Haunting landscapes

Isn't it interesting how some landscapes creep into your senses, and just quietly take over?

It's not the gut punch of a gorgeous vista, that's something else, and can create a haunting all on its own.

It's not the pretty picturesque either.  Picturesque is almost fleeting in its impact despite the lovely pictures you can get.


No, the haunting ones. 

The one you don't notice until you're halfway through the drop and you can't stop the fall anymore. 

The ones you spend half the time dismissing until you look up and just catch that one moment of cloud, light, earth, and you just know if you go for a camera you'll have lost it.

The ones where you see the hills in the mist and you feel something, not sure what, but something creep up your spine to settle in your mind.

Those ones.

The ones that inspire a small book of poetry, that keep artists out at all hours and in all weathers, that seep into an authors brain and inspire chilling stories, epic adventures, and deep dives into the quirks of the human psyche.

Those ones.

The ones that are almost diaphanous in memory, yet have a grip on the mind you know will last.  The ones that are so hard to describe and explain.


A train through the Cairngorms at dusk.  Mist on the hills, creeping over the fields.  The last blush from the sun breaking through a few gaps in the clouds, and creating the strange glow of diffused sunlight that illuminates like nothing else does.

This one.

The Haunting ones.