Nelly and the mountain
Taken 2012
I took the dogs for a walk, the buttercups are in bloom, shining in the sun, I had forgotten my camera and my cell phone. I will now have to wait, because I see the grey clouds are gathering again and the rain is about to fall.
I was riding my new, old, black and grey bike, leading Porgy the black dog. Nelly was out in front, she is always free running because I can trust her to come back when I call her name. When the dogs are running together, there is a point when they run shoulder to shoulder and I have to call them back, or they'll not return until they are ready.
If I call Porgy I will be ignored, but if I call Nelly she will turn around and come and ask me what all the fuss is about. Porgy can be counted on to return with her because he thinks he might be missing something.
I have found a bench, where I can watch the shadows of the clouds change the shapes of the mountains. I plan on taking a canvas there, but I don't know where my portable easel is, so I will take a sketch pad and make a series of sketches and then paint from the drawings. I usually do this. I prefer sketching to taking photos of landscape. I have discovered that a good photo does not always make a good painting, unless you take a photo 'like a painter paints' and then it may as well remain a good photo because it runs the risk of being copied.
Yesterday, I walked the other way, the usual dog walk, down the road to the end, across the field, turn right at the bench and walk to the end of the asphalt path. Turn left into another field, follow the path that seems to have been made by someone on a motorbike and then someone has crossed it wearing pointed feet. I bend to measure the tracks. They are as long as the first two joints of my index finger. I have seen where these creatures lay down, the shapes of their curled up bodies have been left in the grass. Only two, slightly apart in the long grasses.
I have to ask myself if they were there as I entered the field. Did they just get up and are they looking at me from the shelter of the newly leafed trees?
Once in the winter I followed the tracks of a large beast in the snow. He dragged a hind leg. At one point, looking down through the trees towards the river in the valley I am sure I saw him. Standing, silent and still as a tree. So still, I think I may have imagined his dark brown eye.
Horses will stand in the same way. Immobile they will watch you with a faintly amused expression in their eyes. I have caught them looking at me in this way when I enter a field and do not see them immediately, because they are Appaloosas and their dappled coats are invisible in the leafy shadows cast by the trees. At least this is how it was when I lived at Poggio.
When the dogs went for a second walk with the man I set about collecting vegetables in the garden. Bitter dandelion leaves, which I have just cooked, drained and will cook again with onion and hot pepper. My favourite is risotto made with stinging nettles.
Outside the top of my mountain is hidden in a grey cloud. Is this rain for tonight or will it rain all day tomorrow? The painting will have to wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment