Lovely Michelle at The American Resident has just started a new linky called Where You Live, and this week’s prompt was ‘If I visited you for a day, where would you take me? One place. And why.’
How could I not take part in that?
In most of the places I’ve lived before, I would have been spoiled for choice with this question.
In Harris I would have wondered whether we should go to the beach, roll our trousers up and shriek as we splashed in the clear, cold waters of the North Atlantic. Or whether we should get fish and chips in the village, which we’d eat sitting on the wall that overlooks the pier – the best spot to watch the ferry come in.
Eventually I would have settled on showing you the big boulder on the hill behind my Dad’s house, right beside the lower loch. With a large flat top like a table, and ledges that stick out like shelves below, that rock was my imaginary childhood teashop. I would put my pretend cakes in to bake in the pretend oven, before serving them up with pretend cups of tea and coffee. There was an indentation in another nearby rock, which would fill with water on rainy days, and that is where I would do my dishes. It made my heart sing when we went to Harris last year and DorkySon ran up the back hill, headed right for the same spot.
A touchstone, both literally and metaphorically.
In Edinburgh I would have been torn too. Should I show you the view from the top of Blackford Hill – the castle, Arthur’s Seat, the Firth of Forth, The Pentlands, and all those lovely neighbourhoods on the south side of the city stretching out below? Should I show you one of the quieter corners of the wonderful National Museum on Chambers Street, where you can curl up for hours and lose yourself in a book, before wandering off to learn about Scotland’s history and enjoying a wee scone in the cafe?
Eventually, we would have headed for the Meadows, the living, breathing heart of the city. It’s where cherry blossom rains down on your head in a spring breeze; where students lie in the sun to revise in June, then celebrate with barbecues and beers in July. It’s where you can stand in Autumn and watch a haar roll in off the sea and where, in winter, ruddy-cheeked children build whole armies of snowmen. It is where we gathered in our thousands for the Make Poverty History march; where fire jugglers practice for Beltane; where I would walk, and walk for hours, pushing DorkySon in his pram until he slept.
When my heart aches for Edinburgh, it is warm, sunny days on the Meadows that I miss the most.
Harpenden didn’t pose such a difficult choice.
It is a small and quiet town. The shops selling expensive women’s clothes and the perfectly pruned hanging baskets of the high street hold little appeal for me.
But it has two parks, where we spend as much of our time as possible.
Rothamsted is where the action is; the skate park, the zip slide, the playground and the pool. It is where anti-GM protestors gather to wave their placards and shout, hoping that the researchers at the nearby Rothamsted Research will hear them. It is always full of dog walkers, and kids playing football, and runners in lycra. There are plans to build a cafe and toilets for the yummy mummies and the tinkling toddlers.
It is fine. But it is not what I would show you.
Our park is Lydekker. Less than five minutes from home, it is the closest thing we have to a garden right now. There is no playpark, no amenities. It’s just grass and trees, a few benches and a little pond with a bridge across it. When we had family photographs taken last year, it is where we chose to do them.
We walk through Lydekker Park every day – DorkyDad on his way to and from work, DorkySon and I on our way to nursery or to the store – and it is where we see the first signs of each changing season. It has prompted discussions with DorkySon about weather, climate, the sun and the moon, months of the year, nature and life, and all of those eternal cycles. We have seen ducks and dragonflies, squirrels and sparrows. We have marvelled at the tiny tadpoles in the pond, and always stopped to listen when we’ve heard the woodpecker in a tree.
It is also where we have watched DorkySon grow. When we first moved here he couldn’t walk as far as the park without a pram. Eighteen months on it is where he has learned how to scoot, and cycle and run. It is where he kicks a ball and hides in the bushes, where he brandishes a stick and imagines he is a knight. It is where we have picnic dinners on warm days; loading our bag with Tupperware containers of strawberries, sandwiches and cherry tomatoes, before heading out to catch the last hour of sun.
So if I had to show you just one place where I live now, Lydekker Park would be it.
We would spread out our tartan blanket on the daisy-covered grass. I’d run across the road to the BP garage to pick up a couple of gin-in-a-tins, maybe a big bag of crisps or some crackers and cheese. DorkySon would squeal about the bees, and we would reassure him. Some passing dog would probably come over for a sniff and a snuffle and a friendly hello.
It is my favourite part of this odd little town. I would love to show you sometime.
