Reading Matter

Yesterday I finished Acacia ... wondering what was the future? Would Corin meet some terrible end at the hands of her siblings, would her son/daughter wreak a hideous revenge or might he/she be the best of them all and because of his/her mixed descent be able to pull the world together again? Naw, David's imagination will have a different and more unexpected future awaiting. I saw a lot of references/comparisions to Tolkein and Lewis in the reviews (made some myself), but on finishing Acacia, Part 1, I am left with more of a taste of Dune.

Anyway, yesterday evening, after Mum had gone to bed, I scoured the shelves for something new to read, having now read all the (excess baggage) books I brought back from Colorado last autumn. I took just as many books from Betty's as I could reasonably carry last November, no one else seemed to want very many, so I had a look at them and lighted on On the Edge by Walter de la Mare (short stories published by Faber and Faber in 1930!), partly because it has some nice woodcuts. I almost did not get past the first sentence of Recluse, the first story ... "Which of the world's wiseacres, I wonder, was responsible for the aphorism that 'the best things in life are to be found at its edges'?" (which on reflection covers the antics of several generations and branches of this family). But I persevered and was soon wishing that it was a winter's night, it was dark, the curtains drawn and the stove was blazing. One extract that I would like to share concerns the repast the lost storyteller shares with the recluse in the latter's almost empty house he stumbles upon late in the evening (the housekeeper having gone home and his lifetime secretary having died a week or two previously) in some byway of rural England around 1905.

"Mr Bloom [the recluse] glanced over his shoulder into the corridor behind us. 'He has been a great loss,' he added. 'I miss him. On the other hand,' he added more cheerfully, 'we mustn't allow our personal feelings to interfere with the enjoyment of what I am afraid even at best is a lamentably modest little meal.'
Again Mr Bloom was showing himself incapable of facing facts. It was by no means a modest little meal. Our cold buillon was followed by a pair of spring chickens, the white sauce on their delicate breats adorned in a chaste design with fragments of cucumber, truffle and mushrooms - hapless birds that seemed to have been fattened on cowslips and honeysuckle buds. There was an asparagus salad, so cold to the tongue as to suggest ice; and neighbouring it were old silver dishes of meringues and an amber-coloured wine jelly, thickly clotted with cream. After the sherry champagne was our only wine; and it was solely owing to my abstemiousness that we failed to finish the second bottle."

At this point (around 11pm) I had to rush off to the kitchen and make myself a cheese and pickle roll and pour a glass of milk. I finished that story before sleep and look forward to the next shortly!

He had another lovely line where Mr Bloom points out the portrait of his sister on the wall ... "I glanced up at Miss Bloom; but she was looking in the other direction ..." That's a gem.

Actually, there is a bit of the David in that description and I would not be surprised to see a Mr Bloom, though which province he would hail from I'm not sure, appear in Acacia 2.

Walter de la Mare was a favourite poet of primary teachers in the 40s but I had never seen this Edgar Allan Poe side of him ... great fun ... needs a glass of whisky and some cold leftovers as an accompaniement.

Visit from Cragievar

I am re-reading Acacia, having read part of the ms, and enjoying it even more than the first time. In fact I am having difficulty putting it down ... definitely up there with Lord of the Rings. So, sitting late last night in our new room reading and getting up every now and again to watch the sunset, I was taken by the light on Ronas Hill ... I thought 'the Outer Isles at sunset or Vumu at sunrise'?

Sorley, Wendy and Ben were here for ten days, just leaving a couple of days ago ... oh, and Ella of course, a fine wee dog who, thankfully ignored the sheep and gratefully, caught a wee rabbit in the garden. A second one disappeared and later in the day Ella bcame very excited around the fridge in the porch ... yes, it was in behind and in the works. Managed to get it out. For those of a tender, rabbit-loving nature, I won't say what I did with them ... but they had been eating my precious lupins! Discovered I'm a real Mr MacGregor.

Ben seemed to enjoy himself and did a bit of cycling practise ...

strange, but lovely, to see him cycling where Sorley cycled 30 years ago at the same age!

We also went swimming at the Walls pool where Mum and I go weekly (weakly) in the winter ... Ben under the water, Mum out early.

Sorley also gave me a lot of help with the 'quarry', turning it into a paved yard. Here he's building the retaining wall againt the bank. We managed too to shift some very large stones and bury them in the bank on the north side of the house. And while Wendy was in the house I was able to get on with the wall.

