Lots of Scoraig

Pete prepares a cooked breakfast to set me up for the day. Petrea is already at school for the first in service day of the new academic year.

I pick up some provisions in Dingwall and cruise up to Braemore Junction listening to the Honourable Schoolboy on the radio. Turn left towards Dundonnell, but hang a right after the fain to head for Badrallach.

I park up, pack my rucksack and put on my wellies for the walk in. I stop, sweaty, at Cathy and William’s. I drink tea, talk history, and learn how to make twine from rushes (and linen from flax).

I am disabused off the notion that I need to use nitrates/nitrites in my cured sausages. Hugh F-W has recipes for salami and chorizo that only use sea salt, so I take some photos for reference.

At Carnach, I meet Nigel moving some cattle to a fresh field. Then I bump into Jessie (with Sandy, Marna and Yona). Finally, I get to Aggie’s where I unload my pack.

I make fudge. There’s a box of Tempranillo. Steak, mushrooms, mashed potato. Music courtesy Spotify.

The world is born again. The same people saying similar things under familiar influences, and yet … the present is wholly different from the past remembered. It always is.