Tobermory Bay

The falling sun pulls a sheet of light across Tobermory Bay in that scant moment between day and night. The parti-colored houses standing in a horseshoe around the dark water leap into saturated brilliance, the pink and red buoys and bright fishing trawlers drink in the twilight’s bronze dram. From the sea between Calve Island and the Morvern Peninsula, the Muileachs haul in the day’s catch, and the smell of fried haddock and boiled prawns tangles with woodsmoke and sodden earth in air that has, for once, gone still as a sphinx listening to the conspicuous absence of our “progress.”

Each moment of wan sunlight sends the world ever farther away, and the melancholy traveler’s soul struggles in its wake. For those who have lost their way, traveling is an act of sincerity, a displacement that stretches taut the myriad ties that bind us. Which ones will snap and wither? Which will hold strong? We cast ourselves upon the world like bobbers upon the water, waiting for that moment of submersion. Just as I’ve done here on this overlook above Tobermory as darkness crashes, hoping I might read some fate by the ties that hold.

Article Comments

  1. rebecca February 26, 2014 at 1:56 pm

    what a beautiful photo!

  2. Jennifer Jensen February 26, 2014 at 4:54 pm

    Emerson said something along the lines of “beauty without expression is wasted”. Your words bring the photo and Mull to life in my mind. We have 3 nights planned here during the Mendelssohn on Mull festival and are so looking foward to it!

    1. Keith Savage February 26, 2014 at 5:26 pm

      Beautiful quote. Thank you much for sharing. Best wishes to you on your travels. I think you’ll enjoy Mull!

  3. Ken February 27, 2014 at 7:19 am

    Love your “picture this” posts. They carry the mystery that makes us want to be there to experience it ourselves.

  4. Riánsares March 3, 2014 at 9:16 am

    i love your blog is very interesting for me because I´m from Spain and now I live here and I’m learning a lot of things and very nice places. Very good!! 🙂

    1. Keith Savage March 3, 2014 at 9:41 am

      Hi Riánsares – thanks for the kind words! I hope you’re enjoying your time in Scotland.

  5. […] a few great places to eat and drink that serve up delicious local seafood and batches of cask ale. Tobermory is a calm place that makes an excellent spot to retire to after a long day rambling across […]

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