Croft boundaries

There was a meeting of crofters on our side of the glen.
The man from the ministry was not happy about the boundaries.

If you look at our properties from the other side of the glen (see photo) the boundaries are quite obvious. They are delineated by burns and therefore bushes.

The hillsides here run with water at most  times of the year. This water  finally channels itself into a few burns. As a general rule there is a burn on each side of each croft's property. There certainly is with ours.

The burns - over time - make deepish gorges for themselves where the ground is soft . In a few places they hit harder ground and are more superficial and  meander a bit to get around the obstacle.

The man from the ministry cannot understand why the lines down each side of the properties are not  nice and straight. This would  makes it easy for him, in his office in London or Brussels to calculate acreage and things.

Hence the meeting

It had to be explained that the crofters have animals grazing in these fields and these animals have to have access to the burn to drink. There are only certain parts of the burns where that can happen  - and the old boundary was made so that animals from each side could both get good access to the burn at suitable places.

He still didn't really  understand

Sloe Gin crisis

What has gone wrong this year?

My husband makes sloe gin every year. This is a very serious business and it  has to been done just so.

It all starts with going to admire the sloes - at about this time of year.
Those who make sloe gin know where the best sloe bushes are - information that is never shared with anyone.

Then it is a matter of waiting and choosing just the right time to pick them.
Apparently they have to have softened a bit and  have a bit of a bloom on them.
Then you have to be really patient and wait till after the first frost - for some reason.

So - out we went - for the inspection - full of expectation - as the press  has had many reports of bumper apple and berry crops this year.

What do we find - NOTHING - not one

What on earth has happened? Last year there was a bumper crop and the bushes look quite healthy.

Is this Global warming?

Worse - Has someone found our bushes?

It is a crisis!

Crofters rights

I met a different crofting  neighbour today.
His croft is at the bottom of the hill and ours is more than half way up the hill, so we are more likely to be in our cars when we pass each other by

But today he was out with his camera. He is apparently the chief cameraman for-  The South Side (of the glen) Common Grazing Association.
The hill above our croft is MAMBA (miles and miles of bugger all) but - since time immemorial the crofters have had the right to graze their animals on it - and they do. Goodness knows what the animals find to eat.

Well - as I mentioned in a previous blog "Duck shooting"- the sporting rights on the hill have been sold to a rich man from Essex, who has brought in 1,000 or so ducks and is now happily shooting them all.

The ducks live on the Lochan with the unpronounceable Gaelic name. To get there, he has not only almost destroyed the existing track, which the crofters use to access their animals on their quadbikes, but he has built new tracks all over the place, so that his paying guests can go On Safari. They don't seem to like walking.

He has not asked permission from or even first notified the crofters. Gates have been left open so that animals can escape and new gates have appeared, were none were before, so that animals can't be accessed.

Crofters don't like this sort of behavior. Oh no! They have their rights - Crofter's Rights.

But - The rich man from Essex has the sporting rights and he his rights too.

Whose right takes precedence?
Well - the crofters - usually - but the rich man from Essex doesn't know that yet.

Hence chief cameraman crofter was off to photograph the damage

I almost feel sorry for the rich man from Essex.
Once the crofters are aroused en masse - he doesn't stand a chance.

However I don't feel sorry for him
He left a rude note on our car, asking us not to park in the place by our croft where we have always parked and no doubt the horse and cart was parked by our ancestors before us.
He then turned up wanting to buy our croft house from us.

Unfortunately voting for Scottish Independence would not stop this sort of thing. The sporting rights can be sold to anyone from anywhere
 But no Scottish Highlander would have been stupid enough to buy them on this hill.

Anyone could have told him that there is nothing to shoot here and never will be except rabbits.
Ducks will not breed up there on the Lochan with the unpronounceable Gaelic name and he has just shot the few remaining grouse. Pheasants were tried a few years ago with no success and there are no red deer just a few roe deer.

Sadly Mr Rich man from Essex - you have bought a lemon - with some very disgruntled crofters attached.
and  the disgruntled crofters always win.

Male sell by date

I am in mourning. The tup has gone - gone to that great place in the sky where non prime meat is processed into unmentionable things.
The poor old chap was past his prime, past his useful life - and had to go.
He was no longer considered suitable for frolicking with the ladies and passing on his genes to the next generation

I wasn't quite brave enough to ask neighbouring crofter, whether this meant that he was no longer capable, or that his sperm were no longer capable - I mean the tup- not the crofter.

