Come, Blue Skies are Endless

 

I love to stay at home during the weekend. It is a welcome break after a perpetual rush from travelling one place to another during the week. I prefer relaxing at home, walking by the sea, looking at the fishing-boats rocking peacefully at anchor and of course, reading my books in silence. It can be incredibly quiet at times. The silence of the house is only broken by the murmur of the waves on the shore and the white gulls that are flying and calling in the mists of driving rain against the grey of the sky.

 

It is more unusual to hear the sound of telephone ringing while I am reading at home. But last weekend, suddenly, my telephone, which I hardly use, started to ring in the moments of morning stillness about 9 o’ clock. I could not imagine who would call me at that time of the morning. It turned out to be an old friend who lived a few miles away from the village is visiting his family for a long weekend. He forgot to tell me that he was visiting his family. He now lives and works in Sweden and he rarely had a chance to come home for a visit. He asked me if I would like to meet him for luncheon at his local pub.
 

He suggested that we could go for a walk after our luncheon. I said that the weather in my village was not too promising and the sea looked very wild and stormy that morning. He replied: ‘Come, blue skies are endless here’. With that inviting remark, I decided to embark on a journey to my friend’s village, and leave the idea of staying at home as a retreat during the weekend behind.

During my journey to my friend's village, I saw the Cairngorms mountains from a distance. They were half-hidden in the mists. They looked like the mystical and longed-for Celestial Mountains, isolated, far away and beyond the reach from the outside world. 

 

The cars on the busy motorway took possession of me with their dizzying speed and all the thronging life and traffic. I had to clench on my seat as though I was clinging to a lifebelt. 

After the busy motorway, when you turn down the lane from the high-road, you feel as though you enter into a new world. I did not realise that the pools of country quiet still exist in a small, picturesque village like Edzell, situated in Angus, by the River North Esk. It is such a tranquil place, clean and immensely quaint with elegant Georgian houses on the main street in the sunshine. My friend was right.  The blue skies were endless. The weather was beautiful and warm, totally different from the weather I was having in my village on that morning.  

We had the most delicious pub lunch at Panmure Arms Hotel

 

Edzell Village Church

I was absolutely enchanted by this little notice on the shop's window. How nice to know that my friend's village is such a cultured place. 

Beautiful old houses in Edzell

 

After our delicious lunch, my friend and I looked around the shops on the main street before we set out in his car to the countryside where we had the most pleasant walk under the rampart of the oak-trees and among the golden and orange flow of autumn meadow flowers, splashed with colour like a painter’s palette. The contented looking cows dot the landscape, eating grass and dreaming among the asters.

 

The contented looking cows dot the landscape, eating grass and dreaming among the asters.

 

 

The branches stirred in the breeze, and the cool sound of the rushes was like the sound of water from the river.

 

The River North Esk

 

The whole countryside was bathed in the glow of the dappled sunlight, evergreen trees and yew trees had a look of weather-beaten and battered survivor.  

 

Swedish Mezzo-Soprano, Anne Sofie von Otter. Her collection of songs was given to me as a present from my friend at the end of our walk. I fell in love with her beautiful rendition of Elvis Costello's famous song, I Want to Vanish. She sings it like a French lieder - the words in this song are incredibly beautiful.   

At the end of our walk, my friend gave me a present from Sweden. It was such a thoughtful gift, a CD by a Swedish mezzo-soprano, Anne Sofie von Otter. With this gift, the hidden adoration I have always had for him suddenly crept forth into some sort of flowering. And I thought life is sometimes very disappointing for the incurable romantics.

Anne Sofie von Otter: In My Element includes a mixture of classical, contemporary songs and French chanson and German leider repertoires. I love her faultless performances of art songs as I think that her radiant voice is made for singing intimate and lyrical art songs in the elegant drawing rooms.

There is one song in this CD that made me think about our walk together in the countryside of Edzell. It was originally written by Elvis Costello and it is called I Want to Vanish. I prefer Anne Sofie von Otter’s rendition to the original version of Costello. Otter sings it like a French art song. I am mesmerised by her diction, perfectly pitched high notes are crystal clear like a meadow brook, and above all, the way she phrases the beautiful words touches a deeper place in my heart.   
 

‘I want to vanish
This is my fondest wish
To go where I cannot be captured
Laid on a decorated dish
Even in splendour this curious fate
Is more than I care to surrender...’

(I Want to Vanish, performed by Anne Sofie von Otter, written by Elvis Costello from the most beautiful album, Anne Sofie von Otter: In My Element)

The trees that grow by the river have a look of weather-beaten and battered survivor.  

I shall never forget our afternoon walk in the golden sunlight...how wonderful it was to vanish from the world among the storm-twisted trees that are older than time and yet, they shall remain forever new in my heart....