Staying at my daughters cottage

Staying at my daughters cottage

So…….after staying with my friend in her cottage and visiting the galleries, the standing stone and the beautiful Glens, I had a couple of days back in my own house before staying in my daughters cottage for a week. 

My daughter lives just outside Carnoustie in a little cottage that was once a farm workers cottage. She was on holiday for the week and I agreed to act as chief house and dog sitter.Outside her kitchen window is a space where, in the summer, she invites family and friends to BBQ’s. There is giant home made BBQ made from an old drum cut in half and mounted on a frame. 

This little area is briefly hit by the sinking sun just before it disappears from sight. At this time of year the afternoon sun hangs so low in the sky it hurts your eyes, you can’t see, it throws this penetrating golden light over every thing. 

The sun casts long shadows and the bits the long shadows miss, are covered in reflected light bouncing off of every surface  Most evenings I missed it, you turn your back for a couple of seconds and its all over until the next day. This little light show is brief, but worth waiting for, another month or so and the light will be different. Until this time next year………and then the show starts all over again.Her home is surrounded by open fields, with the sea in the distance to the south and the hills in the distance to the north. 

The week I was there coincided with the harvest, the tractors were out every day from daybreak to dusk cutting, bailing and stacking the hay. As soon as the hay was cut the field was ploughed. 

The colours are wonderful, it’s quite magical to watch as the field changes from the swaying gold of the crops to the deeply furrowed red and brown earth. 

I saw robins in her garden and for the first time this year I saw the Canadian Geese arrive. They fly so high all you can see is the big V formation in the sky, there is nothing else around here that flies in a V formation. Once you see the Geese, you know its going to start getting cold. The day before I left sunset was particularly spectacular, it was natures grand finally to round off my weeks stay. I felt like standing outside and giving a standing ovation.