Who am I talking to?
Atlantic Oak woodland, Lochgoilhead
As with any vaguely creative and solitary pastime, I quite enjoy writing blog entries. A scan over some old Wordpress posts confirms that I’ve been erratically scribbling down my thoughts for the past 10 years or so, ever since we began the process of transforming our lives from the midlands of England to become residents of Argyll. My past ramblings tell a story of uprooting and transformation. Of shedding possessions and indeed friends. Of a gamble that was to be restorative and settling. To finally find a home for my restless heart. So did it work? Truth be told, the jury’s still out.
I love Scotland more than anywhere else in the world. Admittedly, the fair chunk of the world that I’ve seen has been primarily through the bloodshot eyes of a weary business traveller, staying in yet another soulless hotel, but Scotland… My word, it is truly glorious. It’s such an indescribably varied land, with similarly indescribably varied weather. I’ll never see it all, and even if I did, odds-on it’ll be different the next time. From the craggy, dramatic mountains of Skye, to the bleak, haunting Flow Country, to the lush, mossy woodlands of Argyll, it is raw nature on our doorstep.
I’ve been developing my craft as a photographer and now try to represent my adopted homeland as faithfully as I can. I really hope to do it justice one day.
Which brings me back to that jury… Landscape photography and my other precious pastime, fly fishing, both suit my relatively extreme introversion. Living in a small community, I’m beginning to realise, might not. Communities can be supportive, safe, and happy places to exist. They can also be suffocating, petty, and frustrating places, where it’s all-too-easy to rub shoulders with people you’d prefer not to know at all. I like a little anonymity. Perhaps somewhere fully in the middle of nowhere where I can be my own community, or to be fairer on my wife and my family, a town? Oh crap, I’m surely not a townie? Wherever I eventually settle though, I won’t be far from nature.
So who am I talking to? Who am I writing this for? This creative and a cathartic exercise called blogging? Probably for myself as much as anyone, but also for the anonymous you. You who kindly reads it this far. Whoever you are, welcome. Do drop me a line.
