life is still a beach

Little achieved today. Boiler not working this morning so we had to ring the Trust. Funny we were worrried about the concrete freezing but it was Kinnererach which was really cold. Had a visitation from Raymond and Lukas, Trust managers, who then had a good long walk round the proposed Kinnererach crofts and semi-derelict farm buildings here. Later on Andy dug out the trench very neatly for the sunspace - pure beach underneath - pebbles, storm beach and sand and this evening we went to the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust Member's Meeting about the croft proposals for Gigha. We had had a first class briefing paper circulated on the options. The presentations were excellent and the Crofter's Commission adviser pragmatic and to the point. The question and answer session covered pretty much all the relevant details and then we got totally mired in petty politics, point scoring - including some barely concealed personal animosities and red herrings. As usual self interest reared its ugly head. Two hours later and no decision was made - not even a basic in principle one. The discussions on crofts and small agricultural units have already dragged on for several years with no real action being taken except to commission more studies on the options. On this subject, like economists, if you lay all Gighans end to end, you would still not reach a conclusion.

We are actually the only owner-crofters living on the island as the part of our plot not being built on is still croft land. It is big enough for a polytunnel, some raised beds, and our wee sheep fank. We also manage the rest of Ardailly croft and are getting our first sheep soon as well as having made a start controlling bracken with a view to planting trees for wood fuel. We are not Trust tenants as our wee bit of the island is the only bit not under Trust ownership. After tonight we realised how simple our lives are compared with those folk hoping to become new crofters on Trust land. It was not so easy for Lachlan and Fiona before we bought the plot from them but that is another story.