Summer

Monday

Beautiful weather, I may even go as far as saying hot. But my family in South Africa or England would look at me square. 25 degrees C I think? The boys and the woofers went off to the swim spot making use of the rope swing and (not so little) E managed to catch a fingerling (very small trout). He has also managed to catch a pheasant, a number of voles and a mole, sometimes with the help of Nkosi. Thankfully they all survived (as far as I know).

Tuesday

It’s a weird season guest-wise this year. TBH things haven’t had any sense of normality since COVID. Daily life is just so different on a monthly and annual basis now that how we holiday is also different. We used to get 90% of our bookings for the year in January. We are now still taking July bookings, and very happily. October is busy, January has some bookings but September is empty. Who knows? We still haven’t booked our October holiday and I keep wondering what is putting me off. War, even if it/ they are a long way away, doesn’t help. How do you choose where to go? Are you using Claude or ChatGPT or just Google? If so what key words are you using? I would love to know.

Wednesday

New woofers have taught me how to make a real Spanish tortilla. It started differently to what I was expecting - how we cut the potato. In my hand, rather than on a board, using the edges from the previous chunk and SO much oil. But wow it was amazing. I do love woofers!

We’ve been harvesting loads for drying, distilling and eating.

Thursday

I have been visiting various politicians to ask them to help keep our local school open. It’s tiny and super important to our family and to the other families whose children are there and want to go there. It’s a very effective school - effective at being the core of a disparate community, effective at mixing ages and and abilities of children really well, effective at understanding my kids’ needs, effective at encouraging movement into the classroom throughout the day and outside learning throughout the syllabus. If you have any ideas about how to increase numbers or additional use of the school buildings (how about as a cold space in heat waves for the many older people in the Glen) let me know! Otherwise you could add your name to this petition (please ignore any requests for money! That’s the website not us).

Friday

We have moved our Cordage course to September. It would be lovely to have you there exploring a craft that is practiced less and less despite us having more and more materials to do it with. I wonder if I could use the cordage I make as the warp on my handloom? It would be like a physical manifestation of the intersection between the sheep’s product (fleece) and it’s food (grass or nettles) or the intersection between nature (fleece) and man (waste plastic)? Or perhaps a sheep is that intersection itself? Ahh getting way too philosophical there.

The sheep were finally sheared last week, thanks to our fabulous neighbour. The chocolate brown fleece is amazing. Any thoughts on what to do with it - felted rugs, rovings or spun wool??? The sheep shrunk massively so the lambs don’t look so tiny anymore. They will be happy for the air but cross at the flies. We have also been scything a lot (but not all) of the thistles to try to reduce the sores they got on their mouths last year from eating the spikes.

What I have been…

Reading: The Lonely Skier by Hammond Ines. Beautifully written murder, kind of spy novel. More suited for the winter if you need the right context. Despite being written in 1947, the way he described being an uncertain skier and the fear with it sent chills down my spine.

Listening to: Thirty-two words for field: Lost words of the Irish Landscape by Manchán Magan. Listening to a native Irish speaker read the audiobook is pure music. It has also sent me down a rabbit hole discovering why our Glen is Little Glenshee. In the older maps I’ve found, it’s referred to as Glenshee - the glen of the faeries. I don’t think the assumption is correct that the cartographers named it because it looked like the bigger Glenshee further East. I would suggest referring to faeries in Irish or Scots Gaelic is very specific and denotes don’t want to enrage the Good Folk. Furthermore, the can see Schiehallion (and he fairy hill of the Caledonians) from the hills lining our (little) Glenshee. The Glen existed before the maps were made and people lived here so it would have been named. It may have been the cartographers who added ‘little’; Injust hope the faerie folk don’t think it was a reference to them.

Watching: The PItt. I am completely obsessed and can happily say I am now a fully trained ER doctor because of it 😂.

Making: Hydrosols. This morning I bottled rosemary and mint. I was experimenting by processing them together rather than mixing afterwards. We shall see how quickly my hair becomes as a thick a mane as my sister has. Below is my new still. I’m using dough to seal the edges and stop steam coming out.

Until next time and bugs to you all!

Keesje