Everything seemed massively verdant and fecund and abundant, from the rockpools on Nairn beach:
...to the tiny village beneath the Iron Age hill fort, where I lived till I was 10 (in the house with the dormer windows, not the fort):
...to the garden of my Granny's house:
...and the driveway to the hotel:
If you've ever thought of the far north of Scotland as being all heathery and barren and that, I would encourage you to visit Nairnshire in early summer. It gives England's green and pleasant land a very good run for its money.
12 comments:
It does make you wonder why millions of people insist on crowding into London.
Nairn has a lot going for it, including the oat cakes.
beautiful pics
we climbed arthur's seat yesterday and i was equally struck by how lush and green holyrood park looked
ah...one year on and no regrets about our move north
It's definitely very green.
But where are the *people*?
"A delicatessen at midnight is far more beautiful than any sunset", said S.J.Perelman, who had clearly never visited Lewisham but i do see his point.
The reason Scotland is so verdant (the same is also true of Ireland) is that it rains 360 days a year. The rhododendrons are late this year aren't they?
James: Although judging by a lot of blogs I've read recently, it seems that millions of Brits are about to crowd into Cornwall. Mark my words, this will be one of the major consequences of the new 'reduced carbon footprint' effort. That's nice for the environment, but it's probably not going to be very nice for Cornwall.
Arabella: I think so too, although Dr Johnson's observation was that 'Nairn is a miserable place', and in many ways it still is. The high street hasn't changed since the 70s, and not in a good way.
UC: Glad to hear no regrets. Now Edinburgh most definitely isn't a miserable place.
Llewtrah: Yes.
chuffy! S.J. Perelman was obviously not thinking of the Co-op in Askew Road either, where, upon my return from Scotland last night, I was harangued for one pence by a smelly wino while attempting to buy eight litres of cat litter. The glamour. Come to think of it, I'm really not sure that Dr Johnson was always right about things.
Realdoc: This is very true, but fortunately I like the rain, and the haar and the fog. Good for the complexion (although this is often offset by the local penchant for eating deep-fried pizzas (not Mars Bars)).
Now P, I had imagined your childhood home to be some forbidding granite pile, but it looks totlly adorable.
Green is very, very good. Apparently, in interior design circles, it is the colour most likely to promote creative thinking and sanity.
And water is also very good. I wouldn't mind if it rained most of the time. My veg would thrive and it would be emptier outside because so many people are total wusses about a few drops of moisture. The Man Who Fell to Earth made a deep impression on me as a civilisation who craved water. I think I could live in the water. In fact I think I might actually be a dolphin. No snide remarks you at the back.
Cello, that's my first childhood home, which was indeed as idyllic as it looks. The second one (where I lived from age 10 to age 19) was considerably more isolated and haunted and forbidding. Or so it seemed at the time, but I drove past it yesterday and it too looked totally adorable.
Still haunted, though, I bet.
Ah, it all looks rather lovely. Perhaps I should publish shots of the area around my childhood home, but frankly I don't think views of Clapham and Wandsworth Commons would be as wonderful as your pictures, P.
I'm with Cello, re rain. Well, perhaps not so much. Too much damp affects my lungs. Sorry. Too much info.
Actually P, going off topic. What's happening to your colleague LC - why is he punishing us so?
Huh. It's all the pishing rain.
Ooh, the Klein family will be visiting Cornwall later in the summer, but we promise to spread out, not crowd in!
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