The Cottage - Day 11
Wake up to a blue sky everywhere.
Everywhere else that is. Over my cottage is a large dark grey slab, and it is about to be everybody else’s world.
Of course because I moved the art table into the house proper, last night’s rain left no pools of water in the porch.
While the sea is still blue, and the sky over the islands is still blue, I watch the ferry make its way to the mainland. It seems so hopelessly tiny, but that’s probably because I don’t know anything about boats.
-Dog-dog, will we go out and look at the distant sunshine?
We just go out for 5 minutes. Because it is raining. On us. Everybody else still has that blue sky.
-Come on in Dog-dog; we appear to be living in a cartoon.
Light a small candle to help with the smell in the kitchen.
After making some changes to older paintings on sale on the website, I walk down to the gate with the dog. Although sandals probably aren’t appropriate for rain, I’m confident our gate is far enough away from the cottage that it is dry down there. It is.
There is no post though, so we walk on a little bit and I pick up a couple of pieces of wood, and 2 large flat rocks. Carrying them is a job that would have been more suited to Long Grass, especially when Dog-dog starts the running game on the walk back.
As we are about to walk into our house we both hear a dog bark behind us. Behind us is one fifth of a county but the bark seemed within hundreds of yards. So we both stand in the rain looking for a dog. We don’t see it.
After unpacking some more and moving more boxes around, I look out the window to see the islands slip into the mist.
With the rain stopped we walk. For 2 miles. Stuff has been dumped around the bend from my gate. An oven, a table and just a load of rubbish. In the surrounding beauty it is a sickening sight, and because it so near my home I feel responsible. Was it done when I was sleeping? Or out walking?
There are no people and no cars. Just sheep and a few cows. In the distance I see a blue van cross the bog road but stop before the turn for my house. Although it is over a mile away I see somebody get out and open the back doors. Then a few thuds that stuff being dumped would make. A car pulls up behind and waits. They both drive on.
The car goes out the gap, but the van turns and eventually reaches me and Dog-dog as we stand in to the long grass to let it pass. The license plates aren’t local. I think about taking a photograph, but you don’t get time to think about vehicles moving at speed.
I find a 5-foot log and drag it home.
Out the window I see a helicopter. A helicopter! I am so excited. It is like I am a kid again and seeing one of these rare strange flying shapes is such a treat.
Watch it land, behind the village, towards the strand. And then I hear something else quite noisy. Go outside and see a little plane flying almost over the cottage towards the mountains.
Another boat is visible in the sea. That’s the ninth I’ve seen today, the most ever, even if a few of the sightings were the same ferry going backwards and forwards.
As it gets dark 2 motorbikes roar along the road that runs out front. And then they roar back to where they came from.
It’s been a busy day for traffic today.
Read the Next Day at the cottage
Read the Previous Day at the cottage
List of all the Days at the Cottage
More from The Cottage:
• Day 1 at The Cottage
• Photos of The Cottage
• 12 Photos of Scenery Around The Cottage
• 12 Photos not all Mountains and Islands
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Bet them sheeps are looking kind of attractive long about now. More than a bit of wool.
Come on in Dog-dog; we appear to be living in a cartoon.
I’m loving that line. Loving it!
Chris - I’ve got some rashers in the fridge, thanks.
Primal - Imagine the fun you’d have if you were the one inventing nature.