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Dorkymum | Stories from Tasmania 
I want to visit all these places now. Ruth, you write beautifully and evocatively and this is sending b me to bed with a smile on my face and a dream of heather clad hills brewing behind my eyes x
Ha, you would definitely like those hills. There’s a lovely BBC documentary about the wildlife of the Hebrides starting this week if you get the chance to check it out x
It sounds like you’ve made Lydekker Park your oasis! And a nature school, and a playground. How clever to find it. I would love to have a couple of gin-in-a-tins with you there!
Harris sounds completely wonderful as well–I love the wildness and the teashop boulder.
And the Meadows in Edinburgh! Now I can see why you’d love that! It’s a place I’ve been twice, once rainy and once sunny and both were enchanting.
Thanks so much for the inspiration! Did I see somewhere else (can’t remember where) that you are getting into wild swimming? I’ll have to put you in touch with my friend Amy who swims in the sea off Orkney every weekend xx
PS! I also meant to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH for joining in with this linky!!!
My hubby would love your take on Edinburgh, his home town.
You’re creating some very special memories with Lydekker Park.
Beautiful post for a lovely linky!
Thanks so much Trish! Lucky you having the excuse to visit Edinburgh 😉 xx
I couldn’t stop reading this post! Beautiful. Perhaps we passed each other on the Meadows, that sunny day when thousands gathered in summer 2005. I passed my husband, too, that day – two months before I met him 🙂
Oh how funny, I think I probably passed my husband that day too, just a month or two before I met him. I love what a village Edinburgh is, thanks so much for commenting xx
Hi Catherine! I met my husband in Edinburgh in the summer of 2005 too – Gregory was giving a reading at the Book Festival. I had moved on from 10 Argyle Place by then, however.
Lovely to see a conversation between two wonderful mother-bloggers of my acquaintance.
Emma x
All of the places you describe sound beautiful you write so beautifully. Makes me miss home.
Ahh bless. How are those plans coming along for making it here for the MADS? Any chance of combining it with a trip home?
I’m working on it. Few things to work out timings/work wise, so hopefully will know one way or the other pretty soon I think.
Huzzah! Will keep fingers crossed. My mate from Melbourne is over and staying with us for a couple of nights next week. Can’t wait to catch up with her 🙂
Beautiful x
🙂 thank you x
LOVE IT! So blessed to get a chance to follow you from ALL the way across the pond at Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, TN! Blessings to you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Stacie! Great to connect with you x
Really beautiful both in terms of words and pictures. Lydekker park sounds perfect. We lived next to Bushy Park before we left the UK. I miss it so much!
Oh that would have been fab! Everyone needs a good local park 🙂 funny the things you miss that you don’t expect to, eh? Xx
That is such a lovely post…. made me feel so warm and fuzzy – love the sound of that boulder behind your dad’s house, I can just imagine how you set up a shop there or a kitchen or what ever took your fancy as a wee girl. I don’t think we live too far away from Harpenden now! Lovely, lovely writing. X.
Thanks chook. Funny how writing about the things we know and love the most can be the hardest to do, but the most worthwhile x
I have parked next to Lydekker Park a couple of times and never gone in – I feel so guilty now. Next time will be different, I’ll make time to take my little one for a good wander. I have been to Edinburgh but not for long enough and I have never been to Harris. Of all the places you describe Harris would be top of my list and I’d happily make you some imaginery tea and cakes.
Tweet me next time you’re in this part of the world and I’ll put the kettle on, we’re 3 minutes from that car park! Hope you do make it to Harris sometime, best kept secret ever x
Gosh, you’d be loving Edinburgh today! I’ve just had a walk along the shore, from Cramond to Granton. The sun has such a lovely, white quality here, different to the yellowy sunshine you get down south.
My journey has been the opposite to yours. Grew up in Bucks, and am now living in Edinburgh. Two of my three children are Scots – born in Fife.
Oh how lovely! Yes, definitely something about the quality of light up there – don’t know if it’s less polluted or what, but there’s such clarity to it.
Thanks for commenting 🙂
fabulous post, makes me want to pop my shoes on right now, and we are only just back from our park!
It’s the weather! As soon as you get in you want to go straight back out again!
What a beautiful post. I’ll get the gins in a tin in, you get the crisps and I’ll meet you in Lydekker Park in 5!
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