I have always been drawn to gates and openings. I am sure that I am not alone in feeling the thrill of the landscape’s invite: the approach, the anticipation of a new adventure, and perhaps people to meet and stories to share.
I have never been to Skeldon House Lodge on the outskirts of Dalrymple, East Ayrshire. However I came across this old image of it in the Canmore archive and it caught my eye. The gates, the railings, the lamp, the sign, and a bicycle left outside the lodge: all these symbols invited stories in my mind.
The poet Tomas Tranströmer has described two truths meeting at such a gateway:
Tomas Tranströmer has also considered a human need to describe experience in opposites:
I reckon that my story on Skeldon House Lodge would include a little of Tranströmer’s vision and feel? How does this image make you feel and what story might you create?
I lived here during the war with my grandparents. The bicycle could possibly be my mothers as everybody rode bikes then. The picture must be fairly recent as to the rear of the house was just fields. The las time I visited the area had all been built up.
How kind of you to share this memory. Thank you. Alas, so many fields that were are becoming ‘standard print’ housing estates.
aye Peter
Bridge of Allan