Mijbil vs Skye

Ah look, there is a good looking man with a pretty puppy. They look so cute. As my holidays draw to a end, today is wash day and bonding with Skye day so after putting a load of washing on, Matthew, four dogs and I joined a Italian Greyhound Walk at Golden Harvest. Thankfully there were four other Whippets on the walk although fully grown. Matthew had to carry Skye most of the way because his little legs are not fully up to strength but everyone's attention was on Maxy as he was being his dominant self and putting the testosterone filled males in their place.

I had wanted to name the little feller Mijbil after my very first dog as a child. I got Mij the day after the movie Ring of Bright Water was shown on South African television in 1979. The movie and book are based on the autobiography of Gavin Maxwell who had a pet otter, Mij on the Sandaig Islands near Gleann Eilg. I balled my eyes out when Mij was killed and the next day I got a puppy. My dog Mij was the love of my life and I was heart broken when we had to part when my dad got a job in the Kruger National Park and no pets were allowed. Anyway I gave my son Matthew the choice to name my new dog and he named him Skye. But one day another dog will carry the name Mijbil. Interesting the Sandaig Islands is right next door to the misty Isle of Skye.

Here is a poem by Kathleen Raine who was in love with Gavin Maxwell and from which the title of the book and subsequent movie was taken.

The Marriage of Psyche

He has married me with a ring, a ring of bright water

Whose ripples travel from the heart of the sea,

He has married me with a ring of light, the glitter

Broadcast on the swift river.

He has married me with the sun's circle

Too dazzling to see, traced in summer sky.

He has crowned me with the wreath of white cloud

That gathers on the snowy summit of the mountain,

Ringed me round with the world-circling wind,

Bound me to the whirlwind's centre.

He has married me with the orbit of the moon

And with the boundless circle of the stars

With the orbits that measure years, months, days, and nights,

Set the tides flowing,

Command the winds to travel or be at rest.

At the ring's centre

Spirit or angel troubling the still pool,

Causality not in nature,

Finger's touch that summons at a point, a moment

Stars and planets, life and light

Or gathers cloud about an apex of cold,

Transcendent touch of love summons my world to being.