Interlude
May 17, 2012 § 4 Comments
I’ve been back home on the island now for almost eight months. The long, dark winter is over and I’ve come out relatively unscathed.
I think perhaps it’s time to turn again to blogging on The Croft…but not quite yet.
It’s been 28 days since an advert went into the Stornoway Gazette to notify interested parties that I have applied to sub-let an old family croft up in the most northern district of Ness, home of the Guga Hunters and one of my favourite places in the world.
Close family members all remember the croft in its heyday, put to good use with veg, hay and livestock but today it lies little used, the neat little croft house too lies empty most of the year, the big byre used for only for storage.
I”ve drawn up plans for using each part of the land, converting the byre into a weaving shed for my loom and more, establishing new growth and livestock, and this has been submitted to the Crofting Commission for their consideration.
So fingers crossed that no one has submitted an objection and that my goal of making a living back here, after more than five years of planning, might actually come to fruition.
At that point The Croft blog will start again in earnest but in a very different form. I’m not hugely keen on documenting my life here in intimate detail but I can’t deny the catalytic role played, the opportunities and direction that the blog has afforded me to get to this point, so it would be spurious to wrap things up just yet.
All being well, I hope the blog will cast its net a little wider in future. As Part One looked to the islands from the city, Part Two will look to the world from an island croft. There’s much of value in this small part of the planet but we’ve always looked much farther afield for inspiration.
So let’s see where we go next?
Meantime I’m blogging over at the official Harris Tweed Authority Blog where I’ll be channelling my jones for the Clo Mor to a wider audience. It’s a great set up over there and if you need your fix of Harris Tweed then please join me as it gets going.
Oh, and we’ve also finally brought the Airigh Project to fruition. Much is still to be done but the designs are now online and ready to ship if you’d like to see them…
Onward!
Missed that one in the Gazette. I normally check all the notices to see who is getting new crofts or, in recent months, who is getting thrown off for absenteeism!
I wish you well in your (many!) plans. Once The Croft croft is a hive of industry I’d love to pay a visit but there seems to be a bit of, shall we say, ‘rivalry’ between the folks of Ness and Point so I might well be chased off or pelted with left over guga!
Mike, miss your regular “bloggage”, welcome you keeping connected with us all.
It’s kind of crap that you have to submit your plans for the land and await “permission” from some pompous cretins with too much time on their hands. A man should be able to do what he wants with his land, regardless of the opinions of some busy-bodies and doddering fools. Do you agree?
Not really! Thing is its not my land, I don’t own it as its under crofting tenure, I’m the tenant. And the croft had not been worked for many years apart from being used as grazing so the Crofting Commission require details of experience and plans to ensure the new tenant (me) has the skills and intention to put the land to work. A lot of crofting land has been abused under the notion of ownership, being decrofted and sold for housing to make money so it’s only right a new tenant is assessed for suitability. I could have done with the process being more efficient however, it takes way too long and us such I missed out on the best part of the year, nothing can be grown until next spring now etc so that part of bureaucracy can be a pain.