I don't think life was always easy for him.
I remember one year - when the snow was so deep - that  he couldn't get his essential bits above the snow level to do what was expected of him. Poor fellow - just imagine - his dangly bits must have been deep frozen.

I remember well the day he arrived - it seems like yesterday. I met neighbouring crofter in his car, towing the trailer. We all stopped in the middle of the road - which is the way of things up here- and  he was shown off to me with such pride. I seem to remember he had an exotic name such as Maclennan of Achiltibuie.
Poor old Mac - so much was expected of you - and now you are gone.

Neighbouring crofter said that six years was quite enough for a ram - after that you are better with a new one.
Imagine if we took the same attitude!

Fat is OK and sugar is evil

The experts seem to have turned the advice upside down .
An article in the BMJ by cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra explains -

http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f6340

I think the bottom line is that eating fat from meat (dairy) does not cause high cholesterol as previously thought.

When your blood cholesterol is measured, you are given a result for your total cholesterol.
Within that you will be given a result for your LDL cholesterol.
It was thought that this was the bad boy
This was the one that caused nasty muck to gum up your arteries.

Well - it seems that within that LDL there are two subdivisions
Large particles and small particles.
The large ones are of no concern
The small ones are the bad guys

Now
What happens to these small ones depends on your sugar and refined carbohydrate intake.
If you stuff your face with sweeties and candy and cakes and biscuits and fizzy drinks and bad breakfast cereals etc etc - then those small particles of LDL cholesterol will cause problems - such as gummed up arteries and the metabolic syndrome (diabetes)
If your are not stuffing your face with the above mentioned stuff, then you shouldn't have a problem.

So -meat is OK and butter and cheese and full fat milk.
But don't add sugar to anything and avoid foods where it is added - especially fizzy drinks
Eat unrefined carbohydrate such as whole meal bread
Go canny with processed meats - bacon and sausage and pies

I am heartened because that pretty well sums up what I was 'trying' to do before
but I frequently fail -especially when presented with cream cakes such as chocolate eclairs!

Duck Shooting

Sitting in our little croft house, miles from anywhere or anyone in Sutherland, I can hear ducks quacking.

These ducks are a long way away from the croft - up the hill, down the other side, up another hill, around a corner and then along to a small Lochan with an unpronounceable Gaelic name. 

The reason I can hear them - in between tunes (my husband is practicing his bagpipes) - is because there are so many of them. I don't know what the correct word is - not flock or swarm - whatever- the water is barely visible - there are so many.  

These ducks have been bred and taken up there to be shot. 

Not by us. 

They are gorgeous. When you walk up there  - they waddle up to you trustingly, expecting to be fed. They are fed once a day and the excited quacking at the approach of their meal can then be heard for miles. Some of the more adventurous even appear down at the croft, looking hopeful..

But what a nonsense - what a travesty. It does not make sense to me.

To grow ducks with great care - and then have fun shooting them!

Where is the sport? These birds are TAME. 

I remember a cartoon I saw, in which a duck hunter is talking to a sitting duck.

"Please fly" he says

"I am not allowed to shoot you otherwise"

Instinctively it seems very wrong to me and I certainly couldn't do it myself

However - playing the devils advocate -

I do like to eat duck - I sometimes buy it in Tesco.

I assume that Tesco ducks are bred in nasty artificial circumstances, like hens, and never experience the wild - the glory of a Lochan in the mountains with an unpronounceable Gaelic name.

Perhaps it  is better to be one of the ducks on said Lochan than a Tesco duck

Oh it all gets awfully confusing.

These are two of the ducks who followed me most of the way down the hill

These are runaway ducks arriving at our neighbour in search of food - and safety!

If we divorce England - we will have to marry Europe

If Scotland divorces England then it will have to marry Europe - if they will have us!

Scotland needs to be married to someone. It is way too small on it's own.

We would be divorcing from a very long marriage which has benefited us all (Wales and Ireland as well)

Yes - we all grumble a bit - like all old couples who have been married a long time
But-
the thought of marrying the EU is terrifying.

We would lose all our spouse's heritage. Granny and Grandpa  from that side of the family (England, Ireland and Wales) would be cast off and not available any longer for babysitting or loans.

Instead we would have to embrace the heritage and relations of a new and very different spouse (the EU and Berlusconi) - not easy when you have been married for such a long time - you get set in your ways.
It will all seem a bit foreign and not what we are used to.

