Yellowcraig

Yesterday, Friday 8th September, we made a spontaneous visit to Yellowcraig beach, on the East coast, just outside Edinburgh. It was the second time I'd been there, my first visit as part of a primary school trip many years ago. At the beginning of this summer we had a week of lovely weather, back in June, which got our hopes up for more sun to come and talked of taking a trip to one of the beaches near Edinburgh, but July and August were absent of sunny days. However, the start of September has seen a week long heatwave and in the middle of this week, we saw it was meant to be the hottest day this year on Friday, and so wanted to make the most of it before summer is over. We mentioned the beach again but it felt too late to organise anything. Without us trying, things spontaneously unfolded from the moment we woke up on Friday morning and I suggested why don't we just go to the beach today. So I quickly found out how to get to Yellowcraig, we got ourselves ready, grabbed some stuff, and at the last minute I decided to take the ukulele and some gear to record.

It was quite a bit cooler once we got there than expected so we couldn't sit and laze around for a while as we'd intended but we still managed to be productive and got two live performance videos out of it - "Walking Through A Postcard" and "Italian Saturday". These will go up on YouTube shortly so keep an eye out for them. We also collected some brambles to make another bramble pie (we'd just finished one, taking some pieces to the beach with us). The beauty of the beach really took us aback and it was a very satisfying day on all levels - re-energising being in raw nature, sea air, relaxing, collecting some food, and creating. As we left the beach and walked along the roadside back to the bus stop a car passed and beeped at us, the driver giving a thumbs up, which felt like another confirmation the day had been a success. I've no idea if he had heard me as I was singing the two songs since we could hear people behind the trees as we were recording, and seeing me walking with my ukulele case he recognised I was the guy singing, or whether it was just a random gesture but either way it felt like a sign from life. A similar thing happened a year ago when we were filming the "Sunflower Girl" video. These are magical days, we've had a few, like when we went to Glasgow to film the video for "Conveyer Belt" and you never stop feeling blessed when they occur. We had no phones with us and not even a watch so when we left to get the bus back we had no idea what time it was and the buses were only one per hour so no idea how long we'd have to wait. Luckily, our bus came after 10 - 15 mins. We finished the day off with fish suppers, and even that worked out nicely, the chippie we intended to go to closed due to a malfunction just as we were looking forward to it, so we had to walk back up the road to another we'd never been before, but we got them, they were good and 2 mins later our bus showed up so we could get home to eat them before they got cold.

There is a flow on these kinds of days, where things seem to just be happening spontaneously, orchestrated by some force larger than us, and yet at the same time is us! You can't plan them and I'm always aiming to encourage this flow, to get out of the way, so it can come through, in everything I do. That supreme intelligence always does a far better job at living life to the fullest than the human mind can possibly comprehend but it requires a trust and letting go, which is something most humans find elusive. I am here to tell you it's possible and to encourage it wherever I can.