battling the grey

loch leven



i'm back at the farm...doing a wee bit of doggy/kitty sitting. it's raining... of course, must be the first proper rain we have had in the past month. but a dried out gargantuan pothole is only half the fun of a full to the brim gargantuan pothole.

yeah... i'm writing! i wonder why? is there a curse which comes along with the ghost who keeps company with me in my victorian abode? the curse of the dreaded "writers block"...
i must ask around about my companion ghost, maybe there is some known history. i think he is a he... he doesn't worry me much, but then i do tend to sleep like the dead. i did hear footsteps one night...
walking up a passage which is no longer there, plus it was footsteps on a wooden floor. my whole flat is carpeted!

enough already with the heebie jeebies! so long since i wrote, so many new experiences. so many blogs started and never finished.

i have to admit i had an attack of the GREY... kind of sneaked up on me, caught me unawares. so i floated for a while, in abject misery, before dragging myself off to my GP in search of prozac and nirvana.

so... how did i spend my time, the time when i was not either sleeping or staring into space, filled with a major melancholy malaise. well, i forced myself to walk, which forces me to interact almost as if i was a normal person. i really could have had a great career on the stage, i am a master of deception, a genius at producing "the happy face" even in the most depressed circumstances. as time went by, i perked up little by little, my mate shona and i continued to enjoy our tuesday lunch dates...i can never be sorry for myself when shona is about, she makes me laugh and appreciate life. plus we tend to find ourselves wonderfully full of the fruit of the vine, sharing the latest village tales and giggling like teenagers. a while back shona's mum asked shona...
"how old is this woman?"
shona replied ..
"thirty going on sixty"

hmmm... maybe more like thirteen going on...!

i spent four days in the kingdom of fife, in a fishing village called leven. i was told there was a big old rock, much like my beloved ailsa craig, off the coast. bass rock... the mythical bass rock! i was in leven four days and i saw most everything there was to see, except bass rock. hidden by the sea mist, they told me...hah! the craig NEVER goes walk about for that long. i reckon bass rock falls into the same category as nessie! these scots will imagine seeing any damn thing to lure tourists to our bonnie shores.

we drove around loch leven, where mary queen of scots was imprisoned in leven castle for a time, (1567 to 1568) before her escape..
in a small village called lower largo i was shown a statue of robinson crusoe. evidently this fellow alexander selkirk was born in the village and daniel defoe based the tale of robinson crusoe on his experiences.

we ate fish and chips in anstruther, at the world famous anstruther fish bar . unfortunately nobody really famous was eating there that particular day. but the fish and chips was to die for!we strolled along the harbour enjoying the sunshine and ice cream cones, the green eyed girl chose 'rum and raisin' whilst i myself chose the more exotic sounding 'burned cream'. tasted like plain old vanilla to me, but who am i to judge, an ice cream connoisseur i am not!

thinking of visiting scotland?... i do recommend the kingdom of fife, lovely countryside, quaint villages and friendly folk. of course fife in no way compares with beautiful ayrshire!