Be-spotted around the edges of my consciousness are a number of places that I would like to visit, but which prove nigh-on impossible to reach without a car. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is one of these; an intriguing ‘sculpture garden’ spread across 30 acres near the Scottish borders. Privately owned, the Garden is only open to the public once a year, making it even more exclusive. Thankfully, I have friends who are not only equipped with a far keener sense of cultural awareness than I am, but ones that also have adequate means of transportation for such a trip – so we bought tickets and headen down last weekend to explore.
The Garden was the creation of one Charles Jencks, who co-founded the cancer care charity Maggie’s, and was a prominent landscape designer and cultural theorist (according to Wikipedia anyway). Spread amongst the artwork were common themes including black holes, DNA helix, swirls, and assorted body parts like noses, brains, hands, and even some enormous ‘buttocks’.
It was a pretty spectacular place, though I didn’t end up taking too many pictures. I was glad to find that it was relatively quiet, even though it meant leaving Glasgow at the crack of dawn to get there in time. I’m not sure it would have been quite as enjoyable to stroll around if it was hoaching with other folks.
Rather than rushing home, it seemed sensible to make the most of the journey, and we decided to camp at a site nearby. Well, a site that would have us anyway. We had already tried and failed to book another place that didn’t seem thrilled at the prospect of having a bunch of rowdy youths turning up which was kind of amusing as we were an especially easy-going lot. Is this really still a thing in your late 30s?!
I hadn’t been camping in ages, and needed to replace my tent. I can’t deal with the faffing about involved with poles and what-not, but also live in Scotland – so had to make sensible purchasing choices. Unfortunately, the venn diagram of options for those that are affordable, easy to construct, and also adequately waterproof is rather limited. In the end, I was fairly pleased with my selection. It had a kind of claw-like mechanism which opened the whole thing up, something akin to an umbrella – and was shockingly easy to construct and also put down. Not only that, it actually kept me dry throughout the night, which is just as well, because I had bought a fancy crushable memory foam pillow. That, coupled with a borrowed air mattress meant that it was one of the better camping experiences I’ve had. Long gone are the days of turning up to festivals with just a bottle of Jack Daniels and seeing what happens, let me tell you…
My compatriots were even more well prepared, with a smorgasboard of niceties to make the whole thing that bit more palatable. Big rugs, cushions, kettles, coffee makers, tables, and all sorts. There was even a beautiful Transit camper van which we would retire to in the evening, that felt like an incredible luxury.
Shooting film seemed like the obvious choice for a trip like this – partly due to the sensitivity of electronics to moisture and their dependency on batteries – but also because it somehow fits better. Know what I mean? Ever since I’ve moved away from developing colour film myself and entrusting it to my local independent lab Gulabi, the whole process has been so much more enjoyable too. I got these pictures back literally three hours after I dropped them off, which is amazing.
Camera wise, I had originally packed my Leica M2, but ended up going with the Pentax Spotmatic F instead. This is an M42 SLR which I’ve written about previously here – one that I coupled with the excellent Takumar 35mm f2 manual focus lens. It’s an awesome combination, but one that I’ve neglected somewhat due to its bulk, and the fact that I’m just not a big SLR man. This jaunt seemed like a good excuse to give it a day out… and it generally worked well, though my ability to focus correctly took a notable dip the later in the day it got. Whether that’s down to the dwindling light or my increasing inebriation will remain a mystery.
Overall, it was a thoroughly lovely time – albeit too short. I’m already thinking about ways to get more use out of that tent. My soul needs more weekends like this.
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