He was saying, “I’m not going to talk to you unless you have baby carrots”. This is a reserve close to Alvin, Texas called Crocodile Encounter. It was literally in the middle of nowhere on a rough road that had just been repaved. Even so, there was no room in the car park for me. It was as hot as hell – 109 head index with humidity through the roof. The shot below gives you a little feel of the conditions.
It wasn’t raining – this is the humidity on my camera. I truly love alligators and crocodiles; primeval animals. To be honest, I don’t know which ones were alligators or crocodiles because the heat had fried my brain. I prefer reserves to zoos for all the obvious reasons and this sign describes why I liked it.
There are so many predators in the wilds of Texas that small crocodiles could be eaten. It looked like crocodile heaven and even hog heaven. I wanted to jump into the pool with the little piggy.
I loved that you could get really close to the animals. We live alongside alligators all the time in south east Texas and these ones are really well fed. In Louisiana we saw kittens playing close to an alligator who was basking in the sun. Plenty of catfish to feed everyone.
This is such a beautiful crocodile, perfectly designed for living in the swamp.
Can you see me?
I love carrots!
On a slightly tangential note, I had a friend in Egypt who kept rescued tortoises, most of whom were endangered. When they have sex, they moan and groan like they are starring in a porn movie. It was the most hilarious noise I had ever heard; although the tortoises took love-making very seriously. I suppose you would, if you were endangered.
When I looked in this nest in Alvin, Texas, I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at. It was in a crocodile nature park, so I asked the guide who told me that it is a baby green heron. The mother nests there every year so she must feel comfortable around crocodiles and alligators.
They are migratory and curiously I shot this adult green heron, below, in Merida, Mexico about 18 months ago. This was also in a nature reserve and there were rare crocodillo living there too. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was the same family?
The male and female build the nest and they are one of the few tool using bird species. Smarter than the average heron and smaller too. I think there were 3 or 4 little nestlings. They are nocturnal and clever little predators that can hover for short periods above prey. It is not always the same Papa as they are seasonally monogamous. That sounds like a fabulous idea! Who will be my autumnal husband??
Bunny and Teddy have been married for 37 years today. It’s a miracle! We married on a very hot, humid day in Chester, England and it was a Monday. He still owes me the Registration money…
This is the Tron Tower in Glasgow’s Merchant City. Tron is a Scottish word for a weigh beam, essential for all trading cities. It is derived from the old French, ‘troneau’ meaning balance. This general area is still called Trongate. The original building was a Catholic Church ‘Our Lady and St Anne’ constructed in 1525 which later was ‘Reformed’ as a Protestant church. The tower was added in 1628 and is all that remains after fire in 1793. A previous devastating fire in 1652 destroyed much of the Merchant City buildings – most of them had wooden frames. Glasgow had various peaks in its history but much of the wealth came from trading tobacco, cotton and shipbuilding. Daniel Defoe, in his book ‘A Vision of Britain Through Time’, wrote –
‘Glasgow is, indeed, a very fine city; the four principal streets are the fairest for breadth, and the finest built that I have ever seen in one city together. The houses are all of stone, and generally equal and uniform in height, as well as in front; the lower story generally stands on vast square dorick columns, not round pillars, and arches between give passage into the shops, adding to the strength as well as beauty of the building; in a word, ’tis the cleanest and beautifullest, and best built city in Britain, London excepted’.
Let’s not forget, however, that this wealth was built on the back of African slaves. I doubt there is a country in the world that does not have a dark history.
This rather sinister building is the Tollbooth Steeple built in 1626. It was attached to a later demolished town hall, court and jail. Public hangings and other ghastly punishments were a spectacle for the medieval locals.
Glasgow Cross, between High Street leading to St Mungo’s Cathedral, Gallowgate and Saltmarket.
