Monday, October 26, 2015

Autumn 2015 in The East Neuk of Fife

From  the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Tay lies the Kingdom of Fife, an arm of Scotland that juts into the North Sea. The East Neuk is lowland with small hills that make it easy to see great distances.

The A917, a two lane road, runs a ribbon east-west through the coastal villages of Elie, St. Monans, Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail to the eastern point of the Balcomie links. A footpath links the villages.

Before I begin on the new cottage, the new library, the new life, I'll set the scene:

Here is Pittenweem Harbor, the village where I am staying, the shore with the tide in, the taste of what Autumn looks like through the trees on the road to St. Andrews, the home of golf and the St. Andrews University where Prince William and Kate Middleton met...but I'll get to that later.

To live through Autumn, as the light changes and the night comes earlier, as the temperature cools considerably, is a glorious childhood memory, something real and ever changing...daily...

as if God's paintbrush was flicked over the hills and left yellow, orange, gold and red in watercolor and dabbed, smeared and brushed into shape.