During the locked down weeks and months of 2020, I walked to this harbour often. And whenever I was here, there were always other people doing the same: standing at the sea wall, gazing out to sea, or sitting on a bench, quietly absorbing the view across the harbour.
Every so often we’ll have a beach walk where the light just surprises us. ‘Surprise’ isn’t really a strong enough word. Astounds us is probably a better description. Indeed, this has happened a lot recently with some incredible sunsets. But I’m really referring to those days when the skies are gloomy; those ‘nothing-y’ days with low cloud cover, when you don’t expect any light drama, and then suddenly, there it is.
I don’t tend to share many throwbacks on Instagram, but this one was an exception – and it’s also encouraged me to dig back into the archives from the last few years and revisit (and share) some older photos with a fresh edit. This was John Muir Country Park on March 8 2020, and I hadn’t shared this photo at the time as the highlights were so fierce. It was one of those photos you take in the moment, and the light isn’t right, but you can’t resist capturing it anyway.
It’s been just over a month since my last post, and I’m not sure how this happened. While it feels as if lockdown has lasted for a very long time indeed, when it comes to work and deadlines and cramming things into a week, June seemed to fly past. Anyone else feeling this? Lockdown has created a pattern where every piece of work has taken longer to do, and I was creating Steller stories too, so the blog took a backseat. But here we are on July 3, and this feels like a big date in Scotland as after all these weeks (almost fifteen weeks) of staying close to home, we can travel again. Just knowing that we can get in the car and go places, and return to our much-missed coastal walks, feels so good.
Well hello, and yes, it feels like it’s been forever. Which it has been considering that my last post here was back in May 2019 when I decided to take a few months break from blogging (as I wasn’t feeling inspired) and then I just didn’t come back. And in all honesty, I didn’t think that I was coming back. I was planning a different blog, a more personal one, and I had a new domain (with a name I love), and was thinking about a new design (always exciting), and then I had a convo with my amazing designer Odysseas of 286Blue, who created this blog back in 2015, and he pointed out (not for the first time) that any blog can evolve. I’ve said it myself, I know, but I was itching for something new. A fresh start. But Odysseas suggested that I simply change things up a little. Add new content if I felt like it. But don’t throw away everything that’s already been created here.
Hello and welcome to Copperline. My name is Fiona Reid and this is my blog about coastal living in Scotland.