Storm Lady (a short extract) It’s blawin’ a hoolie across Ardshier. The surface
Storm Lady (a short extract) It’s blawin’ a hoolie across Ardshier. The surface of the sea off the Point is a mass of white foam. The waves that have travelled halfway across the Atlantic arrive to crash into the rocks below the lighthouse and shatter into plumes of spray that are flung high into the air to mix with the rain flying horizontally before the wind which howls around the lighthouse. A daring seagull hovers for a moment as it fails to make any headway against the gale, then concedes defeat, turns and swoops off downwind, vanishing into the mist. It’s a wild, inspiring scene, worth the trip to watch, and sure enough a hired car with a roof box on top drives up to the car park, its wipers doing their best to clear the raindrops and salty spray from the windscreen and pulls to a stop overlooking the sea. Gusts of wind make it sway wildly on its springs. After a while, the front seat passenger defies the gale’s bluster, forces her car door open against the wind’s force and gets out into the full blast. Steadying herself against the car, she lifts her phone up to take a video of the tumult. In an unexpected brief lull, she looks down the steep path that runs down to the rocks at the water’s edge. She catches sight of a small figure, bundled up in waterproof clothing and clutching a camera, perched on a rock down near the water, apparently unconcerned at the chaos raging around, calmly taking photographs. The diminutive photographer is well known beyond Ardshier as the Storm Lady. Her photos of wild seas appear on calendars and feature in advertisements for aftershave and bathroom cleaners; enlarged prints hang on walls in many corporate headquarters around the world, as well as in the Wee Café in Kilfillan, and hundreds of her images can be found online. She regularly wins prizes and is interviewed in the press and on radio; the interviewer always asks about the risk to her safety. “The storms will never harm me,” is all she replies, as if that were a sufficient explanation. She learned a long time ago that nobody would ever believe the truth. … [Extract from the short story Storm Lady, part of a collection to be published in a wee while.] @adventuresofalgy, @lovefromalgy for your celebration of Scotland. -- source link
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