Just before he left, Ben printed out a note which I have sealed in a bottle and buried in the wall.

The (music) cabinet under the TV houses all the hardware for the TV including the projector. Sorley did a fantastic job connecting everything. Now we can watch films on the screen from video, DVD or the TV ... and, more importantly, Match of the Day!!

As you can see, the new room is very comfortable ...

It was great for us to eat (and drink!) with some company and to have someone else cook too. Most nights we ate out in the porch, but on cooler nights we ate in the kitchen.

I think it was this evening that Mum came home from the Walls centre with two pieces of Pavlova she had made. So we had a competition for who would get them. The question was (going back to an interview with David that I had listened to) ... what, who, or where, was Gilgamesh? Ben won (by a good guess). Mum was second by default as while the competition was going on she had been quietly eating the second piece anyway!!

It was a great ten days and we finished off by discussing with Richard where we might erect a cabin/chalet ... exciting times lie ahead.

Visitors and Furnishings continued ...

It didn't take long for Andy to get his kayak in the water and paddle out of Bousta Geo. I was hoping he would tow some logs back for me from my driftwood beach but the weather was not good enough, and surprisingly, there were other things he and Louisa wanted to do.
When they all got back, the day of the carpet (which went down like clockwork in an hour and a half) I cooked tart and tangy beans (actually cooked a week before and unfrozen for the occasion) and the (Vivian) rhubarb and butterscotch (though some bits of the the rhubarb proved a little unyielding) which we had in the porch and then retired to officially open the extension. Louisa actually had some wine (which Andy regarded with raised eyebrows ... takes this baby thing very seriously) and Peter joined me in a dram. Just after they left we got the furniture from Betty's (less the desk which is still under repair and restoration after being damaged).
Yesterday (after moving books and videos) I set up the hi-fi equipment on the new bookshelves and here is Mum enjoying a Jamie compilation as I exit left for a bath! Somehow we are going to have to 'wash' the settee too to remove the smell of cigarette smoke! I have also just sent away for old (new)castors for the back, one of which is missing. We plan to put the TV on top of the music cabinet (which I think was another wedding present to my parents from Betty's father) and the DVD/Video machinery etc inside, along with the 'projector' which Sorley is going to install for us when he comes in a fortnight. We are waiting for a BBC freeview box to come next week and then Mum and I will move our evenings permanently into the extension ... can't wait, the old room feels so small and dark now. The new room is great, feels spacious and warm and has good sound qualities! Mum will now be able to watch me cooking from her rocker (where she at the moment waiting for me to tell her it is time for Lerwick)!

While everyone was here I had the ms of the book to do the index (clearly the Shetland Times have never done a book with an index before), 18 pages and 10 days to do it. This morning I will take it back to them and pray that now everything can go ahead and I don't need to think about it anymore!

The next task is to get a carpet down in the upstairs (double-)bedroom. Andy helped me get it upstairs, now all we have to do is empty the room (into where!?) and get the carpet down ... that's tomorrow's task whether the sun is shing or not.

Mum is clutching her hat (Gudrun, you may have noticed I have taken over the one you made for her ... maybe I'll ask Maya to make me a cardigan to go with it!) and gloves so it is clearly time to go.

Visitors and Furnishings

Mum's brother Peter flew up for a week from Stanstead on the Faroese flight (Atlantic Airways) only 165 pounds sterling and 1 hour and 20 minutes, luckily no fog either coming or going (Peter does not like the boat!). He is still busy promoting an American executive jet, playing tennis and golf. It was good to see him, we hadn't seen him for a year or so. He took Mum out for walks.

In the right hand side on the track you can just see him and Mum ... I was having a walk above Little Bousta from where I took this picture. He also took Mum up to Hillswick and Eshaness for the day when the carpet was being layed in the extension. On one of the days Mum was at Waas (Walls) I got him to help me turn the drying peats over ... not as glamourous as golf or tennis! We got the job done in half an hour.
Peter also took a nice picture of the 'old' sitting room ... you might recognise some of the pictures. This is the last time this room will look like this. Yesterday, when Mum was at Waas, I moved the books of the bottom shelf and put them in the extension, then moved nearly all the videos down ... a trifle dusty! We've been looking for a bed ... tried online but then most 'south' firms do not transport to the 'Scottish Islands', which is a pain, so we are into Lerwick this morning (en route to Richard and Victoria for lunch) to buy a bed. I can't make up my mind whether to buy a single, with a spare mattress underneath, or a double ... I guess we'll buy what is available! When Sorley comes we will move the kist and old settee through to the new living room.

