It’s been a while since a saw an Adder in Scotland.  Just like the last time, I nearly cycled over it.

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The last few months have been little more than making whistles and ice climbing.  Along with Nik Powell we’ve been reviewing and improving the production processes we use for making the instruments.  Aside from a display stand to go into shops there’s been little in the way of new design.  While the amazing climbing in the Scottish highlands this winter has provided it’s own excitement and the weekly routine has been productive, there has been little in the way of new experiences to provide inspiration to take into a new design stage.   At times like this I try to remind myself that sometimes you have to keep your head down and get on with things until a window of opportunity appears [keeping your powder dry - as my dad would say].  In the mean time, here’s some pictures from weekend adventures of late:

After ten years of living an almost completely urban life in the city of Glasgow, 2009, for me, was the year that I emerged from the cocoon to discover the majestic Scottish wilderness.  Perhaps it could be same for any of the world’s great wildernesses, I don’t know any of them well enough to know if they have the same depth, but something of the way the landscape and people have woven together through time,  is truly magnificent.  It is said that the Scottish mountains are amongst the oldest in the world, and the poetry, the music and the people, even to this day, move forward with echos of this ancient history.  It might be foolish to try and convey this – like describing the taste of one of the finest single malt whiskies – but here are a few things that speak to me the loudest against this backdrop.   I’ll let you peel back the layers:

Sounds

‘Walts for Hector’ from Bothy Culture by Martyn Bennett

‘Why’ on Grit by Martyn Bennett ‘

‘Blackbird’ on Grit, by Martyn Bennett

’4 Notes’ from Bothy Culture by Martyn Bennett

more info | buy Grit | buy Bothy Culture

Words

A Man In Assynt_Norman Maccaig

more info | book available here

Pictures

I’ve been working on putting up a blog and forum for High-8, an organisation recently formed to  share stories and information about trips into the scottish wilderness.   Like many parts of the world, Scotland is a fantastic venue for outdoor sports.  Over time, I hope High-8 will become a great resource for activities like gorge walking, for which there is little information available and for which Scotland remains a relatively uncharted territory with huge potential for the sport.   We intend use the forum to explore possibilities in photography and film making, as a means to inspire and bring the amazing places and experiences to a wider audience.  If you do take part in this kind of thing in Scotland, then please do get involved. Here’s some pictures to wet the appetite:

Having been on several trips to Assynt this year, the voice of Norman MacCaig has been stronger than ever in my head.   MacCaig’s voice resounds like no other with the landscape of the North West of Scotland.  Back at HQ in Glasgow, and looking through photos from the trips, a friend pointed out, after looking a picture I had taken of old boat near Achiltibuie earlier in the Summer, that the boat reminded her of Norman MacCaig’s poem  ’So Many Summers’.  They are words which seem to resonate with our experiences of the North West

So Many Summers

Beside one loch, a hind’s neat skeleton
Beside another, a boat pulled high and dry:
Two neat geometries drawn in the weather:
Two things already dead and still to die.

I passed them every summer, rod in hand,
Skirting the bright blue or the spitting gray,
And, every summer, saw how the bleached timbers
Gaped wider and the neat ribs fell away.

Time adds one malice to another one -
Now you’d look very close before you knew
If it’s the boat that ran, the hind went sailing.
So many summers, and I have lived them too.

You can listen to Norman himself tell it here.

I’d add, if you ever wanted an authentic insight into Scotland then there can be few better than listening to MacCaigs ‘A man in Assynt” while on a trip through Assynt….listen here, but pick the right time.

This and further recordings of Norman MacCaig can be found on the book and CD – The poems of Norman MacCaig.

Here are some pictures from the last few months adventures around Scotland.  Hopefully the images capture the moments.  All taken on Film on my Olympus OM20.  Should be getting my digital SLR back shortly [my sister pinched it to go to California - bum deal for me or what!?! Hopefully she'll come back with some good pictures though].  I’ll be interested to see what kind of photos I get out of the digital when I get it back [if I do !!].

A picture of my old man above loch ness: