really old style living?

Welsh_Poppy

csarina wrote: »

We moved back to Scotland after 12 years of being south of the border. The prime reason was my 77 year old husband wanted to end his days in the country he was born in, not that he is likely to pop his clogs just yet, he tells me he is going to live to be 100........I told him I would not be around to see, he would have worn me out!! LOL. The second reason the pollution from people, lights and noise where we lived. Emergency vehicles sounding their horns at all times of the day and night, the light in the street shining through even the thickest curtains and the closeness of people. I hated having to go in the City it was a run down dirty place, I used to go in and out as quick as possible. We were lucky in that we had a shopping centre with a supermarket quite close.

Our front door faced our neighbours, ours were not good ones, in fact they skipped owing the landlord 6 months rent and a filthy house........

We now live in what is termed a 'rural location' just a mile from the village in a cottage with a largish garden and OH has a veg plot in an adjoining paddock. The air is clear and clean, there are no street lights, when its dark, its dark. We have exceptionally nice neighbours, mind you the landlord is a pain, but we deal with that!! He is a true old fashined Scotsman he will not spend a farthing if he can get away with it, hence us having to pay for the new wood stove. When he has finished on Monday he informed me that he had saved me £400 - £500 pounds by knocking the fireplace put himself!! I was gobsmacked....after all its his house!! We must have put a good deal on its value in the garden alone since we came here. Not that I am grumbling, it was our choice to do what we have to the garden. He did suggest the other day that we open it to the public as part of the village open scheme next year....yup and there would be signs to his garden centre coffee shop all over the blooming place......no ta.........if I open the garden, I do the teas!!

The road outside can be busy with vehicles coming to and from the farm and eearly in the morning cars going to and from, but we accept that......nature is on our doorstep, we have lots of birds who visit us, one little robin used to sit by OH when he was digging and nip in and pick up bits and pieces to eat. The swallows returned......they are getting ready to fly south again, a sign that autumn is upon us. In the field at the side of us a young colt and his mother graze every day. There are acres of fields and miles of footpaths close at hand and a short car ride away access to two fabulous beaches..........We also have a buzzard who visits from time to time, we see him hovering over the fields looking for lunch or supper.

We are both happy here, we enjoy our surroundings every day, what I do not like is the debt, but that will get sorted over the next 12 months.........

Better go this is turning into a screed and I am waiting for the chap to call for instructions how to find us, he is delivering the new wood stove this morning!!! Can't wait.........

That sounds very similar to us and our plan to be in rural Scotland in 2 years, Hubby is disabled and has a degenerating illness and what we want for the rest of our lives.

NualaBuala

mardatha wrote: »

Nuala, they say that Irish gaelic and Scottish gaelic are very similar- could you understand ours ? Last time I was in Ireland we went on "The Connemara Bus" - a 1950s bus that did day trips. The driver was yakking away in gaelic all day to two girls right off the plane from New York. They had spoent years learning gaelic and wanting to come home to the old country - they were late teens and very Bronx when they spoke english and I thought it was hysterically funny and couldnt speak for giggling :rotfl: veering from lovely soft Irish gaelic into pure Kojak !

:rotfl:That's priceless! I think I could get the gist of Scots Gaelic, some of at least, but then my Irish Gaelic is not that terrific - should be better considering I learned it for so many years in school! It seems a lot of the words are just spelt and pronounced a little differently. Like we have Uisce Beatha (literally water of life = whiskey) and AFAIK that's pretty similar to the Scots Gaelic words for the same.

Crikey csarina, your LL has a bit of a cheek! It sounds like a lovely place though.

In fact you're all selling Scotland so much that you'll find yourself inundated with blow-ins like me if you're not careful! It's terrible though when people come in and buy property, push the prices up and then locals can't buy. So sad when that happens.

BTW - you all have me fantasising over woodburning stoves! I can't wait till I'm settled in a house and can consider making big changes like putting one in.

mardatha

Ah we are not worried. One week of our weather and they'll all run away home ! I just watched Sky News, it was live in Trafalger Sq - its sunny and the people are all wearing t shirts. Up here its a bloody freezing wind and sudden really heavy showers.
sulking actually.

Grumpycupple

mardatha wrote: »

Ah we are not worried. One week of our weather and they'll all run away home ! I just watched Sky News, it was live in Trafalger Sq - its sunny and the people are all wearing t shirts. Up here its a bloody freezing wind and sudden really heavy showers.
sulking actually.

Come on Its fabulous having four seasons in one day. We once took the kids to Banchory for a picnic in June.......... It snowed :rotfl:

Hippeechiq

csarina wrote: »

We moved back to Scotland after 12 years of being south of the border. The prime reason was my 77 year old husband wanted to end his days in the country he was born in, not that he is likely to pop his clogs just yet, he tells me he is going to live to be 100........I told him I would not be around to see, he would have worn me out!! LOL. The second reason the pollution from people, lights and noise where we lived. Emergency vehicles sounding their horns at all times of the day and night, the light in the street shining through even the thickest curtains and the closeness of people. I hated having to go in the City it was a run down dirty place, I used to go in and out as quick as possible. We were lucky in that we had a shopping centre with a supermarket quite close.

Our front door faced our neighbours, ours were not good ones, in fact they skipped owing the landlord 6 months rent and a filthy house........

