auld, verily

yesterday i fell hard for scotland all over again. i decided to make a small adventure in the afternoon to visit rosslyn chapel, a famous and mysterious old church about 6 miles south of edinburgh (roslin is, incidentally, where dolly was cloned). the plan suffered a bit from a bus route fiasco, which did enable me to ride out to penicuik and extensively through the gorgeous, gorse-laden pentland hills, observing happily. but unfortunately i arrived 10 minutes past the last time of chapel entry permitted, and so, barred, instead walked around the site. it was a beautiful, placid place, surrounded by lush green extending to the hilly horizons. i photographed with a dying camera battery as i could - the exterior of the chapel at the right above, through bits of wood fencing.
the outing was made most meaningful by the footpaths i followed into the roslin glen country park. there i stumbled upon many rabbits, birds, canopied stairways, tree carcasses and rainbows (a ready apparition in such erratic weather). i was quite alone out there, but felt a complete trust and wonder at my surroundings, especially by the late and seemingly endless evening daylight. i discovered in the brush off the path a bouquet of white roses and a kind of thistle, strangely bridal yet abandoned. i took it with me (i intend to dry it out) on my walk and sat with my book by a stream and a reservoir. i find that beyond the cosmopolitan momentum of edinburgh, scotland as a piece of earth always has an inviting atmosphere of remoteness. the day's solitary pastoral was punctuated by this last photograph i took, full of affect: preserved but decaying life accented within a protective shroud of a thriving and unadorned forest.
i returned to the small town of roslin and, after a cup of tea in its only pub, sat on the roadside for an hour waiting for the bus back to edinburgh - crinkled bouquet in one hand and book in the other, with gaze occasionally straying to watch the clouds in their grueling foxtrot with the wind and sun. i think just about every person in town took note of me and/or asked after me, making sure i was alright and on my way ("waiting for the bus? is it the 15, is it? ay, 'at's a good girl then, you should be fine").
it was very sweet, all of it.
(a few more pictures)