still there lurking around the edge of the loch, and a Canada Goose was honking her presence.
As I walked along the Volunteer's Walk, past Hunter's Bog, I mused about an idea I had a while back that never really got off the ground. I wanted to explore pod-casting and storytelling using my wee voice stick thingy. I have everything I need - voice stick, computer, ability to figure out the technical bit, an account with Podbean. The only problem was that every time I started trying to do some storytelling into the voice stick my voice froze up. Either I ran out of breath, forgot my story, coughed or just couldn't get my mouth to form a word. Kind of amusing since I had no audience to get all panicky about. On top of all that, when I played back the recordings I couldn't stand the sound of my voice. So the voice stick was abandoned and the idea was left to wait for a day when the timing was right.
Today may be that day. As I was typing about the heron and the toad it suddenly dawned on me that I have the perfect piece to try with my voice stick. So here is the end result of my morning experiment:
As I'm typing, the rain is now bucketing down outside and whatever else happens today, I've had a beautiful, colourful, peaceful, creative and inspiring morning.
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Tags: arthur's seat, beasties, beating depression, birds, edinburgh, heron, holyrood park, natural edinburgh, podcast, Podcasts, poetry, puddock, reclaiming, Scotland, scots language, walking
Posted on April 7, 2008 in Creativity.
Red Shoes Barefoot
This is an absolutely beautiful post–I’m feeling inspired just reading it!
Wow!!! I’m grinning up a storm to be able to hear your beautiful voice! Woww!!!!!
Lovin’ twinkles,
Prairie Star
Lovely to hear your voice! I’d have to listen a few times to figure it out completely, I think! glad the outing lifted your mood. Love the picture of the heron.
What a great way to lift your mood. The photos are beautiful as always and the poem is wonderful.
Wonderful! I just loved hearing your voice…will there be more??…….please