All this talk of Land got me thinking today.
We are lucky enough to live on a small croft, not mine but my parents – but we are just starting to use it. Yesterday we spent the afternoon working in and around our polytunnel, the boys played in the burn, got soaked and had great fun. We dug and planted – my eldest who has just started to write, wrote the names of the plants on their tags – my youngest dug holes and ended up black with mud (he looked fab!) Today my partner is breaking up wood he got for building a fence – and his son is out with the loppers cutting back rhodedendrons and whin bushes. He’s 13 – and it occurred to me that if we didn’t have this space, this land at our fingertips, he would most likely be inside playing his Xbox or watching tv. But he’s out there, and is enjoying himself immensely!
Look at what they are learning, how to plant and grow, how to write, how to maintain the land, all while getting exercise and enjoying themselves.
Land – so important its got a capital L!
Lochaber Women for Independence 