A stream becomes a river...

Backblip

I woke at day break and noticed a very strange sound.  It sounded as though a large generator had been placed outside the bedroom window of the cottage and was generating at full power.  Took me quite a few moments to realise it was the sound of water.  Heavy rain during the night had turned the little trickling stream that runs past the cottage into a raging torrent!

Once I was properly up and awake I could see exactly how much things had changed.  The little pond in the cottage garden that has been as still as a mill pond all week, was churning over as the fast moving stream of water entered it at one side then carried on over the large stones that slow the water down (and so create the pond) at the opposite side. All week the water has been trickling between these large stones, it was now rushing over the top of them and around them.  Quite a sight.  

My blip was taken later in the day of the stream before it entered the pond. It had calmed down a lot by this time, but still a fair amount of water coming off the hill.

After lunch I had a visitor coming for coffee.  Rochelle is a local artist I met on Insta and I really love her work.  I first met her in person when we visited the Fortingall Arts Festival last summer.  Saw her again at this year's festival and we talked about meeting up for coffee.  This was our first chance.

Rochelle arrived and D headed off to Aberfeldy on various missions and to have coffee, cake and read his book at the Watermill Cafe, a favourite of his.

Rochelle and I chatted and chatted for so long I looked out the window expecting to see the cows had come home!  It was so lovely to talk about all things art.  She's also self taught and it was great to hear all about her journey from hobby painter to full time, successful artist.  

All too soon it was time for her to leave and we promised to meet up again to carry on our discussions.  

David returned not long after she left and just as he prepared to phone the Ben Lawers Hotel to order our takeaway fish and chips, the death of Queen Elizabeth II was announced.  Although not unexpected given her family had all raced to Balmoral this afternoon, it still came as a shock and we were both taken aback by how emotional about it we were.  

We are neither Royalist nor anti-Royalist, but like so many, have huge respect and huge fondness for the Queen, and completely in awe of how she has conducted herself during her entire reign, completely selfless.  

Over the last five or six years I've had a horrible feeling of unease at the direction the world is taking.  The increase in extreme right wing politics everywhere, Trump, Brexit, climate change, covid...it has felt as though the world as we know it is slowly unravelling.  To my mind in amongst all this, the Queen was a bit of an anchor, a steadying influence whose presence provided reassurance that in the end, all would be well.  Now she's gone and I fear for what will come.  I don't mean King Charles, but in general in the world.  It's as though with her gone, all bets are off.  I feel she was a protector.

I will probably read that last paragraph back in a couple of months and wonder what on earth I was talking about, but it's how I feel at the moment.  

May you rest in eternal peace, Your Majesty, and thank you for 70 years of dedicated and selfless service.