If we thought that our last spouse was a wee bitty too domineering - we will find that our new spouse is totally dominant.

If we thought that our last spouse sometimes didn't  listen to anything we said - we will find that our new spouse doesn't listen at all.

If we thought that our last spouse didn't let us govern in a way that was beneficial for Scotland - we will find that in the Euro the  rate of exchange will make us weaker and Germany ever stronger and we will be powerless.

Married to England we could vote and get changes - but in marriage to the EU there is no democracy.

I suspect that I would quickly long for the way it was. I would want my old, familiar, long suffering spouse back - with the parents-in -law and all the old stories that used to get so boring with constant repetition. I would be prepared to put up with the annoying habits - such as the snoring.

I would want it all back to how it was. I now realise I was quite happy with how it was - and - like most Scots - I really don't like change.

But is it too late?

New male cancer - of the throat

Throat cancer has always existed - but mostly caused by smoking.
Now there is a very frightening new throat cancer.

Frightening because it affects young men as well as  middle aged and old men.
and frightening because it is a fast growing epidemic

It is caused by the HPV virus.

HPV is the herpes virus - the same one that causes cancer of the cervix in women.
For some reason  - in men - it causes cancer of the throat, tonsils and base of the tongue.

Is it sexually transmitted?

Well - yes - in so far as someone who has never had sex (either oral or otherwise) will never have been exposed to the HPV virus. It is generally assumed that by about the age of 20 most people will have had exposure and will be HPV positive.
Some people will have a particular genetic make-up, that then causes the cancer to grow.

If caught early, in most cases, the cancer responds well to radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The difficulty is catching it early. There are no tests like cervical screening for cervix cancer or PSA testing for prostate cancer.
Because it is occurring deep inside the throat/neck there are no early symptoms or signs.

A young man I know, recently developed a lump - like a big gland - under his jaw. Everyone thought it was just a cyst until he got into hospital. There, the surgical team immediately knew what it was. They are seeing so many cases, that treating them is becoming a factory process.

This young man had immediate radiotherapy and chemotherapy which did not work. Radical surgery was then needed, leaving him with a scar from his ear down to his chest and the inability to lift his arm on that side due to nerve damage.

 However he will recover from that surgery just in time for his wedding - next week.

Do spread the message to all men - that any lumps in the neck or any other symptoms must be checked out.
Be aware that many doctors and nurses outside hospital have not yet heard of this problem.

All young girls are now vaccinated against HPV before they reach the age of sexual activity. This prevents cancer of the cervix
So -
Why are boys not also being vaccinated to prevent this horrible cancer?

I don't understand Americans

I just don't understand Americans.

There is this feeling that they are the same as us British - perhaps because we speak the same language - but the reality is that we are quite different.

British people believe passionately that everyone is entitled to certain basics such as health care.  No-one should suffer because they can't afford medical treatment. We see that as a basic human right.
How could one human being stand by and know that a fellow countryman is suffering because they can't afford treatment.

As a doctor (retired) I could never have refused the best  treatment to a patient because they couldn't pay. To me that would have been morally unacceptable.

But in America it seems quite acceptable.
If life has dealt you a tough hand - well that is just too bad.

How do they feel when they read that infant mortality in the US is half as high again as it is in the UK and that it is twice what it is in Sweden?
I suspect they subconsciously think that all those dead infants belong to families of black people and immigrants  - not people like them. I hope I do them an injustice.

Our NHS is not perfect by any means but -
In America - taxpayers pay more tax per head on Medicare and Medicaid than the UK taxpayer pays for the whole of the NHS.
Medicare and Medicaid only covers the poor and the elderly. Everyone else has to then also pay for health insurance on top of that.

One does not have to be a genius to see that either far too much money is being spent on health in America or way too little is being spent in the UK.
The realty is both.
and both problems need to be addressed.
Finding a way to pay less on health care would help America's financial problems.

What do the Republicans have against Obamacare - a genuine attempt to improve access to health care and overspend on health.

Don't they see - that their attempts now to block something that has been approved by the democratically elected Government and ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, is viewed by the world as acting against the very democracy that the USA is meant to stand for?

Is it all because Mr Obama is black
and millions of narrow minded Americans still can't accept that black people are the same as white people?
I do hope I am wrong, but that is how it looks from this side of the pond.

Does the EU mean freedom?

