A breath of fresh air

I managed to persuade three of my grandchildren to accompany me to the top of Traprain Law on Friday.  We had spent the morning planning a production of The Wizard of Oz for presentation tomorrow evening, and with ideas bubbling up and over, inspired by various Hollywood and cartoon interpretations, I thought a breath of fresh air might be good for us all!  Keeping home grown presentations simple is quite a challenge when you don't have the resources of Tinsel Town and Pixar at your disposal.  Anyway, I've done my best with the props and a motley collection of clothing and fortunately my eldest grand daughter is developing an impressive singing voice so 'Somewhere over the rainbow' is taking shape nicely.  Of course the key prop for this production had to be a pair of ruby slippers.   The best I could do was a pair of very red patent leather, high heel shoes with bows on the front, which cost me £4.75 from a Sue Ryder shop.  Nine year old Dorothy never had it so good and is learning to teeter quite well!

We packed a picnic lunch and set off.  It's a bit of a climb to the top of the Law but we weren't in a hurry.  We were able to pause and take in the wonderful view.  It's a bit like looking at a map and the children enjoyed picking out places they knew, including the wood where we live. 

The countryside in August always seems very colourless to me.  The fields are various shades of brown, except for the one below!  In the far distance you can just see a tiny Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh with the Pentland Hills away to the left.

At the top we sat down and ate our lunch and the children played around for a while before we started our descent and the search for the Exmoor ponies who live and graze the Law.

Years ago I came across this quote which is from an Arabian proverb  'The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears'.  I think it is absolutely beautiful and when you look into the lovely face of a horse, you can believe it!

Although the ponies come from a few hundred miles away in north Devon, they seem remarkably at home on Traprain Law.  They are doing a good job in helping the bio-diversity of this area and hopefully, in time and after they have munched their way through the dominant grasses (such as the false oat grass blowing in the first photograph above), we will have a rich mix of wild flowers on the Law for years to come.