Golden Oldies

Golden Oldies were what Tony Blackburn was playing this afternoon on Radio 2. And we listened to them while taking a drive nearby. 

I've written here before of my love of driving down the back roads, wandering around, not quite sure where I'm going but enjoying the drive. Today it was John who did the driving and I the navigating so I did know exactly where we were but we were definitely taking the "roads less trodden". If you want to follow it's the road from Tweedsmuir to St. Mary's Loch in the Scottish Borders, and you need strong nerves and a fully functional car as well as excellent brakes and fast reactions. When anything like a car comes the other way you also need to be capable of great reversing. Today we only met some stationary 4 x 4s with hikers getting ready to tackle the hills and a sheep farmer on a quad bike with a gun on his back (I did wonder what would happen if anything hit him head on? Would it go off?). 

It's surprising just how fast you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere, away from civilization and in wild country where sheep reign supreme. 

And these sheep were seriously other worldly! I can only assume the reason for their luminescence was the need to see them on the far hills and I'm sure the sheep themselves couldn't care less how they come across but this was going ever so slightly over the top in a big way. They were also remarkable as they were all rams and were equipped with ferocious sets of horns, just in case someone made fun of them.

The largest one of them is apparently so fierce that parts of his horn tips had been removed and while all the other ones eventually drifted away when I climbed out of the car to take some pictures, he stood his ground and seemed to look at me in a way that read: "So what?! I wouldn't laugh at me if I were you!". I treated him with due respect and whipped back into the car quick fast.

We were driving east and the weather was following in our wake, eventually overtaking the car when we arrived beside Megget Reservoir.

And then all of a sudden it was much darker and St. Mary's Loch took on a very mysterious look and the conditions were just right to take a photograph for the Lovers of Light competition on the Blipfoto site. I had some trouble deciding whether to go for the vertical or the horizontal version. I'm a very vertical person, spending hours having to turn my mainly vertical pictures and looking back over my art, that too is mostly vertically orientated. But in this case the horizontal version won out. Although it was taken within seconds of the above vertical one, the light in it is slightly better and the surroundings consequently that little bit better visible. And in case you're wondering this was the middle of the afternoon.

All in all this was one of those golden times that will I'm sure lodge in both our  memories for a long time. The radio produced all those songs from the time I was a student, then lived in Ireland and then of the beginning of the time we first knew each other. Think Human League, Art Garfunkel, Glen Campbell, Boney M and the like, and poor John was subjected to me merrily (and badly) singing along. He didn't mind fortunately and told me he was happy because I was happy! It is breathtaking that it's now 30 years ago when we first laid eyes on each other (at Heathrow airport). It seems at one and the same time like centuries ago and like it happened yesterday. In the most rash action I have ever indulged in I left my job in Ireland and married him, dear reader, after knowing him properly for less than 3 weeks, as most of the intervening period he was away at sea! Such is the stuff dreams are made of, and sometimes reality too!