Is there beauty in bleakness? I ask because the other day I was miserable - cold, sore knee, getting slowly wet from drizzle seeping through my bunnet, and walking along a shoreline which was painted in a multitude of greys.
On the North East coast of Scotland it isn't only the midwinter that's bleak. The frosty wind makes moan quite frequently in the winter months. Even in early Spring.
"Let's go down to Stonehaven and get the cobwebs blown away," he said. The long walk along the esplanade, then the boarded path, round the harbour now fully repaired - it takes long enough to count for a day's steps, more or less. Nearly always refreshing, interesting, and pleasant. This time it was freezing, boring and felt like a self-imposed Lenten penance.
At least so it seemed, for a while. I blame the drizzle. A cold wind, you wear warm clothes. Raining, you wear a rain jacket and a fleece and scarf. But rain wasn't forecast - maybe drizzle doesn't count. Drizzle isn't rain, it's more sneaky than rain. Drizzle seeps, insinuates, trickles, permeates the clothes (and the soul), and invades your inner comfort zone! In any case, this was a walk that needed redeeming.
That's when you need to see a man and his dug! Out of the flood defences at Stonehaven flows an innocuous burn, making its way the the sea. This dog had discovered fresh water! And was running in and out in joy unconfined. One of the bonuses of an extending lead, the dog is free to lunge and splash and bark and chase a tennis ball floating in a burn where it meets the sea. And the man gets to test the strength of his shoulder socket!
Two photos, 2 minutes apart. Same day, same bleak, same drizzle; then a dog barks and you look. If Francis had had space to write another verse it might have been something like:
Thou canine bundle of great joy,
Go fetch your ball, there's a good boy!1
O praise him! Hallelujah!
Go splash and chase and bark and run!
On cloudy days you still have fun,
O praise him! Hallelujah!
And so on. I suppose the point of all this is the difference it makes when into our inner low pressure zones, with their drizzle and grey forecast, comes something as simple as a dog excited by a river, a ball and the freedom to go chase. I know. There are some days that are hard to get through. For all kinds of reasons, some of them not even registering in the mind as reasons for our mood. All the more reason to be grateful when determined gloom is interrupted by someone else's equally determined joy - in this case a dog in the distance, celebrating like Louis Armstrong and barking her own version of, "I think to myself, what a wonderful world."
1 For those who have a female dog, the alternative verse might read:
Thou canine friend with joy unfurled
Go fetch your ball, there's a good girl!
O praise him! Hallelujah! (etc)
I love that verse! It makes me want a supplement to the late Kim Fabricius's hymn book "Paddling by the Shore", written by yourself.
Posted by: Dave Summers | March 04, 2023 at 09:05 PM