Interior and Exterior of the old Glasgow Fruit Market
When I was a child this was still the bustling Glasgow Fruit Market. The father of one of my first school friend’s worked here. Every day I looked with interest in her lunch box to see what exotic fruit she had. Now it has been transformed into a bustling, glamorous event space with bars and restaurants. On the day I visited, there was a craft fair in the middle. One of the artists, a man of my age, noted that I had a silky voice with my mutated transatlantic vowels. A silver tongued merchant methinks…
Alleyway or Wynd. Good for ‘winching’ on a dark night. Google it in Glasgow dialect…
I graduated from college in this very building in 1980 – Glasgow City Halls. I always feel a tinge of regret when I think about my graduation. Family issues made me choose not to continue with a post graduate qualification. In time I could have lectured at my alma mater. One of my fellow students did exactly that with lower grades.
He spent two years wallowing in unrequited love for me because I thought he was gay and he didn’t make his intentions plain. Maybe this is the ‘troneau‘ in life. He got the dream job but not the girl. Speaking of dream girls, I have a new admirer at work. He thinks I am too beautiful to work with the masses. It is hard to know how to respond but perhaps I should retire to my brown recliner throne and have Teddy bring me sugared plums?
I just made Crimson a noun but Shakespeare messed with words all the time – ‘brevity is the soul of wit‘. For the first time in 15 years our dwarf crimson crape has fully matured and she is beautiful.
Doesn’t she just make you happy? Our neighbors love her.
Meet Shrimpy Shrimp, as I call our shrimp plant. Shouldn’t all our plants be named? The early botanists made a marvelous job with the Latin monikers. This is her much more gracious formal name – Justicia Brandegeeana. She seems to dance with hot pink petticoats. Justicia is a native of Mexico and seems to love our garden as you can see from the shot below in front of our other pink crape.
I deliberately clothed the garden in pink at the front – it just looks so pretty together including the Ti plant which is to the right of the tree. He is a Hawaiian native – aloha!
Even our dragons live in luxury on the porch with velveteen pink cushions. This is a spotted Gecko, unnamed, as there are literally hundreds all over the garden. You can name him if you like?
Thorn looked up at the endless cerulean sky and thought how much she would miss her canyon. Palo Duro Canyon is the largest in Texas, close to the city of Amarillo and Thorn was a Tumbleweed fairy. To her parents surprise and delight, Thorn was heading off to the Austin School of Fairies, the first in her family to do so. Tumbleweed fairies are an anathema to the rest of the fairy world. Their unique thorny wings and muted coloring are curious in a world of fairy beauty. Even more strangely, the male and female of the species look very similar. Most had names that were gender neutral. Thorn’s siblings were Spiral, Tangle and Rustle – two were female. Thorn’s hair was a tow headed mop of curls and her lovely round cornflower blue eyes sparkled in her cute little freckled face. All Tumbleweed fairies have rounded light brown wings embellished with thorns – the perfect disguise in a canyon full of tumbleweeds.
Tumbleweeds are caricatured by humans and faerie folk and Thorn felt quite defensive about the merits of her fairy species. In truth, Tumbleweed is a most fascinating plant substance; a ball of the thorny debris of the Amaranth species which includes beet. Not only does the plant provide seeds and leaves for sustenance but Amaranth breaks up the soil to make it more suitable for farming maize and potatoes. Thorn’s mom made a delicious oat meal from the Amaranth seeds, sweetened with honey. Everything was kind of ‘plain’ in the Plains – the colors, the food, the folks. Thorn thought with trepidation about her exotic future in Austin. She had always dreamed about jalapenos and Tex-Mex food but would it burn her mouth and tummy? How plain would she seem in the midst of Red River and Caribbean fairies? Thorn mentally shook herself; she was a Tumbleweed fairy. Strong but flexible was their motto.
