ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.

 

Words can convey so much and in themselves are, when trouble is taken a sort of action. For some, and I include myself, words are often the only option as age and increasing decrepitude limit physical action. However when a complete stranger turned up one even with two bags of coal, and the following day five bags of peat were delivered from Lewis and Harris Trail it meant a whole lot more. Above and beyond simply writing the words and straight to the supportive practical action. Thank you.

I’d spoken with Murry and we’d settled on this Saturday to bring in the peats. This is the time I go knocking on doors to rustle up a team of helpers. There’s no point in having too many, and so with Kate, Ewan and Steve we were the famous five. Murry was already at the peat face with tractor and trailer when I arrived with the others. The moor was not as dry as I would have liked, but despite two seriously heavy loads Murry made it look easy with the new wider trailer and double wheels. The third and final load was the bags of currans which when the tops were rolled and stacked flat slid neatly out when tipped. It is always wonderfully satisfying feeling to have the peats off the moor after all the hard labour of cutting, settling up and bagging up. Most of us are still wondering if summer will ever appear this year or if the dry spell back in May is all we’re going to get, but miraculously the peats have dried, proof that it’s the wind above all that does the drying. Now with the back half of yard filled with a large pile of peat my next enjoyable task is to get building a stack. My days of dry stone walling are over, but I can take my time. There is pride locally in this final stage of peat cutting and a critical eye will be cast over my efforts. A good peat stack is not just a pile of fuel. It is the visual result of an annual tradition stretching back for centuries and when well executed is a thing of beauty.