Autumn rivals spring in being the most attractive of Highland seasons. In some moods I prefer it. The tourists have mostly gone and one may roam untrammelled, neither intruding nor being intruded on. The October weather is often among the best of the year and the landscape is at its loveliest. After the intensity of summer light, the blaze and crackle of so much positive colour, there are clouded skies once more. One may lave one's eyes with duns and russets and olives and golds and greys.
Down to the puritan marrow of my bones
There's something in this richness that I hate;
I love the look, austere, immaculate,
Of landscapes drawn in pearly monotones,
Bare hills, cold silver on a sky of slate ...
The bustle of harvest is over and winter with its special problems and tensions is not yet. Throughout nature there is a feeling of relief, of letting go; a universal pause. The wild geese fly south, sky-wide sometimes, in huge and heart-stopping skeins, calling to each other, to us, as they go. Everything seems drenched in a gentle melancholy ....
From 'Night Falls on Ardnamurchan - The Twilight of a Crofting Family by Alasdair Maclean.
Other posts you might like:
Paintings of Scotland by Winifred Nicholson.
From Skye to Arisaig.
Painting - Watching the light change - towards Rhum and Eigg, Scotland.
Paintings of Scotland by Melanie McDonald.
