“On my way” is the refrain from this song. On my way to where? Certainly on a journey to an adventure. Today’s another day of dreaming of places I could go exploring when I am able to get there. I will enjoy the journey and the destination equally, and it’s certainly going to be more than just leaving my postcode.
Growing up in Cape Town, and South Africa, I feel like I had the experience of seeing some majestic nature, with some big expanses of untamed beauty, and I think that’s something I’ve been missing in my current very urban setting. I’m not even in a suburban space – this is the most urban I’ve ever lived, and I love our indoor spaces, but the concrete kloofs and valleys are not imbued with the same green power as the gullies and valleys on the slopes of Table Mountain.
England (and I suppose the whole of the UK) has a weird push-pull between the urban areas, the rural areas and the wild areas. The rural areas feel very much like the childhood stories you remember, whether it is the Famous Five camping on the moors, Beatrix Potter’s countryside life and the National Trust, or the Swallows and Amazons having imagined adventures on Wildcat Island. The wild areas (admittedly I’ve mostly only seen these on film) are the bigger wilder landscaps that inspired the writers of epic fantasy. Those wild areas have some sense of deep age to them. I am longing to stand in a place, buffeted by a wild sweeping wind and look out at a landscape that is old, so old, with new, wondering eyes.
This song is a trip through the comfortable Wind in the Willows landscapes, enjoying every bend of a country road and the unexpected rose that rambles along a stone wall. This song is also a journey all the way out into the sweeping plains buffeted by wild winds off the mountains, along the stretches of broad, impassable river, through the trees of ancient forests that remember druids and old magic.
I can’t wait until I can enjoy the comfort of those period-piece landscapes.
I can’t wait until I can breathe the fresh, wild air that is so much older than I am.
I can’t wait.
Day 37.
Writing song:
Everyday Adventures 