The day after Peter came Louisa and Andy arrived. We went that afternoon to the Skeld Foy ... pretty chilly as you can see, wandered around and had some very tasty hot fish ... herring, organic salmon and cod, I think.

They (A&L) both looked very well and with Peter too we had a great time ... it was fun company. Also good food, Andy caught some brown trout and we had them as starters one night! Their car was jammed pack with equipment ... where they are going to put a baby I don't know ... with two long kayaks on the roof. They went off several times kayaking among the islands and seemed to enjoy themselves.

I have more pictures and will have to start a new blog ... watch this space!

Awaiting Carpet

It's so nice checking the blogs and finding out what - at least some of - you are doing! Beth and Sorley you must get a blog ... and we will get webcam (I promise). It's like getting the family paper ... news ... news ... news, and with pictures. (sometimes moving, and emotional). I am now addicted to David's blog (and all his great reviews which I am enjoying vicariously), watching the kids on Girl Cat; the Shetland Trader and these crazy American comments ... what adulation! I also love when Helen writes their blog and Jamie's literary/philosophical blog. I think I will discontinue the London Review of Books.

Finding the time is the problem, I know. Anyhow, it's 4pm, the extension is painted, shelves up, ready for the carpet on Tuesdsay; Peter's bed is made up; the house has been cleaned top to bottom; the grass is cut and I have made tart and tangy beans for the freezer to have when Louisa and Andy come. Peter comes tomorrow morning and L&A on Saturday (they are camping). So time to relax (well, I have actually had a snooze on the resting chair in the sun in the porch) and do the blog before I go and cut my hair, shave and bath, then I will be all nice for the guests. We just got David's book so it was a temptation to continue lying on the resting chair and start reading it again. I will, but will wait until the guests have gone, and until I have done an index for Victorians 60 Degrees North which the S.T. cannot do (they have just informed me).

Thought I would start with a wee picture of spring squill in flower down the road, the orchids are all out too (you might see one or two in the photo).



We are also waiting for Mary Gibbon's picture (in the post) which she did for us from a photo I sent her. You might think it strange to see Muckle Bousta without the garden walls (she thought it would look better without). Coincidentally, I was looking at old photos on the Lerwick Museum website and there is one of MB, taken in the 1950/60s before the garden walls were built and it is very like Mary's. We like the picture very much and it will be one of the first to be hung in the extension.

We had hoped that the carpet would have been laid earlier this week but were informed with days to go, and at least a month after ordering it, that the line had been discontinued! The shop (in Lerwick) were very upset too and told me to pick another carpet and if it was more expensive than the original one they would pay the difference ... lead me to your most expensive carpets! No, just chose another which is due on Tuesday am. Being optimistic (do I ever learn), I have asked for the furniture from Betty's to arrive in the afternoon (sofa, music cabinet, 2 upright chairs and the desk if it has been repaired). I can see what is going to happen ... there will be problems laying the carpet, it will be pouring with rain, the removal people are going to dump the furniture in the back garden!

We moved the shelves and books through from the small room and I have some book re-arranging to do (which will be fun). I was also able to take the books from Betty's, which I had hastily grabbed and stuffed in boxes, and put them on the shelves. I sat there the other evening, sipping a Mortlach, and looked through them. Prizes for Sunday school attendance to my Dad (1910); Waverly Novels that had belonged to Betty's great uncle in Glasgow (1890); Betty's father's bible, book of quotation and huge encyclopaedia; and some great poetry books Betty had bought in the 1940s ... lots to read! My father's desk will go in the corner where Mum is sitting so that I can look over it at the view.

As you can see we are already making use of the room. The sun (when it shines) pours into it in the afternoon and right through the evening until it sets (at 10pm at the moment). It's as warm as fresh toast!

Right outside the gate of the garden there is an oystercatcher nesting on the top of the wall (thinks it's a raised beach). It has got used to us now and doesn't move when we leave the house, but the chicks are going to have a big jump when they hatch!

Right, time for a bath.

Peat and Extension

I have discovered that if one tries to add further pictures (while writing the blog) to correct earlier errors, they appear at the beginning and not at the end as intended ... so this blog is kinda topsy-turvy, you will find.

In this first picture looking out of the new extension you will see the slot in the ceiling, above the door into the kitchen, where the film screen is going to go. You may also notice just how muck bruck I will have to clear up outside.

