Another year over
Rural Ramblings
It’s time to reflect and look forward. Happy New Year, is a great phrase. I just wish that it was for everybody. Beyond the countdown and the celebration, I don’t expect 2018 to be much different. As the domestic and national news unfolds that there will be tragedies and incidents sprinkled with disasters I have no doubt. Incidentally, don’t you think it’s a little weird that Edmonton is celebrating New Year at 9 p.m.? I appreciate that it’s more family friendly and so on, but it is what it is. Isn’t it?
This time last year we were still on a remote Scottish island in our fixer upper dwelling. We were just celebrating having the heating and bathroom put in. It had been a tough year for us. I excelled at telling people that I hadn’t showered for over a year. I did wash though. Often the average temperature in our bathroom was a little over the zero C mark. We lit the kitchen and bathroom with Christmas lights until we had the wiring fixed for that end of the house.
Anyway, we continued to fix up the house despite 100 miles per hour winds and frequent power outages. The Western Isles are picture postcard beautiful. Sadly, this may only be for days of the year. Property is inexpensive up there compared to the rest of the UK. We set a realistic price and didn’t over improve. It was and is a solid house, built to withstand the storms.
We sold our property very quickly to Londoners, I hope they can adapt. I certainly don’t like Sundays on the island. Living on the Western Isles is very different to many of the other islands.
One of my most enduring memories of 2017 was the Brexit campaign. We lived it. No one was more surprised than I when the result was announced at 4 a.m. in the morning that the UK had voted to leave. After much thought my family and I all voted to leave. Our overriding reason was our view that the EU was set on becoming a super state. I think it still harbours those ambitions.
Whether Brexit will actually happen or there will be some sort of political back tracking I’m not sure. Money and power usually win out. The arguments and political wrangling continue.
Back to us. As soon as we could we packed, put our things into storage and flew home to Canada without a backward glance. We’re back near Edson now with our family and don’t have plans to move away from the area again. Another year’s over, Happy New Year everybody.