My family moved around a lot when I was growing up. One of the places that we lived in that I remember well enough to talk about in any detail was Hillside, a little village in the North East of Scotland, near Montrose. We had a big farmhouse – not with land, but a nice big garden. Nor did we have goats…or ducks, much to my disappointment.
I remember spending most of my time in the fields around the house, hiding in the long grass with my friends. There were sometimes cows in our favourite fields, which spoiled our fun now and then.
Opposite the house was a field of 3 horses, which I loved, as I’d started having riding lessons each weekend. This was one of my great childhood loves, along with the usual embarrasing little girl obsessions that I won’t go into.
So, going back to the farmhouse. Winding staircase, high ceilings, log fires – the works. To look at a photo of it today takes me back to being young and naive, with my sense of self still developing. [I haven’t got a photo to show you, apologies] It was a quiet, idilic environment for a child to grow up in. I’d like to go back to see if it has changed as much as I have. Or maybe I wouldn’t…maybe it should stay a dream-like childhood memory.
Evocative picture of farmhouse life. Was curious about ’embarrassing little girl obsessions’ the narrator didn’t want to divulge. Ever thought of developing it to include an incident to give the memory more of a storyline?