“In Scotland, there is no such thing as bad weather — only the wrong clothes.”
- Billy Connelly
I met the Big Yin a few years ago — Billy Connelly, legendary Scottish comedian, quoted above. Well I say met as if I bumped into him by chance, I was working in the city centre at the time and saw him walking past the window, so I grabbed my phone and ran outside to cheekily ask for a photo. The Legend of a guy agreed and I got the most cheesered photo of me yet! Proudly printed it off and still have a copy up in my home office.
He is right though, you need to accept the weather living in Scotland, we can sometimes get all seasons within a few minutes of each other! We don’t get it as extreme as Siberia or Kuwait obviously but layering up definitely helps. I always take a hat and scarf in my bag, except on the glorious summer days when it most definitely will not be required, although in saying that, I usually do have longer layers with me for when the sun goes down.
That was back when I was ever so bold and adventurous and open to living life. I haven’t been feeling that way for some time now. So, recently, I’ve been trying to bring adventure back into my daily life and not saving it up for the weekends or holidays. Whether that means slowing my pace down when walking my dog through the forest and turning it into a forest bath (shinrin-yoku or forest bathing was first developed in Japan in the 1980s, more info), or stopping to watch the big squirrels try to steal their hoard of the little, running from tree to tree as if they’ve got little velcro feet, talking to people when out with the dog — even if it’s only about the weather or our dogs, sometimes you will meet really interesting people full of fascinating facts and snippets of life wisdom, or simply just stopping to notice beautiful things in nature, some examples from this last week below.
I really like trees, and I really like Autumn. The photo above reminds me how we are all at different stages of life and some of us mature at different times due to different circumstances. Sometimes we need to slow down and go inwards and other times we need to speed up and expand outwards.
Of late I have been doing lots of internal work and now feel it is time to bring myself out into the world again, hence the adventure quest. My mum had been wanting to go to Iona for over 25 years so I took her for her birthday for a few days. What an adventure that was, a 3 hour drive, then two ferries and 15 minute walk to get to our accommodation. We stayed at Iona Pods, just a short walk up from the Abbey and close to the ‘beach at the back of the bay. The Abbey was breathtakingly beautiful and it’s no wonder why St Columba settled there all those years ago. There’s a hill outside the Abbey where he apparently had a writing hut and could watch over the Abbey and the Sound towards Mull. The Book of Kells were written there and were only moved to Ireland after several viking attacks, where on one occasion some monks were slaughtered on a beach giving it the name ‘Martyr’s Bay’.
It was my grandmother who had inspired the trip, she had visited many years ago and told my mum she must go but for all sorts of reasons this was the first opportunity to go. We had just watched some dolphins playing in the Sound, enjoying the waves from the ferry over and back to Mull. When we heard singing coming from inside St Oran’s chapel, beside the Abbey. A lady was tuning a harp outside and welcomed us to go inside and join them. They started singing Will you go lassy, go as we were walking in. My mum turned to me and whispered that was one of your granny’s songs! So we both had tears in our eyes, I didn’t know the words only that line so my mum joined in with the others and then the harp and guitar, it all sounded so beautiful. It was very special and we took that as a sign that my granny was happy we finally made it.
The next day, I woke up early as I had left the GoPro outside taking a timelapse of the stars as it was a clear night. When I looked out towards the water, the sky was a magnificent red so I ran in to change the battery on the GoPro and left it to take a timelapse of the sunrise. I quickly got ready and went off to climb the Dun I hill, the highest point in Iona that was right beside the Pods. Stopped to check the GoPro on the way and it had fell off the fence so I fixed the tripod and went on my way. Couldn’t find the fence that was apparently just off to the left, realised later it was very close to the pods and I had just walked past it. There was a fence all around to keep the sheep in so I walked all the way down to the beach and around but couldn’t find a way up so I headed back to the Pod as thought mum would be waking soon. We went for lunch and then went back and found the hill. Spectacular panoramic views of the island and all the islands close by. It is a really special place and I cannot wait to go back again sometime.
Now, I invite you, dear reader, to also bring more adventure into your life. What does adventure mean to you? I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions to explore.