Two recent events have given me a clearer idea about the EU

1. I read an article about Angela Merkel - explaining how her upbringing in East Germany, under the communists, has very much affected how she thinks.
For her, the EU is all about freedom

2. I have just come back from a week in  Prague having spent a week last year in Budapest. I also have a Polish cleaner. My ongoing exposure to  Eastern European countries and people makes me see the EU project differently.
I see that  for them it is about freedom

At heart, I am against the EU (as it has become) and I am very against the idea of a Federation of Europe .

I liked the original idea of The Common Market - a market where we could all trade easily with each other, but yet retain all democratic, national governance and identity. I still think that is how it should be for Britain
But
I can very much see why countries like the Czech Republic would want to be part of a European Federation. Those countries are small and vulnerable, surrounded by neighbours who have invaded and done terrible things to them in the past.

Britain (since 1066) has not experienced the horror of being invaded and occupied.
We don't know what it is like to lose our freedom.
We have never experienced having to learn to work with and get on with your invaders and with those of your own people who collaborated with them. People who may have been responsible for the torture or deaths of family or friends

I remember my mother's horror when she was asked by my father to produce a meal for some Japanese businessmen. He hoped they would bring lots of lucrative business to his engineering company. This was about 1960 - about 15 years after WW2 - when my father was in Borneo fighting the Japanese. My father could bury the past for the sake of his business, my mother found it hard.

Norway was invaded and occupied during WW2. My Norwegian uncle would afterwards talk about the problems of what to do with those Norwegians who had collaborated with the Germans.
Do you shoot them all?
Do you imprison them for life?
The reality was that the population of Norway was too small.  Men were needed to get the country going again. So - the worst -  were shot, but most were  imprisoned for a short while. Eventually they came back into society and society had to learn to accept them. This was not an easy thing especially in small rural communities

What must it be like now for one of those countries once under German or Russian occupation?
How do they cope with German, Russian or Japanese tourists?

We discussed this in Prague with the lovely Cristina - our apartment owner.
She was quite clear that the only way of safety for the Czech Republic was as part of a European Federation with Germany. She wanted the Czechs to be married to Germany (so to speak). Big, powerful, rich Germany would keep them safe and free.
All her friends were very against joining the Euro
She was pro joining the Euro as she works in the travel industry

Yet Norway has stayed out of the EU. Does that mean it feels safe? My Norwegian uncle said that they were always afraid of their border with Russia.

Here in the UK - on our little island -we do not have this same worry about safety and freedom. This explains our different attitude to the EU.

We see that Germany now completely dominates and effectively rules the EU.
Do we mind that?
Is that a good thing or a bad thing for us?
Now that Hitler is no more and there is the lovely Mrs Merkel - perhaps it is a good thing?
But who may take her place in the future?

We see freedom in being outside the Euro and being able to set our own rate of exchange to suit our own economy.

We see the undemocratic Brussels bureaucracy as a threat to our freedom.
When our own politicians behave badly we can hold them to account. No-one holds Brussels to account.

I  - quite definitely  - see the progression to a  Federation of Europe as a threat to our freedom.

Pride in my Irish Great Grandfather

I have been researching my Irish great Grandfather.
He was from Holywood, County Down - near Belfast  - which nowadays is in Northern Ireland.

What I am finding makes me proud of him.

He obviously was a firm believer in trying to get all the religious factions to come together in peace.

He did this through close involvement with Sullivan Schools - started in his time - 1877,
These provided an education for children of all faiths in the one school.
Religion was not taught in school.
There was a heavy scientific influence.

He was trying to do this in 1877!

Once, back in the late 1970's, when we were travelling through New Zealand, we spent time with a couple from Northern Ireland. We talked  long into the night about the problems there.

They were quite emphatic about what needed to be done.
They said
"There will be no lasting peace in Ireland until segregated schooling is abolished.

Catholics and Protestants must be taught sitting side by side"

I think this applies to all the UK.
Segregated schooling should be banned - it is divisive.
Faith schools should be banned unless they can be made to take a properly balanced intake of children to represent all the different faiths in the community.

If you go to school with someone - you realise that they are the same as you - even if they are a different religion or their skin a different colour.

Two of the most divisive issues in UK society at present are
1. Muslim versus non-muslim
and
2. Rich/posh versus poor

The first will respond and does respond well to children all attending the same school together.
The second is - if not caused by - then hugely exacerbated by, segregated private schooling for the rich and posh.