I must admit I hate Facebook and I hate the word blog; for no reason, logical or otherwise. The philosophy of Facebook unnerves me and the word blog does not inspire me to write like its synonyms diary, journal, memoir, or letters. But that’s what it is and I’m not interested in why it’s that way because I’m not thirty anymore, Thank God, and have earned my right to add more vinegar to my diet than sugar, if I so choose.
However, I do like the idea of a website address because it lends itself to a kind of technological nobility, a kind of certitude or poise, if you will. I can pick and choose to whom I send this address and in that way it becomes more like a letter to me, personal, something on a more human scale as Paul might say. Something else about a website that appeals to me is the individual design of it, how it echoes a room of one’s own. In this era of sweeping acceleration, fast food, instant communication, and disposable packaging, Cottarton Cottage is a quiet place with a measure of modernity (we have appliances) certainly, but of a time past when the day moved a bit more slowly and without such competing ambitions. It is an interesting life, though not immediately noticeable because of its contemplative nature. There are no art galleries or concert halls; films released in the States take a whole extra season to find the village of Glass, by Huntly, and we can’t boast any three star restaurants. But we can walk down the road and buy our eggs, fresh, from chickens we can see – the Happy Girls, they’re called. I can walk out into my garden and cut flowers, make bunches and walk them to the end of my drive and maybe someone driving past might stop to take one home. I hang my wash out on the line and I must wait for the bread to rise. In late summer, I can pick berries from the bush and bring them in for cereal. True, in many ways an elitist lifestyle. But I think there is something else going on here and that’s one of the things I want to explore in the website as well fun stuff like recipes, pictures and the occasional fairy sighting.
I do live on the bones of Druids.
Be well, dear friends and look forward to our website coming soon – meanwhile, we’ll keep you informed on things happening here at Cottarton, what we’re doing, what we’re thinking.
Amber
Blog is indeed one of the ugliest words in the English language.
ReplyDeleteFrom the ridiculous to the sublime, I love your turn of phrase, "the day's competing ambitions."
However, as one who's had the fun of joining in for few days, I must beg to differ as to "elitist" being an appropriate word to describe your way of life: I think it's a refreshing antidote to much of what generally counts as elitist in our society. Rarefied, though? Perhaps! x