Pine Tree, Loch Vaa
The light was stunning on this day – it had an intense quality, reminiscent of the light I’ve experienced in Arizona or the Colorado mountains. Loch Vaa was a frozen expanse, glinting in the sunshine.
Something about this tree grabbed me, apart from its wonderful shapes – it seemed to be glowing in the light, growing from its perfect Zen rockery.
There was no wind, not even a breeze, and the sunshine felt so warm that I had my jacket off. With no wind, there is a delicate, subtle soundscape. Ducks and grebes out on the ice (standing still for hours), a gentle tinkle of ice from broken edges along the shore, the sighing in the trees, so delicate yet a background presence. There is so much to tune into when you still yourself and extend your senses.
“The ecologist Paul Shepherd went so far as to speculate that the acoustic properties of primal landscapes might be encoded in our DNA. He imagined that possibility long before the genome had been mapped, and he believed that soundscapes, like all classes of sound, are received by us physically and would become, over time, innate. He suggested that a live connection to the natural soundscapes of the world remains vital to our emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being.”
– Bernie Krause, ‘The Great Animal Orchestra’