Thorn’s successful application to the Fairy School had rested on the skill of her basket weaving. Her prospective professors had been charmed by the superficially simple baskets but they also felt that she, as a Tumbleweed fairy, would be a unique addition to the rather conservative school, adding to its renowned diversity. It was a magical mirror image of human universities that seek to add color to their student bodies – except in this instance it was the lack of color, a peculiarity in the fairy world. In the safety of Palo Duro Canyon, Thorn had lived a hard but happy life. There were few luxuries and the weather could be extreme with snow, rain, sunshine and tornadoes. Thorn’s clothes were practical; soft woven pants and tunics in shades of fawn and blue. On cold winter evenings, they sheltered in fairy Tipis, embroidering simple but intricate patterns on their clothing with Orb Weaver spider silk that was dyed ocher, indigo and terracotta. Like all fairy folks their lives reflected or influenced the humans they live among. For fairy eons, Tumbleweed Fairies of Palo Duro Canyon had lived alongside their Native American neighbors. First it was the Clovis and Folsom people, then the Apache, Comanche and Kiowa Tribes. Thorn was proficient in Plains Indian language and understood all the other tongues including the most recent, English. The Tumbleweed Tipis were identical to those of the Kiowa people but on a much smaller scale. Native Americans have hunted in the canyon for thousands of years, making clothing, baskets and pottery from the local materials. Thorn had the cutest little moccasins, warm and lined with cotton fluff. Her mom had added little beads of turquoise and fossil wood.
Apache Basket, Mint Museum
Thorn’s Mom, Leaf, was worried sick about the cost of Fairy School but Thorn had received a full scholarship. All they had to provide was her school uniform. For the first time in three hundred years, the Fairy School had relaxed the uniform requirements. Although Thorn would have to wear a plain blouse made from cream cotton, she could wear pants. These were made from mule horn sheep hide; sueded until it was buttery soft with matching moccasins. Mom was proud but perplexed about her ambitious daughter. She was the first of their family to leave the canyon and was she ever coming back? Perhaps the tawdry delights of Austin would tempt Thorn away from their practical life. Like Thorn had, Mom gave herself a shake, and focused on how sensible her daughter was. She would return with new skills to help the Tumbleweed Clan face the future. Seed, Thorn’s Dad, was flying with her to Austin just to make sure she settled in.
Kiowa TipisTumbleweed
The day of departure arrived and the Tumbleweed fairies gathered to say goodbye to Thorn. Just like all the other Plains people, there were no tears just heartfelt wishes. This was an opportunity that few other fairies received. Thorn felt she should be grateful but humble; always remembering her roots. She hugged her Mom and siblings then flew off holding Dad’s rough hewn hand. It was a long flight to Austin and the weather changed. It was so much warmer in the center of Texas. They landed in the quadrangle just in time for the commencement address. Thorn and her Dad walked into the auditorium trying not to gasp in astonishment at the great variety of fairies.
There were so many vivid colors in fairy species and the building. Just like Hazel, Aiya, Ria and Blu before her, Thorn looked in astonishment at the reams of scarlet and golden fabrics adorning the building. Then she started to notice all the fairies surrounding her. Her neighbor was a boy from Belize with dark skin and hair contrasting with fantastic turquoise wings and eyes. Balam’s skin was lightly dappled like a jaguar; his wings and eyes reflected the vivid waters around the Belizean Cays. Instantaneously Thorn had her first crush! Balam looked at her with equal astonishment – never had he seen thorny wings or so many freckles. Her hair was wondrous like a ball of cotton. Thorn and Balam were entranced by each other but Father Seed’s eyes flashed with to fairies from the Piney Woods, China, Greenland, the Amazon to Australia. At last, with Australia, he saw some likenesses to the Tumbleweed clan. Their coloring matched the arid surroundings of the Australian desert and although their skin was darker, their mops of tow hair made Thorn’s look tidy. He sighed with relief knowing that Thorn would find her way in this strange place. Then he noticed Balam and Thorn gazing at each other. He started to worry until Balam’s father winked at him. Both fathers chuckled – at least their children had found a new exotic friend.
