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A Place Elsewhere
ISBN-10: 1517170060
ISBN-13: 978-1517170066
ASIN: B015JEOUX4
An excerpt from the May chapter..........
The sun is now so high that the horizontal man has shrunk to a pygmy. There he is, squat and sharply outlined against the dustiness of a rocky track that is attempting a slow- grill of my bare lower legs. It's hotter than it should be for early May, but there are no complaints from me! Instead, I rejoice at the gradual infusion of heat into my bones, a sinking-in that also ravishes my psychological legs.
But that roasting globe of hydrogen and helium isn't my only seducer. This may be a relatively unspectacular walk, being quite closed in by trees and bereft of expansive viewpoints, but today it is my astounder, not only because of the beautiful floral growths all around but because it has teamed up with an inner sun to enchant me with a resonant vibrancy.
And my senses are at the top of top form today, almost on fire! As wide open as desert horizons, they have been set free by their own frantic feeding upon the youthful vitality that abounds. And abound it certainly does, in lushness and greenness, a plenitude being steadily infiltrated by the opening of new petals, each having struggled up to bloom out its fragrance and colour.
Any grass seems deeper and fuller than before, its green verging on psychedelic. Insects buzz above it. And there are so many birds in busy gatherment, whistling loudly while they work. In addition to all of this, I'm convinced that the burns look fresher than they have been and are tinkling more purely than ever before. It is a month of more.
Even the few clouds that drift near the horizon look puffed up, bubbly and fulsome. The rest of the sky is vividly azure, with a sucking depth. It's a sky which takes on a slightly different character for every month of the year, and what fills me about it today is that it's getting higher and wider, in readiness for that midsummer peak.
Life is a strange and magical journey, at times like this. I am finding it more and more fascinating with each year that passes, even though I joined the legions of the easily pleased decades ago, a factor largely the source of my well-being. My enthusiasm for life seldom flags. I'm so lucky. But, I typed that gently, just in case!
I'm becoming a bit of an older hiker, now. But this doesn't seem to be a disadvantage. Like my walking boots, I'm at my most comfortable being well worn in. Granted, I do pause more now on those steep inclines, rather to Ruby's disapproval. I also stumble more on uncertain ground, and there is a greater need to keep the sun off of my head, and, yes, I do ache more, a few hours after a taxing climb. But I don't care, because the ground feels more beloved under foot, the sun feels nicer than ever before, the air gets sweeter each year and a cathedral of joy is ever-growing inside me. So, like a somewhat older dog than Ruby, I spend more time on the smells and less time scurrying around.
May isn't only visually delightful; it is also such a nice sounding month. The very word has a beauty. As a verb, it signifies optimism and as a noun it does just the same. It summons forth visions of merriment and gaiety - outdoor music, dancing and fairs, the first beer festivals, bank holidays, young deer frolicking, dogs rolling on fresh grass, and much more.
Maybe it's the length of day which grips me most about this month, as it charges towards its late June zenith. These elongated days herald a summer about to ignite with a sun of scalp-burning power - yes, even here in Scotland! And even through light cloud, its heat rays rain down. And
when it does rain, it is most often with all the delicacy of expelled gunshot pellets, bouncing back up with belligerence.
May is almost as `full on' a month as flaming June, denied equality only by a gentleness in its early morning mistiness. And what mornings and evenings they are at this latitude! Later on in the month, they are almost bewitching - daylight by three or four in the morning, still there at ten o'clock in the evening, permeating air thickened with bird chorus. And even when daylight reluctantly fades, a friendly and mellow twilight manages to skulk around the northernmost horizon all night long.....not that that is for long.
The fact that this twilight is the polar glow of the `midnight sun' really lights up my imagination. As for the remainder of the sky, only the brighter stars can peep through, conditions forcing my astronomy to yield and take its summer recess, my telescope now just the playground of spiders.
But there's nothing soft and glowing about the virile growths around me now. Flamboyant colours decorate the landscape, bursting out in all directions. Of course, back in the domestic world created by humanity, it is time for gardeners to commence the summer cycle of weeding.
In keeping with this weeding, there couldn't be a more appropriate time for me to kick off this chapter by plucking up the courage to tidy some of the loose ends left hanging in previous chapters. So, that I shall do. From there, we shall bloom into some interesting new territory. Then we can face June, a month in which something much more sinister is going take centre stage.
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