A Room of My Own

 5/10/20 - Week 2
​Space and quiet become priorities in my search for Somewhere to Live. After weeks of browsing, I find a cabin to rent. Called The Garden Room, it's a self-contained cabin in Inverbervie, an hour's drive north of Dundee and closer to the Arctic than I ever imagined I'd live. It's in the back garden of an eco-friendly couple, Karen and William, who usually let it out for short breaks. But with the unprecedented dragging on, they decided to take a longer term lodger. 

Inverbervie is a town with one of everything: butcher, baker, candlestick maker (who makes others things too!), farmshop, pub, chemist, post office, library, hairdresser. And Karen tells me the fish van stops outside the door on Thursdays and the ice cream van on Fridays. What more could anyone want?

So I bring a vanful of stuff and move in. The Garden Room is large, south-facing and well insulated.  I arrange it so I have different zones: in the east corner are the kettle, toaster, fridge, slow cooker, steamer. I re-position the table so I can eat while looking out onto the herb garden and greenhouse.

In the west is the study where I sit on the sunny window seat, use the laptop while keeping an eye on the pond, visitors to the bird tables against the backdrop of apple, plum and sycamore trees.  I sometimes catch a flash of ginger and white among the greenery. This is Tuin, the shy and delicate cat who darts, stops, stares. She takes social distancing to a new level.  On warm days - and we've had a few -  I open the front door and  sit in the doorway.  Harvey, the mellow Belgian Shepherd (huge hairy and black) usually pops by for a pat.

My library is In the non-windowed north corner. A tall well-filled bookshelf and a low comfy chair are all I need in the evenings. The backdrop to the bed is a floor-to-ceiling panoramic photo of the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye.  Landscape of dreams!
 
All this is just a five minute walk from the sea which I can hear rumbling on the pebbly and deeply shelving Bervie Bay.  Somehow I feel that this place found me.

Read On for the first week of term...