All too soon, all the fairy families had to fly home leaving the new students to absorb the delights of first day at school. The Principal of Fairy School personally welcomed all the new students at the evening repast where Thorn tentatively tasted baby squash and tomatillo tacos. There were a number of completely new species attending the school, Thorn was one and Balam another. They were both so unusual and gifted that the Principal brought them forward to explain a little about their species to the larger group. After the show and tell, Thorn was surrounded by inquisitive little fairies. Most were very polite and kind but there is always a mean fairy… A Californian Golden Fairy, Sunbeam, asked if her if she was a boy or a girl. It was an intimidating question by a stunning fairy; shimmering golden wings, long perfect golden curls and eyes the color of amber. In the human world she would have been a Barbie doll. Thorn very sensibly decided not to be offended but explained that both genders of the Tumbleweed species looked similar. Further, she pointed out that, similarly, there are very few differences in the human species’ gender, less than in many other animals. It was the right approach to take and in time Sunbeam became one of her many acquaintances. Balam would always be her first friend, however, and he adored her especially because she was different. His turquoise wings lightly fluttered when he looked at Thorn’s adorable freckled face but that is another story…
The End
Postscript
This little fairy story was just written for my own pleasure and therapy. Life has been a little thorny lately and the Tumbleweed fairy story had been lurking in my mental files. I wonder if the lack of color reflects my mood? My wonderfully talented husband who sells his photographs on Getty Images contributed the first two images. The magnificent aerial of Palo Duro canyon looks otherworldly. Thank you also to Wikipedia for such informative links.
…that I thought I would wander into Kerry’s street and check out the lizards. Found this delicious entree in the neighbors’ yard.
It put up a good fight. I am 4 foot tall so it was a generous brunch.
Almost down the gullet…Utterly delicious!
Don’t we all need a change in our brunch venue from time to time? Especially when wearing our bright white feathers and a burnt orange beak. I had just come back from grocery shopping when I spotted this great egret in the cul-de-sac. Ran in to get my camera and voila!
Hope you are all enjoyed brunch on this beautiful sunny day in the sub tropics. The egret normally lives at the containment pond at the end of our street.
The Texas School of Fairies brought students from far and wide for its excellence in fairie acadaemia. Some were in, dare I say, boring subjects such as Fairy Law but the departments of Magick and Apothecary Arts was so popular that there was a long waiting list. The Art of Textiles faculty was the best of all; so renowned that Fairy Royalty used their services for special occasions such as coronations. You could study weaving, sewing or design of fairy fabrics such as thistledown and beetle silk. On the student tour even Flax, the most pragmatic of fairies majoring in beetle husbandry, gasped when he saw the Hall of Fabrics. Every color in nature was represented in delicate material – fuchsia silk and golden velvet draped the walls and vaulted ceilings. Sumptuous fabrics were strewn across the sewing tables; reams of sapphire, emerald, sepia, and scarlet fabric.
Most students grouped in their natural color or environment; Pacific fairies group were working with sea foam, marine blues and corals. Piney Wood fairies were cutting deep green and chocolate velvet. Some of the more gregarious fairies were working outside their element rejoicing in non-native hues such as New England Fall. Crimson, pumpkin, yellow and copper fabric gleamed like an autumnal sunset. One little fairy, named Aiya, felt she was in fairy heaven! She had travelled from her home in Missouri to the Texas School of Fairies but came from a very special lineage. Her father was a Japanese Maple Fairy with magnificent copper and flame colored wings. Her mother was a descendent of the much revered Irish fairies. Humans have a similar reverence for the Irish… Aiya’s mother was a woodland fairy with long glossy brown hair and fair of face. Her wings were gentle shades of green from the old country. Like many fairy parents they met at school when glimpsed each other the Apothecary Arts class. Their union was not entirely approved of by fairy society as they came from very different family lines but their attraction was so powerful that they moved to the state of Missouri just to be together.
