The Big
Darkness
The leaves are
off the deciduous trees, the conifers unchanged, but fewer
than before. Most of the conifers were planted in
afforestation programmes some thirty years ago, and the
present fashion is for native trees, so great swathes of the
spruce and timber forests are currently being felled. This
includes some on our own crags, though the work has been done
sensitively, to leave corridors for red squirrels which are
supposed to like fir trees, though you certainly see them
among oaks - they like acorns and plant them, whether for
stored food or to maintain their tree supply in the longer
term. Who knows what makes the animals behave as they do?
red squirrels:
a grass snake crosses
the pathway
Some of the
areas where forests have been cut down are now very rough
underfoot, with tree stumps and broken roots and of course the
deep furrows on the land that were cut when the trees were
planted. It may take many decades for the land to revert to
how it was. In some of these areas there is hardly any
birdsong: it seems the small birds have gone away with the
trees. Kestrels, red kites and other birds of prey—the
eagles are mostly a little further north—circle
the bare areas and make short work of any small birds that are
not under shelter.
Native Trees above Callander
Otters are
fairly common round the rivers here. We were surprised one day
to see one swimming under the main bridge at Callander. it
disappeared quickly in a row of bubbles and then waving grass,
through the drainage ditches from the watermeadows towards the
head of Loch Venachar. Clearly they sometimes have business
that takes them long distances.
an otter
beside the loch:
one more timber lorry
There is less
traffic on the roads in winter. The big log lorries (we don't
call them trucks, as a rule) seem to be off for the winter,
which is just as well because you don't want to have to
negotiate their slow, unsafe-looking loads when the roads are
wintry. One friend went up to southern Skye last week, via the
car ferry, and she admitted to going rather fast to catch the
afternoon ferry. This can be another hazard on the roads, cars
in a hurry for the ferry at Oban for Mull, or at Oban, Mallaig
or Uig for the outer isles. There aren't so many ferries, so
if you miss one you will have a long wait, perhaps overnight.
Of course you
can get to Skye by the Bridge, and that is certainly the way I
would use. The Skye Bridge is surprisingly small. It runs over
the narrowest part of the strait between Skye and the
mainland, by no means the massive structure some people
imagine. It used to be a toll bridge, but the tolls were
suddenly removed some two years ago when it was finally proved
the charges were illegal. There had been a huge fuss about
them, local community leaders such as the doctors being
repeatedly taken to court for refusing to pay. Now the tolls
are set to be removed from the other three toll bridges in
Scotland—the
Forth Road Bridge, the Tay Road Bridge and a bridge called The
Erskine Bridge on the upper Clyde. The Erskine Bridge, a
light-looking modern steel structure, was actually knocked out
of line by a passing boat on one fairly recent occasion, and
had to be closed for inspection and repairs.
the wide bridge:
impressive
closed till tomorrow
But the reality
of November in Callander is you tend to sit and fantasise
about driving round the country. Maybe there's a daytime trip
to Glasgow or Edinburgh, to meet a colleague to discuss plans
for a poetry event (I have one such visit next week).
Edinburgh is a Phase Three experience for me. Phase One was
before we lived there, a large, rather terrifying, windy,
high-buildinged city behind its spectacular main streets,
Princes Street with its long promenade-like sweep, its
gardens, its art galleries, its festival venues.
a fiddler
playing
near the floral clock
crowds
Phase Two was
living there while my children were young, working, taxi-ing
to schools, being visited by festival-goers because we lived
there, and then running our bookshop, and buying books
regularly at central city auctions, including the famous
outdoor Lane Sales which had been going on since 1840 and of
which we eventually saw the demise. The auctions then moved
further out, as they had been sitting on central city sites
worth millions of pounds.
Phase Three was
after we had moved out of the city. At first we didn't like
the sense of going back into our own past, when we visited,
and we particularly hated going into the street where our shop
used to be (it now sells chandeliers). But now, on my
occasional visits, I like the fact that I know the place so
well, I always know where to lunch, where the interesting
galleries will be, etc, so I can act as a guide to any
companion, or amuse myself if I am alone. And its great to get
back to Callander after such a visit, and to realise that this
is now our home instead.
an old pub
on the royal mile—
chandeliers
Sally Evans
http://www.poetryscotland.co.uk
http://groups.msn.com/desktopsallye
