I've been here for seventeen days and it's as if I've never been away. I feel so at home here, so welcome.
There are, of course, similarities and contrasts to life in Scotland. I'll concentrate on one aspect: the weather. Why? Because it is something that anyone who lives on a Scottish island is constantly thinking about and it is also a constant topic in New Zealand; in conversation and in the media.
I left two weeks of gales and really horrible weather. People's moods were reflecting that already even though we had had a better summer than anywhere else in the UK. I arrived here just over two weeks ago and we have had sunshine most of the time (I have not yet driven The Handbag with the roof up) and the last two days have been in the high 20s. And that, too, is reflected in people's moods and attitudes. And you can guess which is the easier environment in which to live.
So many other things have just slipped back into my Now: the nights where the full moon is so bright I don't have to use a torch when returning from the House to The Cottage and my bedroom is bathed in light; the eerie call of the Australasian Magpies; the crickets, and there is so much more.
There are, of course, similarities and contrasts to life in Scotland. I'll concentrate on one aspect: the weather. Why? Because it is something that anyone who lives on a Scottish island is constantly thinking about and it is also a constant topic in New Zealand; in conversation and in the media.
I left two weeks of gales and really horrible weather. People's moods were reflecting that already even though we had had a better summer than anywhere else in the UK. I arrived here just over two weeks ago and we have had sunshine most of the time (I have not yet driven The Handbag with the roof up) and the last two days have been in the high 20s. And that, too, is reflected in people's moods and attitudes. And you can guess which is the easier environment in which to live.
So many other things have just slipped back into my Now: the nights where the full moon is so bright I don't have to use a torch when returning from the House to The Cottage and my bedroom is bathed in light; the eerie call of the Australasian Magpies; the crickets, and there is so much more.
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We were in Perthshire at the weekend. We bailed out a bit early this morning. The clouds never lifted off the ground, there was ice on the car and it was a hingy-damp. So don't talk to me about blue skies and sitting in the full light of the moon.
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