Islanders..

This is something often discussed... definition of an islander.

The only bad night I have had here is when a bad squall blew up unexpectedly the day before Storm Brian was due. Usually the ferrymen know not to cross but this was a freak event.

I had gone over and was just finishing shopping about 30  miles away when the sky went dark and the wind rose.... The drive home along the coast is usually the best part of the day out . but that day I flew with a sense of foreboding.  Stopped in the village to call the ferryman that I was five minutes away.

But as I got near, I knew. The car was rocking and the ocean was rolling. Cold,  wind screaming.  A man came along the shore looking bedraggled and muddy to get to his car. They had managed to get him ashore a couple of miles along but told him to tell me they could not get to me.... Stranded! on the mainland! HORRORS! 

When I called, they told me to get B and B in the village, but I had no money left so drove to town . A sage ensued re finding a bed for the night that was a parable of kindness and helpless caring. the old folks home was full.. there was a function at the hotel who were upset and fed me. A curate there for a wedding rehearsal kept cropping up and offered me a room at the parochial house at some distance, then appeared with  our priest who I had not then met. And I was provided with B and B.... where I had been told E50 earlier... hot shower,  free internet! (NB that curate was well known for his caring and sadly died a few months later, still young)

All I could think of was the weather... Knew my critters had enough food etc, but needed home

And  there was no sight finer than that of the ferry making its way over for me! Rescue!                                                                                                                                                                                         And we decided that while many hate the idea of being stranded on an island, a true islander cannot bear being stranded on the mainland.. somehow I am an islander at such a deep level and unaccountably 

We crossed safe  if rumpled with Brian breathing storm winds at our backs. 

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A breezy , nippy morning here now. Some  sun breaking through. All is slow germinating and growing. Later when it has warmed up I will be out preparing ground.

But for now,  soup simmering, hands knitting.. Baggy black legwarmers with elaborate free cabling that will to Canada for sale at some stage.. You tube! Luxury!
The cats are two in three out.  My scatter of cats.

And the ocean is ruffled and alive,in  glancing sun. Always in every direction here. enfolding us in steadfast arms..

Quiet days

Still, calm, chill , grey. March that came in roaring leonine gales. preparing to go out like a lamb.

The sweet early morning. Lark singing, ocean shining. No human sound. Utter peace

And light before six. so I was able at last to resume my weekly early morning small pilgrimage to the Church to clean and tidy. And pray in of course. :)
Every Church needs praying in..

I left the dwelling door open and when I looked back down the first straight stretch of lane. there was a scatter of four cats following...an amazing sight!

By the time I turned the corner, there were two. My oldest and the new boy.

My old one is around 14. He came as a rescue from a rescue cattery where there was an outbreak of feline enteritis, along with his 2 littermates. They were very very ill and one day he went awol and when I found him he was hiding under the water tank with that unmistakable look of death in his tired eyes. NO WAY! A skilled vet nurse ( I did not take the cats in as it is so infectious)    supplied a bottle of pink gunk and syringes and it worked  fast and sure. Lost one of them to a heart problem later but the two became my utterly devoted companions.

So this boy has followed me everywhere, with his sister close behind, until she died last autumn . He is on the left, My beloved cats

He will walk miles.  plodding along..  The young one races, diverts to fields, follows scents into fields....
but stays with us. Comes when called...

at the Church, old one walks sedately to the door, sits there, looking  at me to let him in. He has been to Church many times!

Young one? Clearly does not like it and cries a lot! He will learn.

So home and spring energy is in so a good session on housework and gardening.  Life burgeoning and growing.

My prayer table is in Lenten flowerless state but soon there will be marigolds and hedgerow leaves

So quiet hours and tranquil days. Island peace.

Sweet calm..

No wind and early sun. It never lasts when at first light but sweet all the same. What sounded like rain was the tide rising on the stony shore, audible in the stillness.

Now, mid-morning, clouded but not lowering dark,  Still well under double figures and still need to keep seedlings in at night. 

