Tag: hygge

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Catching the light

The winter this far north is pretty dark.

Here on our small Hebridean island at 57° north at this time of year dawn doesn’t break until about 8.30am, and the sun sets before 4.00pm. It’s a short day.

We need to catch as much light as we can.

Cue the enormous windows. They really come into their own in the winter, and being south-east facing they capture as much of the daylight as is possible.

It may be a low sun in the sky in the winter, but every scrap of sunlight helps. The solar gain we get from sunlight, even in the winter, is significant. And beyond that the positive psychological effect of the sunlight is definitely a factor in keeping seasonal depression at bay.

The snow fell hard last night. We watched the snow clouds sweeping in across the Sound yesterday afternoon, dramatic and brooding. And then it started.

Snow approaching

By the time we awoke this morning the snow was a good four inches deep, and we judged the access track to the Croft impassable with the gradient of the slope. A friend driving a big 4WD vehicle tied to visit but had to leave it at the bottom of the hill and walk up.

It’s been a quiet, calm day with the cats in front of the fire drinking tea and reading books. My idea of bliss, to be honest.

Even on days like this, the sheer natural beauty of the highlands right outside our window is a constant reminder of why we’re here.

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Settling into January

The winter gales are well underway now here on Skye, howling around the house and singing in the woodburner flue. The good thing is that the house feels solid and warm, despite being perched on the cusp of this very exposed hill overlooking the sea.

A break in the storms

I still haven’t got used to the lack of rocking motion that we used to have in the caravan whenever the wind blew! I’m sure I developed sea legs in the two years that we lived in it.

Woodburner doing its thing

We’ve decided not to unpack any further boxes until we’ve finished the electrics in the house and got some storage built. At the moment we have no lights or live power in about half the house and no bookcases, wardrobes or shelves. Just the essentials. As most of what we will bring in from the boxes will have nowhere to be put away it makes sense to hold off for a while.

Husband is continuing with the fitting of lights and sockets. Once he’s finished that, a good few more weeks work, I’d say, we can start building the shelving for the linen cupboard, server room and pantry. Then we can start unpacking a bit more.

We have just ordered the wood for the bookcases and wardrobes and have a joiner lined up to build them for us in February. That will be a big step forward in making the house a home. At the moment it’s still feeling a bit echoey and empty.

Sunrise this morning

But we’re loving waking up to the most incredible sunrises. The bedroom faces South East and often on even the most grey and dreich of Scottish winter days there’s a brief, glorious burst of early morning sunlight before the clouds swarm across the sky.

Borrowed friends croft dog living it up on the sofa in the sun

The sunlight in the house during the day is fabulous. The low winter sun fills the rooms. Once we have finished I think that this will be a wonderful space to live in. I can already see that we will need to agree on blinds soon..

My job this coming week is to osmo oil the oak interior doors. There are fourteen of them to do, and each door needs two coats, so that will keep me busy for a while. It’s good to be useful beyond feeding us both.

Kitchen in use, with cooks G&T to hand