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The difference a few hours makes

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Still raining in Scotland when we left. Still hot in London when we arrived.

Now we’re all moving on, scattering in different directions, and as confused by the weather as the trees around us. In Scotland some trees we saw were up to their knees in water, while here those that thought autumn was coming seem to be clutching on to their leaves, reluctant to let them go. It’s strange, like suddenly finding St Paul’s blasting rock music rather than the reassuring ring of occasional bells.

And then there’s the news – the shock of an awful earthquake, and the tragedy of another war flaring up, ugly and raw.

These are unsettling times, but they are not the first, and the book I’m reading is a good reminder of that. I’ve now read a little more of The Christian Watt Papers – Memoirs of a Fraserburgh Fishwife, and it is so clear that her life (1833-1923) was full of hardship on a truly daunting scale. First there was the every day business of earning a living, and then there were the wars, and upheaval, the destitution and tragedy that surrounded their communities. It’s encouraging to see through her, that we can adapt and do adapt, and to read her words as she looks back on her life:

“… At the closing of my days, I have encountered so much kindness. I am blest every time I breathe. My life has been hard but I would not say it has been a sad waste …”

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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A word for the day – dreich

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This morning there was wind and rain here on the outskirts of Perth in Scotland, but the walls of our cottage are so thick, and the beds so cosy that we barely noticed. It was only when we stepped outside that we felt the soggy impact of the day.

Here we are surrounded by farmland. It stretches away to all sides beneath damp curtains of sky, held up occasionally by oak trees. Today the land oozes water. It floods along the verges and into the dips, backing into spreading pubbles where drains are blocked by fallen leaves.

It is properly dreich. Apparently this little word originally meant “enduring, persistent”, although nowadays it seems to carry added shades of gloomy when applied to weather – weather that hangs as though it will never leave, falling on and on forever.

So what do you do on days like these?

We sat in a warm kitchen and chopped a thousand vegetables, chatting on into the afternoon, and then, dishes prepared and tables laid, we celebrated a couple with feasting and dancing, and whisky to ward off the cold.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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It’s been warm in the Scottish Highlands

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Another short postcard written at the end of a day that’s changed itself from warm and beaming, to wet.

In the morning we woke up to sunshine and wind. Clouds raced above fields of sheep, the sun was bright on the grass, and the dark chop of the Beauly Firth just visible in the distance. It was beautiful, but weirdly warm for October. I wondered whether it was normal to see rose buds still clinging to cottage walls in the middle of autumn so far north.

Tonight though is a different story. We are still in Scotland but further south, and the rain has arrived with amber warnings attached. I don’t think tomorrow will be an easy day for sheep or roses up here.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023