I am checking my seeds and realising I have a couple of gaps... so ebay here I come... Kale,,, curly   kale,,, it comes in all colours and designs and it  cuts all winter.

And my geraniums have not germinated , but it was old seed. I grew from seed a few years ago for sale on the market stall and they vanished at speed.

There is here a ruined cowshed. It was built over 150 years ago and the gable end still stands proud and intact. Great rocks and boulders, carefully placed. A work of practical art, testifying to the great strength and resilience of islanders in past ages.

In each storm we wonder if any of the top rocks in the inverted V  will be knocked off  but they stay strong and steady. 
Such was the strength  and skill.

Electricity only came here in the late 70s.

When I came here 18 months ago there was a chaos re the supply here and I was without power then for five months.  Fine by me as I coped easily enough and had come prepared with a small camping stove, and then bought a gas cooker ( getting that connected with new laws and without paying more than the cooker cost was another saga, but I was able to cook my Christmas dinner)

It actually did my reputation and situation here good!
I knew from my previous North Sea island sojourn that some who came in summer disappeared in winter and that the locals were thinking an old wan would not stay..My neighbour told a visitor we were talking to last summer that they realised " This one was a bit strong, not weak, " and it was one of the best things anyone has ever said.

 I knew I was fine here...  and they needed to see that.
.
It was a peaceful time by candlelight and the solid fuel stove, And no internet was peaceful too...  we need so little. 

And I had three large cats  to  snuggle with........

a chilly Sunday,, and a cat!

Wind chill and my habitual early rising catches the legacy of night cold,

Light soon after six am, but the walk today was a wind laced one to the lane and back.   And there food simmering on the gas stove to cut the chill until the fire is lit. Looking forward to dawn outings soon...
The  crated seedlings were well crated but will come inside tonight. And the montbretia mountain is slowly diminishing and bags of the bulbs welcomed by island folk to brighten the laneside .

last autumn when I lost my beloved dog and one of my older cats the same weekend, as always when a loss happens, I take in more of Ireland's many needy cats. donedeal was a grand source..

Not kittens; too much work at my age and also the two mainland trips to effect neutering 

There was a young Romanian lady due to return home who had been rescuing street strays, She had NINE, bless her.. including two white deaf ones,

I offered homes for three as long as they were spayed. A local vet was helping her work and the spaying was done that week and I set sail for Sligo by an especially early ferry.

The two white deaf cats sat and glared at me... but the three for me were soon caught and caged. All around a year old. A problem was experienced in the lady letting them go but we were soon heading back... Accusing eyes on me the whole time..

Dog crate in the kitchen was ready; litter tray, food , water and the carrying cages as shelter as they got used to a new home and my two suspicious older residents stopped glaring at me and them.

Months on.... the slowest to make me a friend, and i allow the to do this at their own pace, was the boy. Splashed black and white he is...
Then he started bringing in live wrens .. and catching rats for me..  One day many weeks on he suddenly started running in front of me, lying down and rolling on his back,,, step over him and he runs round again and lies down..

and he is in training as a "follow " cat. My cats have always come for walks with me. If i get away without him, he sees and runs to me at a breathtaking pace. wonderful sight, while my older follower walks sedately .

when he wants in, he leaps to the half glass in the door, and attacks t he letter box. Clever lad, and if he sees me from afar, a spectacular spring ensues .

For a cat born and reared in a back alley he is doing grand..

weekend..

The weeks seem to speed by... very calm today and chilly. if the cloud would clear!

But the season is ripening. The air feels and smells different, more alive, and the skylark sings at first light and onwards. 

Focus on seeds!  "Seedtime and harvest shall not cease" and in this we co-operate. The sturdy trays of broad beans and peas are hardening off and tomorrow will be planted out , with a soft cover to hand in case of frost, and the trays swiftly replanted, The peas will mix on the wire with sweet peas. also sown already.

And more flowers to come.  Once the food crops are in.

