River-Wading

River-wading like hill-walking requires your strictest attention. The last time I did it was crossing the Calder Water coming down from Hill of Stake at Muirshiel Country Park. This was after a four hour hike through mostly spongy heather so the water was a refreshing end. Likewise, yesterday, coming back from Paisley Canal beside Bull Wood I noticed the river (the White Cart Water) was pretty low and so I crossed with bike to the Van Gogh fields opposite whereupon I found the little farm path (Scott Road) that takes you alongside the railway line to Crookston. It's a fine thing to have such pastoral scenes right beside one's home and to be able to unstandardize the body by moving through them. I have always opposed being told what to do and this means firstly 'avoiding the standard', which in turn means, off-road, cross-river, in-field, through-hill: the 'animal path' and 'the way that is wild'. The car is the devil, and its henchmen (the apparatus set up to accommodate the car) little devils. That means, in order to truly become human you must avoid it. That means avoiding roads as much as possible and getting back into the hills and rivers!