Friday 21 November 2008

Change is good

I hardly ever put images or photos up on this blog. As I've said before I'm not much of a visual person so usually on here it is words, words and more words (poems, rambles, rants, stories, jokes...). Maybe it's the video (post below), maybe it's the thing of looking at Colin's photos of last Friday in Edinburgh, maybe it's just the time of year...but I've been looking at photos this week and I thought I'd post some, just for a change. I won't write a lot with them - I've been writing a lot of long posts (and comments and replies to comments...I think this is maybe the golden age of this blog or something!) so I might let the photos speak for themselves a little. They're a mixed bag...beautiful places, funny details...bits of my life. Some of the photos we took and some were by my friend Andy. I hope you enjoy them...in some way or other.


The coast just down the road from here




Elephant Rock - just south of here




Last winter we made 'our family in snow'...Mark, me, my Mum, Small Girl and Old Dog (very small - in front of big snowman).




Fields of barley - just up the road




Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow - we went when they reopened not long ago. Are these heads still there? Anyone know?




Old Dog is a cairn terrier (and my Mum's originally) but this is New Pup (Zoe - a border terrier). This photo is from back in the summer but she is about 8 months old now.




Small Girl's hair took a long time to grow so I couldn't get it into plaits until this year really (when she wanted to be Dorothy at Playgroup she had to wear false ones made of wool!). This year (her 8th) her lovely red curls made it to plait length...look how the plaits curl though!


So there you go. Simple things. I watched a report about rapes in the DR Congo on the news last night. Not really in the mood for words.
x

22 comments:

Kat Mortensen said...

A report such as the one on the Congo can certainly make one reassess things.

Regarding the photos: I can only express how truly envious I am of you. If you knew me, personally, you would know that I'd love nothing more than to be in such a beautiful place with my husband and mother (dogs would be a bonus). Scotland is perhaps my favourite place on earth (that I've seen) and I long to return one day.

Thanks for taking me away for a bit.

Kat xo

P.S. Small Girl is adorable from the back - as I'm sure she must be from any perspective.

Rachel Fox said...

I hope you get out here to visit us one day. We have a spare room...it needs decorating but it's comfy. I know I would like you!

And SG is adorable. If only her classmates knew it...

Rachel Fox said...

p.s. We love Canada too! I think of it as 'big Scotland'..or 'very big Scotland'!

Marion McCready said...

Oh she has gorgeous hair! I sometimes forget that Scotland had such beaches, they're all scraggy, pebbly beaches where I live.

Rachel Fox said...

I think the beaches here on the east coast are as beautiful as anywhere in the world. Sea's a bit cold, like. Maybe we should do a houseswap holiday!
x

Colin Will said...

Yup, the beaches here in the Mystic East are gorgeous. I didn't know there was an Elephant Rock in your airt though. The other Elephant Rock is in Monument Valley, Ariz.

Rachel Fox said...

It's between Lunan Bay and Montrose.
x

The Weaver of Grass said...

Love the photographs Rachel - and particularly one of the terrier as we too have a border terrier pup, 9 months old. Aren't they little tough girls? Are you leaving her hair long until the spring? It seems cruel to us to have her cut when winter is arriving, so we shall wait until April, but in spite of brushing and combing two or three times a day she still looks like an old rug! But she is a fantastic girl.

Fiendish said...

It was so lovely to have a photograph post, Rachel: it's like setting the scene for all the poetry and assorted anecdotes you've posted before. I love the barley field, and also Small Girl's plaits.

Such beauty, contrasted with that last line about the Congo... it's difficult to know what to feel sometimes.

swiss said...

the one of the fields reminds me of when we first moved here. i'd studied lewis crassic gibbon a while before but when we were driving up around that bit around lunan bay (and the lcg centre) i was all like look at that, it looks like it describes it in the book

Rachel Fox said...