My neighbours are hard at work winkle-picking! Of course they offered me some but .... one of my earliest seaside/island holiday memories as a child was of winkle picking and crab gathering but not for me.... The true island life here is very traditional and good, and my passion for growing is approved...easy to fit in.

Yesterday in between squally deluges, a walk with two of the cats. Young Smudgie is in training as a "follow cat" and doing very well.  Boycat, 14 now, follows at a sedate pace while the youngster races at breathtaking speed.  A  wonderful sight. From street stray to coastal sprints .

The gorse is a golden glory in the sun and the pale sands smooth and clear.

So day by day in this fair fine place.

peace...

There is no silence so  deep and intense and healing as that on a small ocean island at night.

The wind finally dropped.

No traffic, the ocean calm at mid tide....no human sounds,, simply a total silence that is far far more than the absence of sound...  a soft warm blanket.....  a safe protective space.

Peace... and darkness.... The only lights if you walk outside are the lighthouses, buoys, markers of harbours and piers. each has its individual coded signal of flashes for navigation. 

But no street lights, and from here late on no house lights.

A peace and darkness that heal as deep sleep does. 

Calmer at last and milder.  Even some small sunny times... drinking in the freedom from the incessant din!

Birdsong is getting louder and more vivid. Johnny one note and the skylark rising, The sparrows who nested in the stone wall by my door last year and were utterly outraged at my presence, are coming back . I am aware of being watched....

And seedlings are out in one of the big plastic crates from market years. Peas, broad beans, sweet peas.. strong and sturdy and easy to carry in if frost threatens

Eve of Saint Patrick's Day

And yet more heavy rain and high winds. There is a small lake by the gate..... wondering why the ocean does not overflow.

The cats insist on going out, then demand noisily in and drip soddenly but unperturbed. Hungrier than ever.

We on the island are too few for parades; some have family visiting with the long weekend. Being a dweller in remote places, I have only once seen a parade. I was trading at a street market in a small town that was hosting a Guinness Book of Records attempt for the greatest number of leprechauns. 

I left the stall once to see the parade. My lasting memory is of a manic drummer with long standing on end orange and green "hair" and closed  eyes totally zoned out....
There was nothing remotely to do with Saint Patrick the whole day.

and I had perforce parked the car a few streets away to find later that it was inaccessible as the Army had set up camp/parade between me and the car. Finally I was escorted by a large soldier in full fig and gun to retrieve it,  to the obvious amusement of the regiment.

Did not even sell much either

So quietly here in the dry, will be an infinitely more fitting and pleasant way to mark the day. with no extra traffic or crowds.  just the thought and the memorials. the Ireland the saint lived in and loved.

My neighbour has promised me "Goose eggs for Paddy;'s Day" but the promise is the real gift! He has family staying over so will be  blessedly and happily  busy.

Still deluging; woke me at around 3 am and never a pause.  a day to bake and fill the dwelling with fragrant aromas and the promise of a feast. And hands busy with bright  yarns.

After the storm..

Thursday, and the weather- world of the island still storm-unsettled.

Wild winds and gales.... rain tattoos, and the ocean waves crashing rocks upon rocks beyond the small field at the back here as the tide reaches full. 

Light fading, then brightening,  as the wind shifts cloud cover. Turbulent March .  Leonine still, restless swift changing.

Every  surface in the kitchen is laden with improvised seed trays. and already peas and broad beans are pushing their sturdy shoots into the air. Today added sweet peas .

Three cats atop my bed as I rest. Two on their patrols. We are safe and snug, fire well lit with coal and turf.  Secure on the island as nowhere else.

March 13th, and the throes of Storm Gareth shriek and echo around the island,  a  long exceptionally severe storm out here.More intense than any seen in recent years even out here in the wild Atlantic.

I will be updating here and adding photos also soon...and explaining here the security on the site, given the way the internet can be.... all are welcome to read. all.., if you want to comment you need to subscribe and that feature will come up on screen... all are welcome to make contact.