The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Clothes pegs are signal of hope
You know your metamorphosis into your mother is on the right track when your clothes peg finger starts twitching at the first hint of spring.
The sight of a full load dancing on the washing line in a stiff breeze fills me with the kind of glee once reserved for helter-skelters and all-nighters, so here’s a sisterly cheer to every woman of a certain age who timed her run right this week.
Like the snowdrops giving way to daffs, the commotion of nestbuilding in the hedgerows and temperatures taking a turn for double figures, the snapping of duvet covers in back gardens is another tantalising signal that summer is coming – and bringing with it the promise of brighter days.
Normally the holiday booking sites would be taking a battering round about now too but much of the world beyond the end of the street still feels like “here be dragons” territory.
The authorities in Cyprus put up the ‘vacancies’ sign yesterday, announcing they would open their borders to vaccinated Britons at the start of May, but UK Government travel restrictions mean only the most sun-starved optimist is likely to be circling the date.
Yes, the speed of the vaccine rollout – 150,000 people in Tayside, we learned this week, or 41% of the eligible population – marks a remarkable turnaround. Children are returning to classrooms, just in time for relieved parents to have kittens over forgotten World Book Day costumes. Hairdressers, gyms and non-essential shops are due to reopen next month. There was even a suggestion from Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday that the lockdown exit plan could be accelerated, although its timing, on the eve of another big day in the first ministerial diary, meant you might have blinked and missed it.
But is anyone still kidding themselves that normal life will be restored this summer?
Organisers of the Royal Highland Show confirmed this week that Scotland’s biggest agricultural showcase would not be going ahead for a second year. Kirkcaldy’s Links Market is off. Highland games organisers from Cupar to Kenmore are throwing in the towel on hopes for a return in 2021.
No, we’re not quite footloose and face mask free, however much we wish the restrictions away. And however much we long to be penning boozy “wish you were here” cards from a hotel poolside, it still feels like a leap of faith to be booking a fancy foreign getaway.
As summer staycations, enforced or otherwise, look increasingly more likely, communities across Tayside and Fife are bracing themselves for what that might mean.
There are benefits, of course. In Pitlochry plans to revive the famous fish ladder as a visitor attraction for the first time in more than three years are being heralded as a potential moneyspinner with the potential to attract as many as 750,000 visitors a year.
Elsewhere, outdoor activity centres in Highland Perthshire are asking for more Covid-19 relief cash, reminding the Scottish Government of their huge contribution to the Scottish tourism economy.
However, the ugly downside also became apparent this week when the first dirty campers started making their mark on beauty spots in Tayside and Fife.
Locals are fearing a repeat of the scenes that marred last summer when unprecedented crowds, giddy on lockdown, flocked to remote and rural areas, leading to problem parking, littering, fires and human waste.
New bylaws have been introduced. Police and councils have pledged they
will not allow people’s lives to be ruined by unruly day trippers. And hopefully the powers-that-be will also be better prepared to educate visitors about the responsibilities that accompany Scotland’s cherished right to roam.
Because taking people along with you works.
Look at the woods around Loch Dunmore, near Pitlochry, best known as the location for the Enchanted Forest, which attracts 80,000 tourists to Highland Perthshire every year.
They have also become home to a large number of memorial plaques and stones left behind by grieving families, which are not in keeping with the landscape, and Forestry and Land Scotland, which manages the site, has embarked on the delicate task of removing them with the co-operation of relatives.
One woman told us she was initially hurt by the request to collect her father-in-law’s stone but was won over by the nonconfrontational approach.
“At first I couldn’t believe what was happening, but after speaking to the guy, I thought ‘fair enough’. They want to keep it a wild place,” she said.
Our remote and rural areas are beautiful.
The people who visit them understand that as much as the people who live there but maybe just need a nudge in the right direction to help them appreciate the impact of their actions.
Striking a better balance between education and enforcement this year will be to everyone’s benefit. And if we can prevent conflict between residents and visitors from becoming another annual harbinger of summer, we will all have more reason to look forward to warmer days.