Just back from a wonderful break from this place. The island of Colonsay is one of our most favourite spaces in which to let go of home stuff and mesh into ‘another world.’
In the past we have driven by car or van to Oban, usually with friends and family. This time was just the two of us, Romola and myself, so we decided to get there as green as we could via bike and public transport.
We also took a single-wheeled bike trailer just to find out if it created a problem on the trains. It all worked out a treat with the added attraction that minimalist space disciplined what we took with us.
I am currently feeling that climate change issues are so serious that maybe one has to deny oneself burning up carbon for luxury use like driving a car or flying away to foreign parts to soak up the sun. Sadly politicians keep off this subject as it is not popular at ballot box time!
We do have a choice. Bums on seats in private transport are different to those on seats in so-called public transport. To deny oneself even that might be one day on the sustainability hit list!
Our bike approach worked out really well, with the added benefit of delivering a sense of adventure. Only one other couple accessed the island in the same way. All others were via car.
We stayed in a small holiday cottage. On reading through the visitor comments book it was interesting to note how many entries included the phrase "It’s so good to get away from the rat race."
I mused on this. In varying degrees we are all part of the rat race in the western world, conforming to a centralised agenda and philosophy that commits all of us, let’s be honest, in varying degrees, to the ‘rat race.’
It is very hard to escape same. I spend as much time as I can, in our privileged space, minding my own business, pursuing and seeking out a detached rat-race-free-life-style for sustainable future reasons. It is really, really hard to join this ‘club.’

On reading a newspaper feature in the Guardian we became really depressed by all the troubles in Darfur. The author pointed out that much of the conflict has arisen between the two main factions via local environmental degradation brought about, or so it is reckoned, via global warming and its consequent climate change, which makes one realise what a close-knit global village Earth is becoming.
So the way WE choose to live and conduct OUR way of life in the western world has a DIRECT impact on the situation in Darfur. Horrible thought, but it has to be said. The challenge for change is consequently massive.

On a lighter note, but somehow related, we walked into some people-free parts of the island, and at one point watched, in absolute awe, a flock of Dunlin birds coursing among their known environment. Through binoculars we peered at the birds as they swung about, curving round rock and wave in silent beauty, inches from the waves, sometimes gone as they collectively merged into the background then, in unison, turning their white fronts towards us - so there they were again.
They would alight on the edge of the sea in graceful harmony, among seaweed, seashell and sand, invisible to our eyes.
I mention this with a note of envy. Lesson to be learned methinks. How lovely to think that one day, human kind can nestle into the landscape in a similar all-embracing way, instead of the current aggressive approach to our daily commercial routines.

On the last night of our visit we sat outside the cottage, listening to three corncrakes calling out together. The collective bunching of the sound one of the most humbling and mysterious sounds on the planet. And to cap it all, in the gaps we could hear a snipe drumming. Privilege again.


A DIFFICULT TIME OF YEAR FOR FRESH VEGETABLES.

We have been trying to find our way into discovering what’s on offer ‘in the wild,’ partly to satisfy the hunter gatherer gene and also as it is an awkward time of year for fresh vegetable in garden and allotment.
The leeks are finished, and the broccoli too and the first broad beans not ready.
Yet wild nature itself is so clever, we are discovering, at filling the gap, and, take note, all those who suffer from lack of their own garden space, the wild garden is out there for all and it is perfectly legal and legitimate to gather fresh produce from the other garden, God’s garden, if you like!
It’s how the nomads lived by gathering and travelling and replenishing themselves by not taking too much at a time. We can do the same.
The edge of footpaths is full of the stuff. The best of all are nettles - high in iron/calcium/vitamins and essential minerals. Cooked like spinach - yum!
Lots of salad stuff too like wild garlic - leaf, flower, and young seed head. Daisy flowers look good in a salad. Elderflowers too.
Most of the early spring herbs are cleansing herbs, good for the digestive system after the ‘heaviness’ of winter food!
We have been finding that the books ‘Wild Food’ by Roger Phillips and ‘Food for free’ by Richard Maybe are perhaps one of the best reference points.
It’s a whole ‘new’ world to be rediscovered and gently, positively, carefully, sustainably, exploited. (Don’t like that last word! - but can be legitimately used at times!)


HOW DO WE FIND OUR SUSTAINABLITY HAVENS?

I touched on this in my last blog. It is A MASSIVE issue if society is going to properly address the demand for those seeking to follow a sustainable future life style.
There is a huge untapped resource right on our doorstep, but I hesitate to mention it for risk of being ridiculed and isolated. It’s called ‘farm land!’
Currently most farmland is managed commercially with a strong emphasis on environmental stewardship, steered by DEFRA and the farmers themselves. But my point is that apart from council allotments (growing waiting lists nationally!) those who seek their island-survival-sustainable lifestyle spaces are hard pressed to lay their hands on land in which to fulfil their needs.
Yet there are millions of acres out there. Sometimes bits and pieces come up, usually for auction, but are rare and expensive.
My dream, if society would choose to find a mechanism to allow it to happen, would be to release space, both land and woodland, to those who would be thrilled to lease a space in which to live and thrive.
This should also, where required, include the opportunity to construct a low-impact-type-development in which to live. At that point we would be really up against local council planning policy!
There’s the rub and there’s the challenge. And, there, I’ve stuck my neck out. But such is one of the big challenges facing a trying to go-green-for-real society! Any reaction?