Aiya, which means beautiful silk in Japanese, was a striking mixture of both parents. Her long dark brown hair gleamed as did her eyes which were almost black. Her wings were a melange of her parents coloring – deep amber with the palest cicada green. She was only 12 so her coloring would change after the blossoming and she would choose an appropriate Forever Name. Aiya was one of very few students chosen to study Textile Arts and she had already displayed a natural talent for couture and sewing. Just like every other college you have to submit an application and a sample of your talent. Aiya sewed the most exquisite coin purse in delicate beetle silk. It was a simple creation but her color choice of deep garnet red with gold embroidery and tassels impressed her tutors. Monsieur Marcel, head of design, was quite taken with this young fairy’s skills and envisioned a future with one of the Royal Families. As excited as Aiya was for her tutor’s vision, it seemed intimidating.
Her new friend Ria, from Brownsville on the Texas border, had told her about Selina the seamstress’s workshop in Mexico and to Aiya that sounded exciting enough. It was a trip to meet family in Japan that sparked her love of fabric and sewing. One glimpse of a fairy kimono made with spider silk and embroidered with chrysanthemums made Aiya’s heart race. For years after that she would sketch kimonos and make miniature outfits for her little willow twig dolls. Aiya had the great fortune to attend a royal fairy wedding in Japan and her grandmother made her a special kimono to wear. It was silk in a delicate Celadon green with copper leaves embroidered on it. Her Jiji, or grandma, had spent many hours lovingly sewing it for a precious granddaughter that lived so far away. Aiya’s loved the kimono but was terrified by the pomp and ceremony of the wedding. She had been instructed to be absolutely silent and bow very deeply when the royal couple walked past. They didn’t seem like real fairies. The Princess bride’s formal makeup created a solemn mask – there was no twinkle or sparkle. Their wedding robes, in scarlet, gold and black for the Prince, were magnificent but stood stiffly to match the seriousness of the occasion.
Aiya’s Dolls
One day, Ria, Blu and Aiya walked into the Hall of Fabrics to a stunned silence. “What has happened?” whispered the girls. Just then Monsieur Marcel coughed loudly for attention, “Attention, étudiants féeriques!” Blu, who loved all things French, translated “Attention Fairy Students!” “By Royal Decree, it is my pleasure to announce the arrival of a new student for one semester – her royal highness, Princess Kaida from Japan. She will arrive tomorrow with her entourage and you will all behave respectfully.” Aiya blanched as every other student chattered excitedly about this noble arrival. Ria and Blu were already discussing what outfits they would wear but all Aiya could feel was panic. Just then, Monsieur Marcel appeared in front of the three girls and said, “I understand that you have attended a royal wedding in Kyoto, Aiya?” Ria and Blue looked at their friend from Missouri in stunned silence. Aiya blushed furiously and looked at the floor. “It would make me very happy if you could accompany Princess Kaida during her visit with us. We have arranged for her hammock to be put next to yours in the dormitory. Her parents want her to be treated like any other student”. “It would be my pleasure” whispered Aiya in response to Monsieur Marcel.
As soon as he walked away, Ria and Blu had a torrent of questions for Aiya. “Was Aiya a Princess?” “What does Princess Kaida look like?” “What was it like to attend a royal wedding?” She briefly, almost tersely, responded that she was a distant cousin of the Japanese Royal Fairy family, she had never met Princess Kaida and that the Royal wedding was AMAZING (because overwhelming and terrifying did not sound right.) Aiya ran off to prepare for the next day. She sat on her hammock and tears rolled down her pretty face. This whole situation was so embarrassing; she just wanted to be a regular student. Now she had to babysit a spoiled Princess whose name meant “Little Dragon”. She slept fitfully that night, endlessly playing out her meeting with the Princess. Her family would be so disappointed if she didn’t welcome Princess Kaida gracefully. “I hope she doesn’t breathe fire…”was Aiya’s last waking thought.
