Friday, January 09, 2009

Two video postcards speak a thousand words

On my way up Arthur's Seat today I stopped and took a panoramic view for you. Do please note I climbed up the steeper, craggier side.



Once at the top, I again braved the elements and the howling wind, for the purposes of video evidence. Beware - the howling wind sounds horrible in my camera's microphone, do turn your sounds down.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Wonderful to see the light you have stepped into. At polar opposites, I have been walking mist-laden fields.
In the distance Welsh hills remain clothed in a mantle of frosty snow. Blame still maintains, dear Anna, in the warmest of ways.

Anna MR said...

Ah, Nicola. How lovely to see you. Yes, I'm finding the light wonderful - but it is surprisingly difficult to drag with me the mantle of snow, from the south to the north. I can only offer my heartfelt apologies, Nicola. This doesn't usually happen and I don't know what else to say.

Apart from "enjoy the snow", perhaps? Yes. Enjoy the snow, Nicola, many would be pleased to have it.

x

trousers said...

Bleak, lovely and beautiful. And I'm a bit jealous, I have to admit!

Word ver = delstorm...

Anna MR said...

housut of troosers, hello. Yes - lovely and beautiful and, I suppose, bleak, too, although to me, "bleak" as a word lacks a certain heartbreaking woundingness of the beauty of Scotland. I'll be searching for the perfect word, to be sure, but in the meantime, we can settle for "bleak". Hurrah.

You need not feel envious, though, for you can just hop on a train, housut, and go. Go go go, you know you want to.

I'll expect to see the evidence, goes without saying.

Anonymous said...

Having now done it - on a spectacular day of sun in the sky and snow and ice underfoot - then yes, evidence may well be forthcoming.

word ver = mishin, which to me at least sounds very Scottish, n'est pas?

trousers said...

...and sperbow also sounds scottish to me, something of a nautical slant.

Anna MR said...

Well yes quite, housut - sperbow most certainly sounds nautical. Scottish nautical with a naughty slant, I'd say. And combined with mishin, well, I think this site just stopped being family friendly.

That is lovely news that you've made it up there (isn't it just lovely? I hope you said hello to the view, from me). Are you enjoying Edinburgh? I should think you are. But look, this seems as good and private a place as any to tell you I really liked your recent post about chess and wi-fi connections and not writing the two posts which you've been meaning to write, and the one a little while ago about summer being gone was simply brilliant. Brilliant, housut, and I mean this very seriously. I've been over there two or three times trying to comment, but have been unable to say what I want to say. I'll keep trying, of course, but in the meantime I hope you'll return here and see me taking off my Arctic hat for you, because that was some blog post you wrote over there.

Keep on keeping on, young housut, you are good people and no mistake.

trousers said...

My word, anna, thank you. That's all I can say since I find such responses so gratifying as to be upsetting (in a good way). Not that I'm seeking such responses, or at least not as a primary motivation, but...well I could tie myself in knots about such things.

I'll get back to the point: thank you.

Your ice-maidenly powers have clearly been at work: since my return (just now, in fact) from the fine and beautiful city of Edinburgh, the word ver has changed from such a Scottish aspect, to one (to my mind anyway) much more Scandinavian: restsk.

More power to your fine arctic hat, directly from me, housut. x

trousers said...

oh and this time, the word ver = sparchea, which sounds like a composite of all the ancient Greek city-states I've been reading about.

Good night, and sweeter dreams than mine are likely to be.

Anna MR said...

Very glad to know that you belong to the category of people who can be upsettingly gratified by honest appreciation, young housut. Further proof, if any was needed, of your good-peopleness.

What I have been wanting to say about your summer's-gone post, and after a good deal of thinking I feel it better to say it here, is that I very much appreciated the way it conveyed a certain painful-honest and therefore beautiful acceptance of how life doesn't move along from one great peak to another, how autumn comes, and old age, and decrepidness, death and decay (you may note I'm being at my most cheerful here), and while yes yes, hope is always with us, our stories don't all end like fairy tales: And they lived happily ever after - in fact, for most of us (I believe), the "high point" of our lives goes by unrecognised, and it serves us well to learn to live with melancholia and the knowledge that there never will be another summer. As I said, I feel better about saying it here, for many of your commenters there have talked about how hope is always with us and I don't mean to sound like I'm knocking the positive or the optimistic. And, you see, while I naturally appreciate hope as a wonderful thing, one has to face the realities of life even with hope on board, and I happen to think life with the recognition of the reality of loss has more depth, is a more full, more complete, more honest, and therefore a more beautiful experience.

Ahem. Yes, I think I was right saying this here at my house rather than at yours. But I'll say this again: it was a lovely bit of writing.

x

trousers said...

Lovely ms mr, consider this not to be a reply, as yet, but an acknowledgment (and an appreciative one at that) of your comments (both above and over at mine), and of your current post: the latter seemingly imbued with a faint sadness all its own, amidst the beauty.

Yes, I shall come back when I have a little more time than I have right now, rather than rush whatever words might issue forth.

My very best wishes in the meantime, and please know that this acknowledgment contains further thanks to you.

x

trousers said...

Ok - I'm back.

Now then, I do remember on the thread in question, being grateful for those responses which emphasised the hopeful: it was perhaps what I wanted and/or felt that I needed to hear to some degree at least, and may in part have informed my decision to post in the first place.

So in that respect I can certainly appreciate your holding back from posting the comments above onto that same thread. Whether over at mine or here within your own home, however, I'm just very glad to get the measure of your thoughts.

To use a phrase I don't particularly like using - but I'll use it anyway since it serves the purpose at hand - you've hit the nail on the head, you really have, and very articulately so.

Although I've more time on my hands this evening than I did when I posted my last comment here, I'm feeling decidedly less articulate than I was then, so I shan't say much more right now for fear of rambling and losing the point.

But again I'm very grateful for your thoughtful comments, tremendously grateful, and thus am sending further thanks and appreciation your way.

Word ver = whishi.

Anna MR said...

Thank you, housut, and glad that you appreciated receiving my glum words. But it is you who are the articulate one, in this case - you wrote the post, I just wrote about it, no? I think you'll find that's the case and that I'm right. And whishi is pretty lovely.