The Cottage - Day 1
Woke up to the field that opens onto my front door having 50 sheep in it. The only way in is right past the door. The farmer must have brought them through when I was unconscious on the floor.
One of the big concerns about this new life is the dog thinking sheep are to be chased and then getting shot. Every day in Wexford she barked at horses and cattle, chasing them in her own head from a field away.
To prevent the chasing somebody had suggested I kidnap a sheep and lock it with the dog in an outbuilding for the night, but if chasing is a shooting offence I can’t imagine the punishment for kidnapping.
Anyway I now have dozens of sheep at my disposal, and I let the dog out.
Dog-dog mildly growls, more of a purr really. The sheep aren’t bothered. Dog-dog stops growling, and continues the exploration by nose of all around that had commenced the night before. Maybe it’s only big horse-shaped and cow-shaped dogs that bother her.
Start a compost. Or in other words, make tea.
Unpack the food.
Open several of my boxes from long-term storage but can’t find a bowl. A square plastic container will work for cereal.
The milk doesn’t seem very cold. Switch on fridge.
Go for a 4-mile walk with the dog.
Because we’d already twice walked down the drive to our gate and back again, altogether a distance of a mile or more, this time I had to use the leash so that Dog-dog could get excited and appreciate that it really counted as a walk. Halfway down the drive I took her off the leash again.
2 miles and no cars. The sun came out.
After waving at an oncoming car heading towards the mountains, when it passes follow it by sight for 2 miles and see it park at a house about a mile east of the cottage. It’s my nearest neighbour.
Dog-dog couldn’t wait for the water back at the house and drank from the bog. It’s probably the same water. The cottage has its own spring.
Saw into logs the wood I picked up yesterday during the break on the drive from Dublin, and go collecting more wood. Root around for some pieces of turf before setting the fire.
Unpack some more. Decide cooler won’t get much use here and rededicate it as the bread bin.
The water doesn’t seem to be as brown as when I visited the house 2 weeks ago. Bang my head coming out of the bathroom.
Measure doorway to see what can and can’t fit into the house. It is 2 foot 5 inches. Everything I own will fit in.
When the lighthouse comes on I realise it’s time for dinner, but first watch a boat come in.
On a frying pan for one do eggs and sausages and share with a dog. Add brown soda bread and copious amounts of tea.
Light the fire. Dog gets scared and runs out of the house.
Outside in the dark trying to persuade the dog to come back in, the only noise I can hear is that of Sheep grazing.
Can’t find my sheets, but go to bed anyway. An actual bed. Can’t remember the last time I did that in a place I called home. Just before I fall asleep I realise it has been Sunday and not Monday.
Read the Next Day at the cottage
List of all the Days at the Cottage
Photos:
• 12 Photos of the Scenery Around the Cottage
• 12 Photos not all Mountains and Islands
More Personal Adventures:
• On Me Holidays
• Deerfield, A Dublin Day Trip
• The Last Time I Went To London
• Going Out The In Door
• A Rubbish Time in Dublin West
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
How wonderful is this but watch out for them sheep, sly fuckers and with a nasty bite too.
Hey, start a compost = make tea ?,and who’s making the soda bread?
Good luck Eolai
I think you’ve found your own nirvana.
How perfectly wonderful! I hope we get treated to these lovely logs several more times.
Glad yizzer pair are happy. I, on t’other hand, keep dropping food on the floor expecting me Diece ta pick it up. And yesterday I came home with 2 suitcases. Not the same minus the reaction!
poor sheep, they’ll be frightened to step hoof near your place in do time. the auld wellie’s joke comes to life.
Hi Eolai…
This is Kevin…
Sounds fantastic!
I think you need another vertical column
here and just be sure it’s an ongoing report
of the day to day in your little corner of
heaven.
No offense to Kansas City but I’d rather tune
in every day and read wonderful reports like
the ones above than to hear about another
pub opening/closing in Kansas City or where
the Elders play next/again.
I see you mention ’sawing the logs’.
As someone who lives far out from town in
the middle of nowhere and who only heats
with wood let me just inject a little reality
and ask you to PLEASE BE CAREFUL.
It only takes a moment to have a serious
incident with a saw and it only takes about
3 minutes to bleed to death unless you can
stop it.
So whatever you do… NEVER let ANYTHING
distract you when you are all alone like that
and you pick up a saw. Concentrate on the
task like an obsessed monk ( or an obsessed painter? )
until you put the saw DOWN again.
Also.. Teach dog-dog how to dial 911 or at least
how run to the neighbors and tell them there’s
been an incident. ROFL.
Congratulations on the move!
It won’t be long before you discover that you
almost have super-natural HEARING like when
you were a child and you will be able to hear
a car coming LOOONG before you ever see it.
Enjoy
Kevin Kiley
PS: Is there a pond nearby?
If so… would it happen to be named “Walden”?
Sniffle - I’ve always had an uneasy relationship with sheep. It can only improve.
Primal - It may possibly be. It’s hard to explain. I probably won’t try.
Sugar - I was just going to do day 1, but since I’ve written some more I suppose I could go with the first week.
AnDisO - Dog-dog knows that here when food drops to the floor that I will get there first. Every time.
Chris - Sheep are always frightened, due time or not. Talking solves much miscommunications.
Kevin - Every time I saw I look at my not cutting hand as a piece of meat. It seems so vulnerable. Perhaps I should protect it by sawing with two hands. Walden? Oh others have been here before me.
Yea… it’s that ‘other hand’ sitting there
holding the wood that is the most likely
candidate for an accident… especially
if the ‘wood’ you are after sawing is that
spriggy looking stuff piled against the
house near your front door, behind
dog-dog, in that photo you published.
The saw will be ‘bouncing’ all over the
place. Worst case scenario.
Just be careful out there, my friend.
Though I am absolutely certain that you
could do wonderful paintngs with “one hand
tied behind your back”, I’d rather you do it
as exercise in curiosity rather than out of necessity.
Is also vey hard 2 typ if U r mssng sum fngers.
ROFL
Kevin
Kevin,
I had one of those handheld LCD screen pseudo computer games when I was 14 or 15. You played it using both thumbs simultaneously. I got so good at it that I was able to complete all 30 levels and their increasing speed, with just a single digit - from either hand. And then I tried it using just my nose. Seriously. I would hold it in my right hand and smush it into my face at the increasing speeds necessitated by each level. I was able to complete 25 levels that way before losing all 3 of my lives.
So yes, I’ve always fancied painting while limited - in the short term and yes out of curiosity not necessity.
Don’t worry about that wood in the picture. I wouldn’t dream of putting a saw near that stuff. I’ve just been snapping those things with my hands. Rarr!
Was that the fish game? Does that still exist anywhere?
It would be the fish game, yeah, though I’ve seen that exact sequence of movements programmed onto almost any format of game such as soccer and space shoot ‘em ups.
I have a vague recollection of seeing my game somewhere in the last ten years. I wouldn’t like to guess in which country though.