The next morning Aiya put on her best green silk pinafore with an ivory blouse; Ria was in a chocolate velvet pinafore and Blu in the palest blue linen. At 7am, all the students gathered in the Hall of Fabrics anxiously awaiting Princess Kaida’s entrance. Most Texan students had never even seen a sketch of a Japanese princess so the excitement was tangible. There was a fanfare of fairy trumpets fashioned from bluebells and Princess Kaida fluttered down with her consorts. There was an audible gasp from the assembly at her vivid peacock blue kimono embroidered with a red dragon. Her face was painted with formal white makeup with red lips and her black hair was coiled all over her delicate head. The principal of the school welcomed Princess Kaida and after the formalities, Aiya was called over to accompany the Princess to the dormitory. Two of her royal servants followed behind with a golden trunk. Aiya bowed deeply to the Princess and greeted her formally in Japanese. Princess Kaida bowed in return and followed Aiya to the dormitory. Once they arrived, the servants were dismissed and the Princess collapsed laughing onto her new hammock, “Oh, I am so glad that is over, Aiya. Can you help me out of this kimono?” Aiya looked at the Princess perplexedly but immediately jumped up to help her. Princess Kaida then looked her trunk to find a light turquoise pinafore with a similar ivory blouse to Aiya’s. Then she grabbed Aiya’s hand and rushed to the bathroom. “You take my hair down and I will take off my make-up.” Aiya carefully took out what seemed like hundreds of pins until the Princess’s beautiful long black hair lay straight to her waist. With a wipe of a flower puff and witch hazel, Princess Kaida soon washed all remnants of her make-up off. As she turned around, Aiya gasped in astonishment! Princess Kaida was just a little girl fairy not unlike Aiya, who was a relative after all. “So, cousin Aiya, what are we going to do first? Can I meet some of your friends?” Almost inevitably Blu and Ria were right outside the door and within minutes the four fairy girls were chatting like they had known each other forever.
It was a very busy day, exploring the campus, watching Princess Kaida’s face as she tried Texan delicacies such as root beer and deep fried cactus. Princess Kaida’s English was perfect but she really enjoyed all the local accents y’alls. When the sun set Aiya and Princess Kaida settled down into their hammocks. Within minutes the Princess fell into a deep slumber – even fairies get jet lag. Aiya reflected with surprise upon her day. Despite her name and nobility, Princess Kaida was just as much fun as Ria and Blu. She realized that the pomp and ceremony was just that. Fairy Princesses were just as real as anyone else. Aiya fell into a happy sleep dreaming of designing royal kimonos…with dragons on them.
The End
Postscript
All of my fairy stories were written to celebrate a friend’s birthday and include elements of their life.
It is Texas, of course, Tomball to be precise! The closest I have been to Germany was Frankfurt airport in the middle of the night but there is a distinct German feel to our local area. We live north of Houston and in the past it was home to German settlers who farmed the area. Most of the local roads are German or some corruption of such. The Kuykendahl Road has been mangled into submission by locals who call it Kirkendall. I think I pronounce it slightly better with my Scottish drawl but am constantly corrected.☹ To be honest I pronounce most things better…
Teddy was off last Friday and we decided to go to Tomball for lunch. When we first moved here it was even more German, with many descendants of the original settlers. Most of them arrived in the late 1800’s by ship to Galveston, TX. There is a Lutheran High School and a sweet little Main Street that has been kept intact. It slumbered during the recession but now it is vibrant with new restaurants and antique shops. To our surprise, they were setting up for the spring German festival.
One of our favorite restaurants was empty because it was difficult to maneuver through the vendors trucks and equipment. America and Texas, to be frank, has a terrible reputation for food. Some of that criticism is worthy when you look at the amount of fast food franchises. Life is changing, however, and below you can see the freshest local blackened catfish served with sauteed vegetables. Just a touch of butter made it delicious.
Blackened catfish with sauteed vegetables
The restaurant was originally a meat locker and the original signs are intact. The German flags were just for the festival.
Teddy and Bunny
We sadly declined to eat the apple cobbler and wandered outside to see what was going on. My eyes were immediately drawn to a petting zoo from a local farm. Oh how I love goats! I would have some but they are little gremlins, always getting into trouble.
