Of Many Enchantments
May. 14th, 2024 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootIt's snowing blossoms outside.
I am not quite myself right now; after a chat to BUPA via MacMillan re counselling options, I went wandering to a pretty part of town where the farms take over; there were harebells, cowslips, bluebells, furze, and unkempt old lilac bushes reaching out to envelope me in heavenly scent. Then I saw my first ever black tulip. This may be ordinary to others, but for me it was a first. I tried to take photos but they are all fuzzy. There were two, not even in a garden but on a wild verge. No idea how they got there, but they stood out, so elegant and glossy!
I came back down the hill to check my phone only to find a puzzled message from my cleaner. She had left but was confused because she couldn't find her trainers (she always changes into house shoes for cleaning). I looked down at my feet; sure enough, there they were.
She laughed and will pick them up next week.
This is an enchanted time even if my head is a mess. It began on Friday night with this https://www.falkirkleisureandculture.org/whats-on/muiravonside-badger-watch/.
I'm a bit in love with that part of the country. It's beyond Gormyre and near Ratho, the latter known for the legend regarding its Witching Stone, which, when removed, supposedly released evil spirits into the village. The only spirits that occurred to me were those that looked to reside in a pleasant pub we passed on the Union Canal, worth a visit with friends I suspect, though the prices are steep. Then we found ourselves in the park, very faery in the twilight.
It works like this: you turn up, the ranger gives a fascinating lecture on badgers and then you go into a room with French doors adjoining the old courtyard. The ranger puts a little food out and you wait. And wait. And wait.
You have to be quiet because while badgery eyesight isn't great, their hearing is pretty impressive. And away went the sun and up came a bright new moon and suddenly bats were everywhere. Then right in front of us...
https://www.facebook.com/debbie.gallagher.7923/videos/2179723689035046
We would have been satisfied with our night had it ended there but chum checked their app which promised an 87% chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Our driver made the executive decision to take us to a grand spot for sky watching, pursued by the Aurora right along the dual carriageway.
Are there words for this? Social media is full of photos. Here's one of me posing for the cover of my prog rock album.
One moment was utterly celestial with surrounding shafts of blue white light, huge column-like rays and veils that shimmered close enough to touch, beyond which all was dark, as though we were in a section of sky and Earth cut out from everything else around us.
Eventually we had to come home. Right above the house were these slow radiances of purple and green coalescing, and we all watched for a while as the Cosmic Butterfly made its way to another garden.
There is so much beauty around me, so much enchantment pricking holes in my gloom. This is a tough time, but it is also the most magical Spring. Strange how it can be both but that's just the way it is.
I am not quite myself right now; after a chat to BUPA via MacMillan re counselling options, I went wandering to a pretty part of town where the farms take over; there were harebells, cowslips, bluebells, furze, and unkempt old lilac bushes reaching out to envelope me in heavenly scent. Then I saw my first ever black tulip. This may be ordinary to others, but for me it was a first. I tried to take photos but they are all fuzzy. There were two, not even in a garden but on a wild verge. No idea how they got there, but they stood out, so elegant and glossy!
I came back down the hill to check my phone only to find a puzzled message from my cleaner. She had left but was confused because she couldn't find her trainers (she always changes into house shoes for cleaning). I looked down at my feet; sure enough, there they were.
She laughed and will pick them up next week.
This is an enchanted time even if my head is a mess. It began on Friday night with this https://www.falkirkleisureandculture.org/whats-on/muiravonside-badger-watch/.
I'm a bit in love with that part of the country. It's beyond Gormyre and near Ratho, the latter known for the legend regarding its Witching Stone, which, when removed, supposedly released evil spirits into the village. The only spirits that occurred to me were those that looked to reside in a pleasant pub we passed on the Union Canal, worth a visit with friends I suspect, though the prices are steep. Then we found ourselves in the park, very faery in the twilight.
It works like this: you turn up, the ranger gives a fascinating lecture on badgers and then you go into a room with French doors adjoining the old courtyard. The ranger puts a little food out and you wait. And wait. And wait.
You have to be quiet because while badgery eyesight isn't great, their hearing is pretty impressive. And away went the sun and up came a bright new moon and suddenly bats were everywhere. Then right in front of us...
https://www.facebook.com/debbie.gallagher.7923/videos/2179723689035046
We would have been satisfied with our night had it ended there but chum checked their app which promised an 87% chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Our driver made the executive decision to take us to a grand spot for sky watching, pursued by the Aurora right along the dual carriageway.
Are there words for this? Social media is full of photos. Here's one of me posing for the cover of my prog rock album.
One moment was utterly celestial with surrounding shafts of blue white light, huge column-like rays and veils that shimmered close enough to touch, beyond which all was dark, as though we were in a section of sky and Earth cut out from everything else around us.
Eventually we had to come home. Right above the house were these slow radiances of purple and green coalescing, and we all watched for a while as the Cosmic Butterfly made its way to another garden.
There is so much beauty around me, so much enchantment pricking holes in my gloom. This is a tough time, but it is also the most magical Spring. Strange how it can be both but that's just the way it is.
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no subject
Date: 2024-05-14 02:27 pm (UTC)Yr FB badger vid was utterly adorable.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-14 02:39 pm (UTC)Yes, I could see the aurora, but it helped to first pick it out through the camera, and then my eyes seemed to be 'trained' to find it. The white pillars moment was very obvious, but didn't really come out on people's cameras. I saw the aurora twice before, 80s and 90s both times were much more vivid than this and much further south. But they didn't have all the colours and were gone within half an hour.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-14 05:30 pm (UTC)And while your photos of the aurora are beautiful, I love your words even more, because they capture what you actually saw, and it sounds completely magical. Whereas I know from multiple people that the phone creates images that, althoug beautiful, aren't exactly what people see.
Very glad that the enchantment is successfully pricking some holes in the gloom.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-17 08:33 am (UTC)I am determined to enjoy the enchantment this year XX
no subject
Date: 2024-05-14 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-05-17 08:34 am (UTC)