Sunday 7th August
I am surprised when I check the date. I have been living in a little world of bubbleness, focussed contentment with little contact from outside and little needed. I am slowly becoming more established in this little community without trying, i find requests coming on for fb friends, find myself added to fb groups, find people introducing themselves to me on the street.
I wonder how long it would take me to tire of living here. I wonder how much of my contentment is tied up with my writing purpose while living in someone elses house with no responsibilities save emptying the dishwasher now and again or emptying the bin. I tried looking for real estate ads yesterday but found none.
My writing keeps me very grounded and focussed. I take time to walk and to swim. Yesterday i gave three hours to hay making and was pleased to be in the fields, working. I received an invitation to return in the winter, to use a daughters bedroom while she is away at university.
The whale bone entrance to the village from the harbour now sports scaffolding in readiness to paint before next weekends festival, i find myself offering to help. I consider my clothes, my working clothes have long since gone. I now carry just two pairs of jeans, a pair of crops, two tshirts, a smock top and one pair of shoes. Thats it. I decide which pair of jeans i wear least and can relegate for painting duty, i can turn them inside out and discard one of my tshirts in a similar manner or maybe ask the girls and find an old tshirt that might fit. I swim with some big girls. I remember many moons ago, Rick, travelling from Portugal, earning money by painting the outside paintwork of our house in suffolk, must have been around the summer of 1988, i learned the inside out clothes trick from him.
I have yet to discover whether there are any single women living on Nolsoy or whether everyone is encapsulated in this little family microcosm world. I ventured to the pub the other night and it was a very male environment again, nothing much changes then. Im surprised how infrequently i go there and wonder if i will ever have a four am morning, a night on the tiles. I am happy not to be drinking. Today, i have decided i will eat there, there is music, i will settle in and see what happens.
I have still seen no signs of the old lady i met on my first visit here. On my way to haymaking yesterday, passing my favourite house on the island with its rainbow fence and a garden actually full of vegetables, spinach, parsley, carrots, celery, kohl rabi. A lady hangs out her washing, goan morgun I say. We engage in conversation and it turns out that she is joans mother in law, no wonder the garden is so full. She is the wealth of all knowledge here plantwise.
My room is comfortable, there are storgae places for my clothes, a desk for my writing, charging my equipment is easy. I think if i returned in the winter i would prefer the anonymity of being here over a daughters bedroom in a religous house where husband plays the church organ and son studies theology.
Dressing after swimming is intersting. If joan is present the door to the boat shed where we change is tightly closed, if not, the other women worry much less and barely even half close it if at all. Nobody walks by anyway. Today will be a doors closed day!
The rain has fallen heavily and hard all night, winds have been gusting after a week of fine weather. Typocally, i have decided to take two more days to be a tourist and I check the weather forecast for my planned day to Mykines. It looks fair at the moment, sunny even. I think i will watch carefully for whilst the puffins may have their burrows to retreat into there is nothing for humans except prebooked accomodation.
The temperature has fallen noticeably in the evenings over the last few days. For children here, summer is nearly at an end, they will return to school around the 16th august as i leave for Denmark.
I lost much time yesterday, procrastinating, not writing. I have resigned myself now to carry one A4 journal with me for my onward journey. The rest I can comfortably type so it's no great loss of time. It looks as though my journey may progress from Denmark to Sweden, picking up with couch surfers i have hosted. Gothenberg, Berlin, Hertsel.
I swim in half an hour. Perhaps I can grab a small amount of time to begin to move on in my australian world, not remain stuck in a difficult place.
The church bells are ringing, i had forgotten they ring on a sunday, i wonder how long i would needto stay here before my inquisitive nature took me to a service, just once, just to see how it was.
