Westering Home

My time in Benbecula is drawing to a close with a flurry of activity (a trip to St Kilda, a wee course in collograph printing, the start of construction on the Harris House care home); a new lodger in my Glasgow flat and a confused series of trips between Glasgow, Morvern and Benbecula (with an extra trip to London when it looks like it wasn't complicated enough). I've still got some furniture, a fair amount of books and a heap of clothes stored in A's cottage on Benbecula. I moved out of my rented cottage at Aird at the beginning of September so I've been squatting at A's since then. I'm grateful for the storage of stuff but staying there gets a bit depressing with missing light fittings (I think he's been using a camping light in the bathroom for a couple of years); a pervading smell of mildew and a mattress on the floor to sleep on. I replaced the broken lights in the bathroom and kitchen (and replaced the wire at the fuse box which meant I also fixed the sitting-room light); nagged continuously about buying some more fuel oil and took a stack of rubbish to the local dump but it was my clearing of the guest room and the introduction of a proper bed (Ikea's finest at £44) that was the final straw and A announced that my presence was causing him too much stress. I upped sticks back to Glasgow (many thanks to Calmac for squeezing in a wee fiat panda at the last minute) leaving A to his mess and mildew but at least I know I actually have a bed to sleep on when I head back to the islands for my part III architecture exam at the end of November.

Down in Glasgow there 's been a fair bit of sorting as I've started moving my things back in again (this implies that the Glasgow flat has been a barren shell while I've been up in the islands but it turns out that I own a ridiculous amount of stuff) and clearing the spare room now that Marc's heading to India. I had one false start with a new lodger when a dramatic Italian-Brazilian chef got sacked just before he was due to move in but I now have a decent and quiet chap who works in Hamilton and supports Partick Thistle. He was a bit surprised that I welcomed him in to the flat and immediately left for a trip up north.

Up here in Morvern I've got seriously behind on garden tidying but I'm trying to persuade myself that this is what winter is for. I had been hoping to start refurbishing the fank this winter but I'm still struggling with the dismantling of C's home improvements. Although the wind turbine is nowhere near producing net energy C has installed a series of energy storage devices which include: a hot water tank on the bookcase in the fank (caused chronic condensation across the whole building) that has been disconnected but never removed; wiring the immersion heater in the fank to the turbine (leaving a bare-wire junction box in the bathroom, just below the towel shelf ... ie just where one would be likely to place a damp hand ...); placing electric radiators in any available areas of floor space (they're newly purchased but have all had their wiring cannabalised in what can only be described as a 'haphazard' fashion) and looping networking cable over the courtyard. Hey ho.

After a couple of truly glorious days of bright autumn sun it has settled back into greyness reminding me that the time of soup has arrived. Here's a great quick soup that uses the cavolo nero we've got growing in the potato bed:

Bacon and Kale soup

200g smoked bacon

4 to 6 chopped potatoes

200g cooked beans

as much cavolo nero as you can gather

water

parmesan to serve

I had some fine bacon from Puddledub in Ayrshire and I used soaked and cooked butter beans but a can of cooked cannelini beans is particularly fine ....

chop the bacon and fry in a touch of oil

remove the largest ribs from the cavolo nero and slice finely

once the bacon's browned add the chopped potatoes, cooked beans and cavolo nero

stir a couple of times then add water to cover with either salt or vegetable stock to season

simmer for about 30 minutes or 'til the potato is cooked

serve with grated parmesan