At the edges of the world

Another image of an edge, this time of the edge of a sheer and very tall cliffs near the Tomb of Eagles on South Ronaldsay. I clamboured all over the rocks (not something I would try on a day of high winds!), and sat for a long time being bombarded by worried sea gulls that nested in the cliffs.
I love the freedom of this gull's flight, defying gravity, playing on the updraughts, touching the  heavens with its wings.
















 When you see the gulls' 'home', you can imagine the temptation to leap out into the ether (where else is there to go?)




















And it reminds me of the poem High Flight, by Pilot Gillespie Magee

O, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
and danced the sky on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of  - and wheeled and soared and swung
High in sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew -
And while with silent mind I've trod
The untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.