Walking With You - Loch Leven

[Geoff Noble]

This is a video montage of photos my wife Janice and I have taken over the years at one of our favourite places to walk, Loch Leven in Fife, Scotland. I put a wee tune together for it, featuring my Weissenborn Acoustic Lap Steel Guitar, my MSA Legend XL Pedal Steel Guitar and my Cordoba Classical Guitar. All the stringed instruments are going through a Fractal FM3 modeller/effects unit.

As well as being a beautiful location, there is a lot of history with this Loch. At present, it is a bird sanctuary where many rare birds can be seen. Every year it is a stopping place for migrating geese. In one photo, you will see some geese in a field with a small Castle on an island in the background. This Castle is where Mary Queen of Scots was held captive and temporarily escaped from before she was recaptured and executed by Queen Elizabeth 1st of England. There are boat trips to the island.

There are 2 photos of a Heron, in the 2nd photo it has a brown trout in its beak. Our son Rowan captured the Heron catching the trout on video. The Loch is stocked with the original brown trout native to the Loch. Getting a fishing permit for the Loch is limited however, and can only be obtained if another member leaves. It is boat fishing only with fly, no shore or bait fishing is permitted. However, some trout escape into the River Leven, which exits the Loch, and permits can be obtained for the river.

There are a number of photos of a land feature locally known as the Sleeping Giant for obvious reasons. The local Council recently laid a path around the whole Loch, which is approximately 13 miles. The photos in this video only show a small part of this walk.

Hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/DPWJQ7Xa3KQ?si=-6UFhOd_POvLoDH4

[Joachim Kettner]

This is loveley Geoff! Both the music and the photos.
I' m currently reading a bio of her from Stefan Zweig.
He is describing her stay and escape from Loch Leven Castle in every detail.

[Detlef Webert]

Geoff,
very nice relaxing music and beautiful pictures of the nature; probably a good place to calm down and leave all the stress and hectic behind.
There are probably lots of places like that in Scotland.
I like to go there!
Many thanks,
Detlef

[Geoff Noble]

Thanks guys. Yes it is a beautiful location, as you say Scotland has many beautiful places. I've been doing a few of these type of vids/songs, working with my wife, Janice, on the photo/video side of things. Great having something we can both work on together. She is also very interested in Scottish History, she keeps me informed with the History of places we visit.

I enjoyed putting the tune together, though I must have done about 30 takes on the pedal steel parts. I was fine with the melody, but couldn't seem to capture the tone to my satisfaction. Probably just being too much of a fusspot, the never finished mix syndrome

Thanks again for your comments, glad you enjoyed it

[Greg Forsyth]

Geoff,
i'm very impressed with your video and posting about Scotland. Very well produced with great photos and lovely music. I started watching/listennig to your other videos. Well done.
For the past several months I've been reading the book Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles, by Margeret George. Fascinating book, and I think the author did a good job of interpreting Mary's history. Several weeks ago I read the chapters about her time imprisioned on the island castle in Loch Levern.

I'm looking forward to seeing your videos.
Greg

[Geoff Noble]

Thanks Greg, glad you enjoyed it. Janice and I have been doing a few of these type vids. We retired back in 2016 and bought a camper/motorhome with the intention of exploring our native Country, Scotland. Before succumbing to a medical condition, which forced us to sell the van, we explored a lot of places. We drove around the North Coast 500, which goes right around the top of Scotland, we travelled around the Outer Hebrides, which were amazing, amongst other places. I did a video of the North Coast 500 - Around The North Coast 500 in 8 days.

I've used footage from the Hebrides in a few of my videos and am currently working on another based in Harris, on a walk called The Coffin Road. As the ground was too sandy in the east, they couldn't bury folks, so they would carry the Coffins along the path to the West where the ground was more suitable. It was also where Stanley Kubrick filmed the scenes for the end sequences in 2001, A Space Odyssey.

Forsyth is a very Scottish name, so I presume you perhaps have ancestors from here? I see you are from Colorado, always wanted to visit there. I met a girl from Colorado back in my teens who was travelling around Scotland, sounds like a very scenic part of the US.

My wife is very much into Scottish History, I'll suggest that book to her.

Thanks again for your kind comments

[Greg Forsyth]

Your welcome Geoff,
I viewed Around The North Coast 500 in 8 days and am very impressed with the quality of the video as well as the rest of your videos I've seen so far. Great work by Janice and yourself. Your pedal steel work is stellar. Your website is cool also. Please post another of your videos on the SGF.

There is another Forsyth, Charles, who is also a steel player and member of the forum . I'm not sure if there are other Forsyth steel players in the world however our name is known for the copper work done by The Forsyths Co., which is the largest builders of copper stills made for the distillery business. They also build sea worthy oil rig platforms and are one the largest businesses in Scotland.

I have other Scotland related thoughts and would like to email you to discuss, if you'd like.

[Geoff Noble]

Hi Greg, I've sent you an email.

Interesting re the Copper Stills, no shortage of demand for these in Scotland. Anytime we have travelled around Scotland, we pass many distilleries, the choice in single malts is unbelievable, it's all in the water. I used to like the peaty tasting single malts, the best known affordable ones being Glen Fiddich and Glen Morangie. Unfortunately I cannot drink alcohol these days, but certainly enjoyed sampling these in the past, the ones I could afford anyway.

Glen Morangie.jpg

I put up my website quite recently and it's still a work in progress, I have so much music from the past that I'd like to remix and put up there, it's very time consuming, enjoy doing it though.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Geoff

[Greg Forsyth]

Thanks for the email Geoff. Some of my current favorite Scotch's are Balvenie's Doublewood and also Bunnahabhain Steiuireadair and the Glen Morangie. Although I haven't had to stop drinking the AMA suggests people of my age don't have more that 2 drinks a day so I try to abide by that rule. Somedays less. More time to dream of steel guitars!