Monday, 5 February 2018

Letter from an Island in Winter

(I'm having a clear out. I want to retain the text of this and remove it from my hard-drive at the same time. It has been redacted to give people a little privacy. If you know, then filling in the details is easy enough. It was originally written on 23rd November 2012)
Xxxxxxx,
Isle of Xxxxxxx
Argyll
Scotland
23rd November 2012
Dear Aaaaa,
                It’s a different address at the top. I’m up here for a week “chilling”. That’s chilling in both senses of the word! It’s beautiful but my goodness it can be cold.

                I’m staying with my cousin Qqqqq. “Xxxxxxx” is the name of the house where she lives, out in the wilds. It’s pronounced (locally,  so I suppose that must be right) “Cairn-na-xxxxx”. The first bit is obvious enough “Pile of stones of…” but nobody is sure what the rest means. The commonest explanation is that it is “xxxxx’s Cairn”, that fits the pronunciation, but not the spelling, and there is no known association of “xxxxx” with the island. There is general agreement that whatever the name is, it is a slamming together of Gaelic “Cairn-na-” and something else, probably from another language, and that could be English, Scots or Norse.  It’s one of life’s puzzles, and likely to remain so.

                Whatever it’s called, the view from the place is spectacular, in every direction: East and West I can see the sea, North and South Rocky hills. To the west is the island of Mmmm, very mountainous and to the east Kkkk.

                I don’t know whether I shall get this finished, printed and posted before I leave the island, but you will know by looking at the stamp: if it is UK, then it was posted in Scotland; if it is Irish then the letter came back to Ireland with me and was posted there.

                Like I said, I’m up here “chilling”.  I felt like a trip up here to see the relatives, and Qqqqq was happy to have me. She works at a poultry (egg) farm on the mainland. She gets a ferry at around 8 in the morning, drives 10 miles to work and then returns in the evening and gets home a little after 6. She has a car on the mainland and one here. It’s a long day and if the weather delays here on the island she can lose hours (or even a whole day’s pay). I haven’t asked her what will happen if she gets stranded on the mainland, and I’m not going to. It’s certainly not an easy life for a single woman. During the day I am left of my own devices. This is the house which Qqqqq was brought up in, and I can see the Farm which my Grandfather took out a lease on in 1916 (!), so you can see that the family connection with the area is pretty strong. The house is constructed from two stone buildings (one the original house, one a stone barn) joined together by a wooden “covered way” in an “H” shape. The house could really do with some serious maintenance. It isn’t falling down, but it is cold, draughty and damp. Qqqqq does a good job keeping the place clean, tidy and homely, but it must be a struggle. In the house end, the living room and the downstairs bedroom where Qqqqq sleeps are nice (although you have to think about how to keep the places you want to be at the right temperature). The kitchen is an ice-box, and the two bedrooms upstairs have been relegated to attics (even the electrics have been stripped out, and the stairs up there have been covered  at landing level to  keep downstairs warmer). In the barn end, where I sleep, only one of the 3 bedrooms is habitable (and is actually quite nice, if chilly). The bathroom is usable but…

 The work required on the house is real “building”, rather than the DIY and decorating which I’m up to. Qqqqq doesn’t have the money and the island Trust, which is her landlord doesn’t either, so she will just have to wait for things to improve. I had hoped to do a little maintenance work for her, but as it happens things weren’t ready so I’ve been excused that. I’m sorry, and not sorry at the same time. Sorry the work won’t be done (and I would probably have enjoyed doing it), but not sorry that I don’t have to mess about outside in the weather.

If the house was mine, and I had unlimited budget, I would give it a complete refurbishment. Probably hire Kevin McCloud as a consultant and find a local architect. It would make a good Grand Designs. I think the approach I would take is to re-furb each of the stone buildings in turn and then completely replace the covered way with something of similar appearance, but different construction. Given where it is, I would emphasise weather-proofing, insulation and self-sufficiency. The south facing roofs of the stone buildings are not visible from the road, so that gives scope for solar water heating and photovoltaic cells. We’re half-way up a hill, on an island, so a wind-turbine is an obvious possibility. Water is never going to be a problem! The end result would look very similar to way it does now. At the barn end, the ceiling height of the rooms is really way too high. Also the existing internal walls are all stud-work, so I would regard that as completely disposable. There is a wooden floor which I expect was used for levelling, but it isn’t great quality. I would take advice from an architect and consider lowering the ceiling height and creating more bedrooms upstairs. So, at present the house (both bits) has a total of 6 bedrooms, of which only 2 are really habitable. The others I would only give to real hard cases who had arctic, four-seasons sleeping bags and camp beds. I think there is potential for 9 to 12 bedrooms etc. It’s never going to happen that way, but I certainly enjoyed writing about it. Qqqqq has dreams of having a B and B here. The house just isn’t acceptable at the present (except to afore-mentioned hard-cases, and I suppose I may be included among them), but I hope she gets to something like it in the end. She deserves it.

(And it’s 13:35, and there’s the afternoon ferry to Yyyyyy in Xxxx passing)

Meanwhile back in Ireland,  Ssssss and Mmmm are doing “work experience” the week I’m away. Ssssss is helping out at the Infant’s school down in the town. On the day I left, she had drawn a giraffe on the wall (the giraffe is holding a measuring tape for “how tall am I”). Mmmm is at the garden centre across the road. So far, she has been watering plants in poly-tunnels and has learned how to operate the till. Ironically, I’ve been involved in creating two point-of-sale systems, but I’m not sure I could operate a shop till! Nnnnn is still working at the school. She seems to be endlessly marking books. They’re all fit and well and I hope they are feeding properly. They should be,  I left the fridge well stocked.

One of the things I’m doing while I’m away in Scotland is writing up a “business plan” for something over in Ireland. I have to confess I’m struggling, but it’s getting done. This is a good place to work. I may push the “go” button this month (for a January start).

As usual, I’ve included some clippings from the local papers:
David Bowie – Has continued to rise in my estimation: weird? yes, but undoubtedly creative and influential. It seems he may have decided to retire, or is this just another “stage persona”?
The Rolling Stones – They’re a good blues band, but I always said Jagger was more of an accountant than a rock star.
Curative Well – Well, what does one say? I hope they didn’t ever dose you with lithium. I always thought that lithium was more of a sedative and anti-psychotic, but maybe it has anti-depressant properties as well. By the way “TG4” is the Irish Language channel.
Fearless Felix -  What does one say? The kind of thing he does only goes wrong once.
Sulky Racing (*2) – What does one say?

Regards,



Old Boar

No comments:

Post a Comment