Isn’t he perfect. Look at his tiny little horns!Look at those ears! They are fat little goats.
I was surprised at the amount of goat products in Texas but I think there was some money benefit to having goats at one point and now we all love goat cheese. Goat’s milk – gaaaaa!
Loved this shot – the water is just a few inches deep. It gets so hot in the summer here that I guess some liquored locals took the water! Finally, a happy Teddy is enjoying a flight of local German style craft beer. I despaired of the regular beer in Texas when we arrived but thank goodness for the current craze of craft beer! Decent European style beer at last. We also have some very good wine, vodka and bourbon now. Moonshine too – that will get you swimming!.
Last week I was in Texas, minding my own business, when I commented on Ailish Sinclair’s site about Standing Stones in Scotland. I told her that I remembered a beautiful white quartz recumbent stone in the field next to our rented cottage near New Deer in Scotland. At the time, the site was barely noted historically but via Ailish I discovered that they are two of the Rocking Stones of Auchmaliddie. It was a strange moment, like the notorious series Outlander, but much cooler. I was instantly transported back to the prettiest house we have ever lived in with so many happy memories.
Puss, the hunter, at the cottage
For all the non-Scots, the Scottish Standing Stones were believed to be constructed by the Pictish people or their precursors, mostly in the North East of Scotland starting in Neolithic times. Stonehenge is a magnificent example of a similar but much bigger Standing Circle. They are found all over the south west of England, Wales, Brittany and Scotland. The people of those areas were among the earliest tribes in Britain. Not much is known about the Picts and their written language was Runic so there is a limit to our understanding. The Gaelic people were the next settlers and there language overtook the Pictish one. Certain names date back to the Picts and you can recognize them by their prefix – Aberdeen and Pitmedden are two examples. By contrast Auchmaliddie has a Gaelic root. The Picts’ name for Scotland was Alba.
We were renting the cottage at Auchmaliddie while our new house was being built in a neighboring village. Although we had been living in a hamlet previously, this was right out in the Boonies. I had to persuade the farmer to allow us to rent as the previous tenants with dogs had really damaged the cottage. As soon as we moved in, I wished we could have bought this sweet cottage instead of our new bungalow. It was blissfully quiet with gentle lowing of the cattle. That summer was particularly warm so we didn’t realize how cold and damp the cottage was. It was so hot that we had to leave the bedroom window open (that doesn’t happen in the North East of Scotland because winter is always coming beyond the wall).
Our three cats had rarely been allowed out in our last house as we were on an arterial road. At the cottage they could roam free. Pippy, our difficult cat, loved to climb out the open bedroom window, scamper down the tree and sleep with the dairy cows in the barn at the neighbor’s dairy farm. There were a glut of voles (in the US they are called meadow mice) that year and even our tooth challenged baby Puss caught one. I have a funny memory of Teddy chasing her in circles around the cottage to make her drop the vole. We had rescued Puss the year previously – she was feral and full of worms. It took so long to get her healthy that Ted was determined that she drop the dratted worm infested vole. On the way back from one of the circuits, I noticed that Puss was voleless. Cleverly, she had dropped the vole in the potato patch. Teddy searched futilely for the now deceased vole but Puss found it later and ate it much to Teddy’s disgust. He gets all OCD about parasites… wuss.
I remember when we discovered the Rocking Stones on a summer evening walk to the next field at the top of the hill. The sparkling white of the quartz recumbent stone was otherworldly. Bronze age or Neolithic folks had celebrated or worshiped on this very spot and could see the next set of Standing Stones at Aikey Brae from the summit. My first secret thought was that blood sacrifices would look spectacular on the white stone. There was no record that they did that but it was the first hint of my native Mexican blood running thought me, perhaps?? I thank Ailish for sparking a long lost memory and inspiring a series of blogs set at the cottage. As far as I know, I did not know Ailish in Scotland even though we lived just miles apart. It is a marvelous small world.
Postcards from Kerry 