Getting Dolphin Inspired!

It was Scotland that inspired Fire Bringer, and being on Uist, this month, that pure power and passion of wild nature came again, in a sudden surge of shining, moving water, next to a little boat crossing to a blue-white beach for a picnic. After a near disaster the previous day, in the harbour at Eriskay, that launched a rescue helicopter, and with frayed tempers, the boat suddenly came alive and together again, as a pod of seven dolphins joined us. The play and excitement of those brilliant animals, racing the boat, ducking the bow, breaching from the sea, for nearly forty minutes, was the most wonderful thing I’ve touched in months. Then, when we’d waded out to beach the craft, and suggested the kids swim with them, the pod stayed around, ‘showing off’, if human terms are right for such glorious, delicious exuberance. They stayed with us too, as we cooked scallops and drank their health, one summersaulting on his back, to show his flippers and white belly, twice. He looked as if he was laughing. I’m not entirely sure why, sometimes anyway, but dolphins clearly like people, and on the very edge of Western Scotland, like the seal that came to visit, bobbing up like an inquistive rock, when I camped on a beach two nights before, it brought a new inspiration for that Pheonix Ark Imprint – Wildcall!