dual personalities

I had a lovely week. We had one sunny day when the temperature hit 65, work was surprisingly serene, and I found the perfect TV show to watch on Amazon: Strathblair, a light 1992-93 BBC drama about hill farmers in Scotland. It takes place in the 1950s when a young couple become tenants of a run-down farm on the estate (Strathblair) of the local laird. Plenty of hard work, mild marital squabbles and farm crises follow. The scenery is enough to sooth any troubled soul.

There are no ‘bad guys’ and the conflicts are mild and of the everyday variety, but we do meet irascible neighbors with hearts of gold, the upstanding local gentry, and even the occasional traveler (gypsies to you and me). The accents can be pretty thick to American ears, so you might want to turn on the subtitles. Animals — especially sheep — feature and everyone wears plenty of tweed. They even use sheep crooks!

We also learn a thing or two about farming. What has impressed me most about the series (assuming that it is accurate) is how incredibly hard everyone works. People of all ages are outside in all kinds of weather, working from dawn until dusk, and they never complain. Although the show is very upbeat, the work is incredibly hard. It made me think of this sad Mark Knopfler song, Hill Farmer Blues. 

I lead an easy life and it’s good to remember that.

Unfortunately, Strathblair only lasted two seasons, for a total of twenty episodes. With only three episodes left to watch, I started looking at something else to fill the void and discovered Winter and Rough Weather on Kindle for $2.99.* The plot seems very similar to Strathblair, so it should be just what I’m looking for.

Dorothy Stevenson, whose father was a cousin of Robert Louis Stevenson, was a prolific and hugely successful writer for more than forty years from the 1920s to the 1970s. She wrote when people regularly shared such sentiments as, “The best way to plant happiness is to do at least one thing every day to make one person happier, and to do it for God. That shouldn’t be difficult. we can all do that.” Why have I never heard of her before? As often as I complain about our computer age, it does have its perks, the availability of old books being one of them.

Life is good! Have a great weekend and a blessed Palm Sunday.

*[Incidentally, I do not own a Kindle device. I have the laptop app and read on my nice big laptop screen. I could also use my phone but that doesn’t appeal to me very much.]