Scotland update- far sunnier.
Sep. 17th, 2004 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thrihyrneFor those who read yesterday's entry and sent me good vibes, thanks ever so. As is the changeable way of things in this part of the world and this climate, as I left the library (which is great- made me think of you, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
llembas, as it's all in one room but has a whole Gaelic research section which I promptly plundered after getting off the internet), it was sunny and gorgeous outside. So here's my post from yesterday around 5:55.
I should've known that Scotland would woo me back after such disparaging remarks. I emerged from Stornoway's public library to see that the sun was out. Ah. More irony. I made my way to the B&B and talked briefly to Donny (Margaret's husband) and after I added the part about visiting the library for an hour, he said, "Well, you're not spending a fortune on this trip, are ye?" "No," I replied. "Today only cost me £4.70."
We laughed.
I ditched my overcoat and put on my cool new brown corduroy one and went in search of dinner, via the Lews castle grounds. And here I fell in love again, and these are the reasons why this was a good decision, despite the weather and cost and all else.
I went a bit down a gravel path and came across some wild thistles. These are my flowers/weeds. The tattoo I will get is a thistle in an art deco design. So I touched one, in flower. And got all teary, tourist/person of Scotch/Irish ancestry that I am. And looked up at the blazingly blue sky, and sun, and felt my permanent reminder of this trip (my chipped tooth), and knew that across the worldsnottygrrl was saying, "See? You knew this was right."
This was right. I walked a bit further on, found a set of wild blackberry bushes, pulled off a ripe one, not caring if it was illegal or no, washed it in the nearby stream, and ate it. Symbolically and literally ingesting part of the land I'm in residence of for a few more days, having to shade my eyes against the bright sun, dealing with the ever-present wind (which has always been my favorite element; I adore wind, just not in the extremes I'd faced), and relishing Being Here Now.
Yes, I still have a cough, and didn't eat lunch. Yes, I'll make a decision tomorrow to rest and write and it will be gorgeous and I'll decide to go to Ness on Saturday and it will be vile. And I'll continue to worry at the jagged edge of my front left tooth with my tongue and know it was worth it.
I suspect that although I don't feel changed or illuminated at all now, the after-effects of not caving to melancholy and travelling alone despite the weather will have longer-lasting (and hopefully positive) roots in future decisions.
Maybe I could be a crofter. As long as I had internet access, I'd probably be okay. Would miss several friends, though, and my cats, and Emma & Sam. The white cat at the B&B has become my fast friend- I even let her sleep on my bed last night whilst I left the door partially open.
Perhaps I'm romanticising- as Donny said, though, "When you're back in that stifling heat next week, you'll look back on this wretched weather and think fondly on it."
And he doesn't know how right he is. It's a quiet, isolated, insular, profanity-ridden life out here. I'm just glad I took the plunge and came to be a part of it, even if only for a week.
llembas, as it's all in one room but has a whole Gaelic research section which I promptly plundered after getting off the internet), it was sunny and gorgeous outside. So here's my post from yesterday around 5:55.I should've known that Scotland would woo me back after such disparaging remarks. I emerged from Stornoway's public library to see that the sun was out. Ah. More irony. I made my way to the B&B and talked briefly to Donny (Margaret's husband) and after I added the part about visiting the library for an hour, he said, "Well, you're not spending a fortune on this trip, are ye?" "No," I replied. "Today only cost me £4.70."
We laughed.
I ditched my overcoat and put on my cool new brown corduroy one and went in search of dinner, via the Lews castle grounds. And here I fell in love again, and these are the reasons why this was a good decision, despite the weather and cost and all else.
I went a bit down a gravel path and came across some wild thistles. These are my flowers/weeds. The tattoo I will get is a thistle in an art deco design. So I touched one, in flower. And got all teary, tourist/person of Scotch/Irish ancestry that I am. And looked up at the blazingly blue sky, and sun, and felt my permanent reminder of this trip (my chipped tooth), and knew that across the world
snottygrrl was saying, "See? You knew this was right."This was right. I walked a bit further on, found a set of wild blackberry bushes, pulled off a ripe one, not caring if it was illegal or no, washed it in the nearby stream, and ate it. Symbolically and literally ingesting part of the land I'm in residence of for a few more days, having to shade my eyes against the bright sun, dealing with the ever-present wind (which has always been my favorite element; I adore wind, just not in the extremes I'd faced), and relishing Being Here Now.
Yes, I still have a cough, and didn't eat lunch. Yes, I'll make a decision tomorrow to rest and write and it will be gorgeous and I'll decide to go to Ness on Saturday and it will be vile. And I'll continue to worry at the jagged edge of my front left tooth with my tongue and know it was worth it.
I suspect that although I don't feel changed or illuminated at all now, the after-effects of not caving to melancholy and travelling alone despite the weather will have longer-lasting (and hopefully positive) roots in future decisions.
Maybe I could be a crofter. As long as I had internet access, I'd probably be okay. Would miss several friends, though, and my cats, and Emma & Sam. The white cat at the B&B has become my fast friend- I even let her sleep on my bed last night whilst I left the door partially open.
Perhaps I'm romanticising- as Donny said, though, "When you're back in that stifling heat next week, you'll look back on this wretched weather and think fondly on it."
And he doesn't know how right he is. It's a quiet, isolated, insular, profanity-ridden life out here. I'm just glad I took the plunge and came to be a part of it, even if only for a week.