Alba in a pod (2)
- Deepta Sateesh
- Sep 17, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 20
It's pissing down today, and I'm worried about my ferry the day after tomorrow. Sitting at the Kilbride Cafe in South Uist, as Am Politician is full up for lunch. Had an IPA Seven Peaks and some peanuts. While waiting for it to open I called CalMac to check if I should be worried. So far it's GREEN for Tuesday. I will decide tonight what to do.
It's a wet day. The rain is on, but the wind is not too strong, nor are the waves very choppy, from the looks of it. When I think about it, muran is very closely associated with machair ecologies. Life a couple of centuries ago (maybe only one) was close to the sea in this harsh terrain.
[Also, realised that it may not be an allergy, but a small blister at the back of my throat behind my epiglotis]
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In the pod. There's a lone seagull bobbing in the tides. He/she is hanging out alone, comfortable, feeling at home, temporally. Later, will go back to the roost of some resting place with some others. In a way, I feel we are alike - wandering off, and being in places/inhabiting.
I walked over to the Am Politician in the rain. It doesn't really count as rain, as it (the waters) doesn't quite come from above as precipitation. It seems more like a misty spray, cloaking the hills (or emerging from them when things get warmer). Yesterday was warm (around 20'C in the late afternoon/evening) when I was walking around. The wind is from the south just now while walking, and there were more water droplets on my raincoat... not until I reached Am Politician for dinner. It was when I took off the raincoat that a few drops fell, and my face was moist, my fingers cold, my fingerless gloves only slightly damp. But I had to go to the loo to wipe my eyebrows that had gathered some moisture and felt cold underneath. My pants, being the trekking kind, didn't hold any moisture - these pants are made from a drainage imagination. But I can still feel the dampness cold on my skin below.
It's cold and very wet today (according to the car's thermometer, 'twas 12/13'C in the afty). The food at Am Politician is really good, fresh, tasty, and looks like the BBQ sauce may also be made in-house.
Outside, the mist is so dense that you can't see beyond the slope behind the house across the road. So far, rain has come only with mist and clouds forming around the hills - low (not from the sky, but almost suspended above the higher earths). The mist is descending and getting thicker around the houses, wind blowing from the hills carrying the mist spray out to sea, kissing everything along the way - wetting everything from the grasses, cars, roads, soil and sands, the little rivulets trickling with more water (but not too much - seepage is a slow process!).
