Sunday 13th March 2011.

This is the spot in front of Culsharg bothy on which they today determined to realise the star gazing shelter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are back in the forest to determine the Yird’s build size, materials, distance from running water (potential hydro-electric powering), desire path possibilities and engage further with the locals. It’s a Sunday so there’s a gently passing stream of them. Today the random encounter is Granny Mave and family,  who are on sleet retreat recuperating in the bothy on their way up the Merrick. Matthews and McIntosh are delighted to receive more positive encouragement for a shelter here. Matthews proposes the need for a Bench inside it which would face due south.  Unanimously agreed that a sitting option is paramount.

 

Monday 14th March.

Matthews is alone in the forest. It is clear and sunny and very cold. She decides this is the moment to climb the Merrick. To be up high and see planet Earth, not to get to the top of a mountain.  She is alone and it’s almost silent as the earth spins and heaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hours later she is finding weird and delicious sounds down in the sunny Buchan burn and forest beside. Later, the random encounter is forester Shaun Mochan of  Timber Sonics. They talk of trees and their sounds. She tells him she is here to record the schwwh schwwh schweeeeh of the sitka spruce in a breeze. It’s been totally still today and the trees are silent, any vibrations drowned out by  the consistently moving water wherever she went. He tells her of a new system to assess the quality of wood by measuring the speed of travel of a sine tone passing through a piece to assess its stiffness and therefore strength.  Surprisingly, up until now, the quality of a tree is not known before it is cut and sold, only its species and volume. This often means wastage due to deliveries of incorrectly assigned wood. The other guy by the fire has developed software that enables a 9″ scanner to detail the content of a forest down to each individual tree,  and in 3D.  Again more detail, more efficiency, less wastage. ‘Need to let the trees grow longer so they can get stronger,’ they intone. Then decide to sample the Banloch.

 

Its good to get down to the growth vibrations and makeup of wood with a couple of tree pros, by chance it transpires, who also reckon making music from it all is a fine idea and quite obvious.  Curious also to learn the details on when that swoosh in the sighing of the cyprus firs can be heard.

 

Tuesday March 15th.

In London it is 12C and sunny. In Sendai, Japan it is 3C and radiation levels are dangerous. In Newton Stewart it pours non stop heavy rain and in the Galloway Forest it is -2C. So sleet falls and further on does this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With no mobile coverage, alone and suddenly sliding, Matthews and Pig have to admit defeat, turn round and take the looping Girvan road back to Glasgow. Of course there is discovery in this detour. The westward side of the forest and a close up view of the startling blue mound she saw floating on the horizon from the top of the Merrick yesterday.  A mound so dome like, it could almost be the model for the Yird build.

 

Ode to Ailsa Craig on departing the Galloway Forest. March 15^th 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leviathan type creature seem you today

Lurking on the sea under snow clad skies,

Their presence your transfer from pudding to grandeur ~ ye !

Dong ! for shelter that’ll hold such resonance.

km.march2011.