Cape Wrath Lighthouse.
Hullo ma wee blog,
As I get older I like to hear or read news, whether its newspapers, evening news programmes or news bulletins every half hour on my favourite radio station. It keeps me in touch with whats happening around the country, nation and around the world - well what they want to tell us about anyway, but that's another post -and somehow I feel better for it; grown up, able to have an opinion on whats happening, informed and more appreciative of far away places and goings on, perhaps even moved to want to persuade my government to do something or to change my ways to help reduce global warming or change my view on some part of current affairs.
I remember my parents always being determined to hear the 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock news from the BBC and as a child not understanding, and as a teenager scorning their need to listen to 'gossip' and 'hearsay' about folk and places they would never meet or visit from our parochial lifestyle.
I have come to to wryly appreciate some of the odder curiosities that drop out of news now and then to trigger my senses of fun, irony or just plain sarcasm.
The header for this post is the start of an imagined conversation between Kay Ure, and her husband John, who live in, and run a cafe from, the lighthouse keepers cottages at Cape Wrath at the tip of Scotland. Cape Wrath is the most northwesterly point in Scotland, and boasts Britain’s highest sea cliffs. Customers face a ferry ride and a three-hour trek up a stony path before they reach the most isolated café in Scotland.
Kay left home on the 19th of December to travel to Inverness, over a hundred miles away, to do the Christmas shopping, and was only reunited with her husband yesterday afternoon, having been trapped by the bad weather. John managed to get to her yesterday having finally made it across the Kyle of Durness in his boat and crossing the remaining miles of snowy road in his 4 x 4 all terrain vehicle. They are planning to have their Christmas dinner together today. A lovely story full of human interest and just the kind that gets my attention. I bet they don't dream of a white Christmas again any time soon.
And I hope she didn't forget anything off her shopping list......
Today too, I see in the Scotsman that one of my favourite singer songwriters of years past, Billy Bragg, is urging people to join his facebook campaign in his refusal to pay their income tax in protest at the bonuses to be paid out to RBS bankers unless they are curbed by the govt. Its fantastic to see that the socialist firebrand of years past is still fighting the good fight even though he is greying round the edges a bit. It made me think of my favourite album of his 'Talking with the Taxman about Poetry'. All great stuff, full of fire and brimstone, bursting with energy and righteous indignation.
So why do I feel a wee bit piqued that he is doing it all on facebook from his cosy farmhouse in Dorset.
see you later
Listening to Jackie Wilson 'Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher'
5 comments:
Not related to your entry. Just want to recommend The Pillars of the Earth, an historical novel by Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in Kingsbridge, England. When I finished it, I felt I had time-travelled. Great book.
Hullo Stacy,
Thanks for the visit. Life is strange sometimes; I read that book about 10 years ago and I'm just about to start - well I hope to start fairly soon - the sequel to that weighty beast. Its called 'World without End' and continues the stories of the families involved. But I agree about your recommendation. It was a great read. {and very handy for stopping access to my sanctuary when left behind the door!}
Oh please don't mention more books which sound such a good read (but would probably take me about a year as I tend mainly only to read in bed at night.
I am glad that Mrs Ure got back eventually and she and her husband can now enjoy Christmas together! I had been noticing snippets about them in the papers, and thought that they are probably fairly stoical folk, living where they do, so it was hopefully just all part of life's rich fabric . . .
:-)
hahaha
Loads of people I know love "The Pillars of the Earth". It sounded promising to me too, and I gave it a couple of hundred pages before I gave up, baffled as to why it's so popular. Oh well, each to their own...
I loved the Cape Wrath story, I hope to visit one day, especially now I know there's a cafe. The temptation of a "restaurant at the end of the universe" is always a spur. I cycled to Ardnamuchan Point in 2006, good cafe there too!
I'm a big Facebook fan, and signed up to Billy Bragg's campaign. Nothing like a bit of firm radical action, moving my fingers across the keyboard whilst lying on the sofa. zzzzzz
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