29 October 2014
It is the end of October and there are many leaves still to fall, but Christmas stuff is already in the shops (and has been for a week or two). A couple of men in a Glasgow Council cherry-picker were testing the wiring and replacing bulbs in the trees outside my window this morning. For a couple of hours coloured lights flashed festively. According to the Met Office, Autumn does not end untill either the end of November or when the last leaves have fallen, depending on how you reckon it. The air outside, however, is cold and calm, and already it feels and sounds like Winter.
This afternoon was bright, with a thin layer of hazy cloud which produced a gentle diffuse light. I found an opening in the fence giving access to the Linthouse site, but with the sky several stops brighter than anything else, it was not a day for making grand landscapes. While eyes could not find what they were looking for, ears began to pick out a winter soundscape. The still air was very clear, sounds carying from across the river and with soft melancholy birdsong all around. I set a digital recorder on a tree stump and left it running while I wandered. The bright shadowless light, perfect for still-life and of a quality beyond that of any studio set-up, made it an extremely good day for looking down. Fungi and litter, concrete and fallen leaves all glowed with saturated colour. A low sun finally lit-up the landscape as I was working back to the road and Julia ‘phoned to say she was on her way to pick me up. A perfect afternoon.
There are a few minutes of gentle Linthouse wild sound here with birds, distant traffic and a rather squeaky helicopter passing overhead to entertain you.