Well, it’s been a while since I’ve last updated this site, although thats not to say there has been nothing of note to report.
We’ve moved house – about as far west as you can get in Scotland, but around the same latitude, to the outskirts of a small tight knit relatively remote community that has proved more welcoming than we’ve thought possible.
Our sons have taken to this life and change of lifestyle incredibly well – it’s like they have never lived anywhere else – Learning Gaelic and playing Shinty now the order of the day, the eldest, Joshua has a part time job chopping firewood, (The best job I ever had) he’s so coming into his own, if I can get out of his way a little and let him grow.
Young Ruaridh has turned into an avid explorer, in the woods, at the park, a BB gun in hand and a couple of young lassies in tow.
Our four lovely ladies have come with us, bolstered by two and depleted by illness, so we maintain the optimum four.
Our old and faithful Chocolate Lab died a couple of years ago, and we now have two teenage tearaways, an intelligent and devoted collie (Solo) who has the ability to disappear in the blink of an eye after a red deer or two and reappear an hour or two later (if we’re lucky) tongue lolling, looking pleased with himself, but terribly aware he is in deep shit. Then there’s Loki, supposedly a soft comfort dog, a companion, who is nothing of the sort, perpetually soggy, hard as nails and good for miles and miles.
Lynsey and I? – well we’ve just had our 15th wedding anniversary, celebrated with a trip to the vets, and a Marks and Spencer’s made for two Chinese. We’re doing ok. Of us all, Lynsey has found it the hardest to adapt, away from close friends she’s had for years, and the challenge of not just being able to nip into town for a change of scenery, but it’s getting easier.
Speaking of scenery, I always joke to people who ask why we moved here, that I gave Lynsey the option of Alaska, the Canadian Yukon or the West Coast of Scotland (not too far from the truth), but it is immensely beautiful here, trackless mountains, quiet glens and deserted sandy beaches, a well-kept secret indeed.
So why did we move?
There is a few reasons, secondary school across on the east coast was hard for Joshua, sending him into a conflict zone day after day wasn’t on and starting to show, a totally different story now.
I felt a lack of space, after all the east coast from Arbroath down is now almost a continuous conurbation, the hills were busy, the parks and nature reserves were busy. I couldn’t hear myself think.
We had the opportunity to work from home, at least on a hybrid basis, giving us scope to sit back and look critically where we actually wanted to live our lives.
All of those are good and valid reasons. But. The main reason we now live in a fairly remote area with a close, well educated and resilient community is because I think that society as we know it, the way it has been for our whole lives is changing. Unrest, conflict, a struggle for resources permeated by the overwhelming and completely engulfing tsunami that is human driven climate change.
I’m not a climate scientist, I’m an engineer, but you only have to have a modicum of intelligence to understand the summaries of the papers, and reports detailing the melting ice, the devastating losses to our biosphere integrity, the staggering energy absorption of our oceans. We have now transgressed 6 of the 9 planetary boundaries. The Anthropocene is set to be a very short closing chapter in the story that is the incredible journey of humankind
I’m a great fan of James Lovelocks Gaia Hypothesis, I think it’s beautiful, if a little complicated to absorb in one reading, but the overarching theory is the earth is a single integrated, self-regulating system. It’s a theory that appears to be standing the test of time. It also points towards some radical self-regulation heading our way.
So, what do we do?
I don’t want to resort to justified negativity, but we have the most inept, populous government, when what we really need are the serious deep thinkers, the long term planners, the bigger than petty politics people, after all this is a pretty serious game. The problem is we don’t. In a nation of nearly 70 million, Is our current political leadership the best we could come up with? The US is worse. Everywhere you look democracy is in decline, military spending is up, floods and droughts in multiple large food producing tracts of the world.
Taken individually we can deal with these threats, we’d waver slightly but continue, but multiple threats on this magnitude happening concurrently are difficult.
The answer I guess, is that you do what you can, reduce your carbon footprint, educate your kids, and if you can, start either learning or relearning those skills that might come in handy in a year or five.
Resilience is key, personal resilience, and as, if not more importantly, community resilience. Make a plan, with your family, friends and community, keep it current. Plant those tatties, pick those blackberries, make friends with your local farmer/crofter, get closer to nature. Develop systems specific to you and know how to use them, identify the gaps and work out how to close them. Plan and practice.
Just to clear up a point here, in case I need to. I’m not an anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist, religious zealot, far left, far right, or any other extreme category I’ve left out.
I’m just a pragmatic, fairly hard working and levelheaded family man who is interested in the world, but the data streams are starting to get a little chaotic.
After all, if the people who have made it their lives work to study our natural world are screaming to be heard. The people who have held power and relinquished it peacefully and who continue to contribute to humanities development are warning about the state of democracy, it’s way past time to sit up and take note.
Depressing isn’t it. Well we’re not done yet, after all we are the most successful, ingenious creatures. We may yet turn and act.
Anyway, now you know where we are, what we’re up to and what my current thoughts are. No big plans other than learning to sail, fish and stalk.
Oh, and I need to make a decision on if I’m competing in the Cheviot Goat Ultra in December, and finish planning for a weekend with some of these guys covering some serious ground on Mull in October
But first we are going to take our sons on a visit to see the sights of those big bright lights in the south that is London, by way of the Caledonian Sleeper.
