Greetings all,
It’s been such a busy week for me and full of writing too, but it wasn't this project that was forcing it’s way out of me this time. Before I moved to The Gardeners Cottage and published my book of Letters. I wrote my first little book/booklet called A Little Book of Permission. Ever the rebel, I understood that in order to figure out how to give myself permission to do things, like write fiction or move to Scotland! I needed to first declutter a bunch of should’s and obligations that were piling up in front of me. The little book led to a course on How to Give Yourself Permission. And I was, as seems to be usual for me, I was a bit ahead of people having any idea of what I meant.
This last week or so I’ve been moved to write about it again, a lot! So I went with it. That means I wasn’t much in this liminal space of Medieval Argyll. But as my writing coach Betsy Murphy always says, sometimes you need to write what needs to come out so you can get on with writing what you want. If you’ve been following me for awhile and miss this side of things you can follow along here on Substack at Permission Granted.
What I did do this week was participate in another brilliant evening talk put on by the Kilmartin Museum. Kilmartin Glen is home of the largest collection of neolithic monuments in Britain and visiting it was always a pleasure and inspiration for me. The museum responded to Covid and it’s own construction restrictions with these monthly talks and I can’t reccomend them enough. Check out their Youtube channel to watch some of those that have already occurred. This week it was about situating the Vikings in the Irish Sea and southern Scotland.
My take aways reinforced parts of the story that I am committed to:
In the medieval and viking ages the people and landscapes of Argyll were very connected to the rest of the world. Grave goods from as far away as India, North Africa, the Mediterranean, Gaul etc have been found often.
It was a busy place! And reimagining the landscape and people will have to be quite different than thinking of modern windswept empty hillsides I was used to wandering.
Until next time,
Susie
Thanks, Susie. I’m in a similar space of writing what wants to come out before it’s lost, for me. Then we’ll see what come out. Be