Well, you will see that I have not quite got the hang of removing one of two copies of the same picture! Nor have I found how to move pictures around once they are posted. Any advice welcomed.

At last the extension is getting near completion. All Archie, Andrew and David have to do now is to finish the woodwork (around windows/doors etc). Hopefully that will get done this coming week so that I can get in to seal the concrete, then paint, then get the book shelves up before the carpet arrives on the 12th June.

The yard is looking really good ... note the wall rising in the background, very slowly. I will have to face up the bootom of the slope where it meets the concrete flags with a low stone wall, then I will fill it in behind and grass it over ... that's the plan!

It was a lovely atmospheric day with bright sunshine and dark clouds ... thought you would like it. Plenty of sightings of the otters, though they are not popular with the Symmonds up the road as they have been seen walking off with their ducks. Alas though, no terns even attempting to nest on the skerry this year, we miss their crying. We do have a rather silly oystercatcher who has nested on top of one of the walls ... I hope the youngsters will be able to jump down safely when the time comes.
Managed to get our peats cut before the end of April and last week got them raised to dry. There is only one other (insane) peat cutter in Sandness now ... the rest of the population is much more sensible. Still, I get a lot of satisfaction and a bit of exercise.

This is a stereo (!) picture of the extension from the doorway into the kitchen, there is slate under and behind the stove. David finished cementing the doorway at the end of the week and I spent a couple of hours on Saturday morning cleaning every surface, including all the cups and dishes and pots and pans to get rid of the cement dust.

Dammit, I seem to have done it again! Help!

At the end of the month (31st), I have been invited to the opening of the New Shetland Museum. I believe Charles and Camilla are going to be there too. I will need to put on my suit again ... last time was for Jamie and Helen, but that depends on the weather ... I may have to wear keeperwear and boots ... which may just give me an introduction to C&M ... thinks, better take along a riding crop too.

Edmondstons' Victorians 60 Degrees North ms now back with the Shetland Times and planned to be out by the end of June ... when an editor tells you the 'end' of June, that means the beginning of July earliest. Still waiting to hear if Chapman and/or Dark Horse are going to take any poetry. Oh, and still waiting for other blogs to be updated.

April 2007

When we left for NZ I put some tulip bulbs in pots and left them in te most sheltered part of the garden. When we came back they were up and almost out. Somehow they had survived a 100 mph gale a couple of weeks before we got home, one of the worst apparently for several years. Glad I didn't know before! No damage done done to M Bousta but the Pedleys' road badly torn up. I tied up the tulips just in case after we got back and here's Mum enjoying them yesterday in the sun! Beth, I just pack them in at several levels into a pot to get a mixture, seems to work!

The weather has been sunny and dry for the last few days and promises to continue that way, though it is kinda cool. Anyway, made a start on the new wall ... can you see it among the debris in the middle? It will be 80cm wide and, it is my intention, 2m tall. There are some really big stones so it will be a slow job, but very satisfying!

We were sitting out in the garden again this early evening with a glass of wine. It was really warm sheltered in the garden and we were watching the twite (wee finches a bit like sparrows but not so domesticated) feeding on the seed we had scattered on the grass ... bit like watching budgies ... and listening to the curlews and oystercatchers, when a car pulled in. I thought it was going to be another prospective councillor on the hustings (election for MSP and local councillors on Thursday), we've altready had two, but when the gate opened it was the familiar, but slightly older figure, of Callan Duck! Sorry my shadow got into the picture!

He works on Seals from St Andrews and was up doing a quick survey ... harbour seals (as we have at Bousta) have fallen by over 50% in Orkney and up to 40% in parts of Shetland ... though they have not fallen around us. They don't know why but are looking for places and people to carry out weekly counts through the summer ... so I have volunteered. We had a great chat, you can imagine, about Rum and he was fascinated (and jealous) to hear where you all were ... sent his kindest regards ... told me he still wears the kilt he had when he was 14 but was down to the last button round the waist!

Still waiting for the proofs of Victorians Sixty Degrees North and heard that I got a good review for A Dream of Silver in the Scots Magazine ... that'll boost sales ... hmm, appropriately, listening to Thomas Fraser singing Somewhere over the Rainbow!

Mum enjoying her second day at the Centre, is always asking me when will be the next day she'll be going. Actually, it is tomorrow and if the weather is as good as today I will go up to the peat bank and start cutting, aching muscles relieved by the song of the skylark!