I had the lovely experience a couple of years ago of a flight in a sea plane over the area of the west of Scotland that we live in - a special anniversary treat.
The weather was glorious.
Our village is just visible left of centre.
Looking down from several thousand feet, the logic of the way man uses the land here struck me as pretty intelligent really, all things considered. The Shore Villages, each with their pier, are strung out along the level land on the shore, there is deciduous woodland on the lower slopes and the hillsides are forested.
The rivers and lochs are fished.
Sheep, and some cattle graze the glens. There are no arable crops. The odd rough field may be cut for hay.
On the barren tops are windfarms I didn't know existed!
Everything links up, the springs and lochans, burns and rivers, the paths and farm tracks and forest roads and shore roads, the ferries, buses, trains and cars...the orderly houses and factories, schools and hospitals.
This is the ferry which we take to go to Glasgow.
Single track, B roads, A roads, trunk roads motorways....
The plane lines up with the river and you come, at a very steep angle, over all the bridges and land right in the heart of the city. I stopped taking photographs at this point - it was too exciting and I wasn't going to miss the thrill of the moment!
Back to where we started, by the Science Centre in what were the old shipyards.
From that different perspective, what I came away with was a pleasant sense that, actually, everything was working pretty much as it should.
Current thinking has it that we have trashed the planet but maybe, just maybe, there is hope yet!
I certainly felt it that day.
http://www.lochlomondseaplanes.com/
RSS Feed