We now live in what is termed a 'rural location' just a mile from the village in a cottage with a largish garden and OH has a veg plot in an adjoining paddock. The air is clear and clean, there are no street lights, when its dark, its dark. We have exceptionally nice neighbours, mind you the landlord is a pain, but we deal with that!! He is a true old fashined Scotsman he will not spend a farthing if he can get away with it, hence us having to pay for the new wood stove. When he has finished on Monday he informed me that he had saved me £400 - £500 pounds by knocking the fireplace put himself!! I was gobsmacked....after all its his house!! We must have put a good deal on its value in the garden alone since we came here. Not that I am grumbling, it was our choice to do what we have to the garden. He did suggest the other day that we open it to the public as part of the village open scheme next year....yup and there would be signs to his garden centre coffee shop all over the blooming place......no ta.........if I open the garden, I do the teas!!

The road outside can be busy with vehicles coming to and from the farm and eearly in the morning cars going to and from, but we accept that......nature is on our doorstep, we have lots of birds who visit us, one little robin used to sit by OH when he was digging and nip in and pick up bits and pieces to eat. The swallows returned......they are getting ready to fly south again, a sign that autumn is upon us. In the field at the side of us a young colt and his mother graze every day. There are acres of fields and miles of footpaths close at hand and a short car ride away access to two fabulous beaches..........We also have a buzzard who visits from time to time, we see him hovering over the fields looking for lunch or supper.

We are both happy here, we enjoy our surroundings every day, what I do not like is the debt, but that will get sorted over the next 12 months.........

Better go this is turning into a screed and I am waiting for the chap to call for instructions how to find us, he is delivering the new wood stove this morning!!! Can't wait.........

What a lovely uplifting post csarina :T and your current home sounds absolutely wonderful

RAS

choille wrote: »

A lot of people with money have moved in & made it hard for 'normal' people to afford getting a place. I live in a caravan & we are slowly building our house as & when we get cash for materials.
.............
It is getting more complicated to keep livestock - bureaucratic & costs money - well it does for me but I keep old breeds.
............
It also seems to be getting very cliquey with well off folks from the deep south in the majority & slightly looking down their noses if you're a bit muddy!

Just about everywhere outside major cities and town centres is now blighted by wealthy "incomers" who can afford to pay more for housing than local people can afford. In rural areas the right to buy has proved to be a complete nightmare; in the village where my father grew up every council house was sold on as soon as the rules allowed at vast profit, extended and they are the poshest ex-council houses I have ever seen. For the most part the owners are commuters, retired or run tourist accomodation.

I was astounded to find how many people moving into the crofting counties did not understand the basics of crofting and that the previous owner of the house could not just transfer ownership of the land without reference to the Commission.

Despite spending my early years on hill farms, I would not dream of keeping livestock now unless I did a good apprenticeship on the appropriate type of farm. The rules have changed so much and I do not have the automatic confidence handling livestock I had as a teenager. Yet folk with no experience at all think they can roll up buy a few sheep, hens and a goat and it will all be alright. I have seen the shock the first time they are told that their livestock have a disease and need isolating.

choille, I am not the least sanguine about the risks of disease transmission but time and time again, I think the rules devised to deal with an outbreak are not designed to prevent another outbreak so much as to be seen to be doing something pretty draconian.

Having had to work with Government regulations, I have realised that they create rules to deal with a situation and never review whether the need continues. When they changed the rules in my area of work, all hell let loose and they created a number of exemptions because people had made lifechanging decisions and the rules about funding had changed without notice. Five years later, we were kicking off because people were still trying to use the exemptions and we got this snotty directive explaining that of course they had only intended the exemptions to apply for one or two years. This despite the fact that they had published rule books annually with the exemptions listed. The decision to rescind the exemptions was retrospective!

Ignoring the logic of some EU directives aimed at high intensity farming, I think that every time we have an outbreak of any disease, they devise a new set of rules. These are just added and added, with no review of the appropriateness, consequences, cost benefit, continued need or implications for farmers. A

If they are going to review bureacracy, I think farming would be a good place to start.

As for mud, there are a good few folk on town and cities who baulk at a muddy gardener. And a lot who baulk at veggies with soil on! Where do they think food grows? Pre-packed on supermarket shelves?

ceridwen

NualaBuala wrote: »

:rotfl:That's priceless! I think I could get the gist of Scots Gaelic, some of at least, but then my Irish Gaelic is not that terrific - should be better considering I learned it for so many years in school! It seems a lot of the words are just spelt and pronounced a little differently. Like we have Uisce Beatha (literally water of life = whiskey) and AFAIK that's pretty similar to the Scots Gaelic words for the same.

Crikey csarina, your LL has a bit of a cheek! It sounds like a lovely place though.

In fact you're all selling Scotland so much that you'll find yourself inundated with blow-ins like me if you're not careful! It's terrible though when people come in and buy property, push the prices up and then locals can't buy. So sad when that happens.

BTW - you all have me fantasising over woodburning stoves! I can't wait till I'm settled in a house and can consider making big changes like putting one in.

Could be another potential blow-in here too:D - but I'm good for food bartering purposes with any surplus I get...:D Would have to see if I could "drum up" any ancestral genes to speak Gaelic though.

<wanders off trying to calculate how many generations back I'd have to go in my family to find ancestors who would have spoken Gaelic....>

I'm told I look Celtic still - would that do?

NualaBuala

Well my Celtic genes are very diluted ... the only red in my hair is from henna! Go on Mardatha and Co .... let Cerdiwen in!

I found this article about shopping every 3 months like Mardatha was talking about at the start of this thread. I'm wondering would it save me money. It probably would but I quite like the social aspect of shopping in the organic food co-op. Plus I want to volunteer there once a month or so and I couldn't go home emptyhanded!

zarazara

Thankyou Nualabuala for that link. Its very thought provoking.

mardatha

I especially liked that bit in the link where she said she makes "one thing" for each meal and they just eat it until they are full. I like that, might try it. But make WHAT one thing....?!