Liondsaidh joined the Step It Up Highland Broadford group on one of their regular Thursday walks to Skinidin. This is a gentle forest trail, just north of Broadford with views over Scalpay, Pabay and the Crowlin Islands.
Five of us did the lovely walk from the car park at Sginidin just outside Broadford up to the viewpoint on Rathad na Cloinne (The Path of the Children). The weather was so unlike Skye – damp! But the forecast indicated a wee window without rain and since we were all well prepared with waterproofs we set off on our walk.
Our group consisted of Linda, Heidi, Gill, Rosie and myself. Where were all the Skye men? Watching rugby on TV or something? Our group was a fascinating little international gathering.
I had a special bag of goodies for everyone who participated in the walk, containing the only essentials – a pencil and a piece of paper! As I gave a bag to Gill she recognised there was a blank page in the bag and declared it to be ‘Tabula Rasa’! The Latin for clean slate. (Tabula Raasay was just over the horizon from us!). Gill was excited about having a ‘perfect’ blank sheet.
After wide ranging conversation and getting to know each other and most importantly recording 7747 steps on the pedometer (4.64 km) we drove back to Broadford Hall to warm up and chat. This is a regular part of this groups walks.
Over coffee and shortbread our conversation touched on a sundial I made in Broadford. On the gnomon of the sundial I’d carved the words ‘when the perfect comes, the imperfect disappears’ in Chinese characters. Heidi was intrigued that this word ‘perfect’ appeared again and wondered where the words came from.
The words are from 1 Corinthians 13 v 10 in the Chinese bible. A translation of the Chinese characters reads ‘but when the complete comes the partial will come to an end’.
Here, especially for Heidi, is the German version of the text: ‘Wenn aber kommen wird das Vollkommene, so wird das Stückwerk aufhören’.
We came across two wooden posts during our walk and an enthusiastic conversation followed as we pondered their position and what kind of art could be made with them.
CÒIG SGIATHAN | FIVE WINGS – is a series of 25 walks with artists. The programme runs from June to October.