Weaver - yes border bitches are as hard as nails! And so cute...funny, cheeky, well behaved (most of the time...). We haven't done anything to her fur just yet. When we meet other owners some talk a lot about the stripping/plucking business (and some don't) but we've never had a border t before so we thought we'd just leave it and see what happens (a bit like I do with my own hair...sadly!). She's not that furry (the dog). I saw a 'stripped' one the other day and it looked freezing!

Fiendish...what to feel...indeed. We help each other on as best we can.

And Swiss...we're not that far from the Grassic Gibbon centre (in fact they sell my book as well as lots of his which is very nice of them). I've read 'Sunset Song' which I loved. It's a huge book...if you know what I mean...all of life is in it.

hope said...

Wow...a vacation at my fingertips. Thanks!

I'm with poetikat: Small Girl is probably just as beautiful when facing her as her red hair. I always wanted red hair just that color! Long story....or a possible post.

Thanks for giving the day some color.

Rachel Fox said...

Yes I would have loved that hair myself too! When I was 16/17 I used to henna my hair that colour...and get it curled. Of course SG can't wait to be a teenager to dye hers black and straighten it!

I was looking for a picture of it down in full curly mode but the plaits one was the best one I could find. She gets the red from her Dad but also on my side my maternal Grandma was a glamorous red-haired flapper in the 1920s.

Dave King said...

You didn't need to write long, the images spoke for themselves

Rachel Fox said...

Thanks, Dave. Maybe I'll put a few more photos on here now and again!
x

Unknown said...

Great pics: I love the variety of them.

SG has a beautiful colour of hair - classy!

Rachel Fox said...

You'd need a bit more snow to make your family I think Barbara! We've got snow here today in fact so SG is all excited about getting a white xmas this year (maybe).
x

Art Durkee said...

My sister's hair looked just like Small Girl's, when my sister was that same age. We're of Irish/Norwegian descent, but those redhead genes did travel all over the North.

There are several places along the Pacific coast, in Oregon and northern California, that have sea-arches like your Elephant Rock. I find them all to be very magical, beautiful places. I'm sure I'd love yours, too. Thanks.

Rachel Fox said...

So is Durkee a real name or a pen one? I've never heard it before.

Your photos are so spectacular - I'm glad you've enjoyed some of mine too. I think it was partly looking at all your views that made me think of putting these up.

x

Anonymous said...

It seems that Angus is a lovely remote place, Rachel. Somewhere you can BREATHE. Is it a village or even more rural than that? I love London but I love space and nature and quiet too. If only my home faced London on one side and somewhere remote, scenic and deserted (and very warm too) on the other side.
Perfect.

Rachel Fox said...

It is a mixture here...remote in some ways but also close enough to cities (Dundee and Aberdeen) to not feel that far from modern life. It's also on a main railway line (beautiful journey in fact - a lot of it along the coast) so we can get about OK and not feel everything else is too far away. Angus has no big cities of its own though (our nearest town Montrose is approx 10,000 people) so it is a small town county and all that that implies (less traffic, for example).
You're right about the breathing. I lived in Leeds (or nearby) from 1989-2002 and lived the city life to death (more or less). I did get to the point where breathing (and lots of other basic things) just stopped functioning... but there lots of reasons for that and not all of them things to be proud of! I was brought up in small towns (in the NE England) so maybe that's one reason the city wasn't for me in the end (I did live in London too for a couple of years back when I was a teenager). Sometimes I miss the choice of stuff to do and places to go out (for films, food etc.) but a weekend in Edinburgh is usually enough and I'm glad to get back to the quiet and space. I don't know if I will always feel this way but for now we love it here. I sometimes worry that Small Girl is a long way from much of her family (cousins etc.) but you can't have everything, I suppose!

Rachel Fox said...

P.s. We live in a village (quite a big one) on the edge of Montrose. It has a school and a shop and a pub. As I don't drive right now living right out in the wilds is not really an option.
x