...or back to the afternoons, to be precise, after a fortnight of the 10.30 - 12.30 slot. Has to be said the late nights take a bit of getting used to. I mean, even if you're going to bed normally at 1.00 am, the amount of adrenalin left after two hours on air does not make for immediate and easy slumber. Still, I really enjoyed broadcasting at that time of night - there's a whole different, much calmer atmosphere to it, a sense of intimacy. Whatever.
Having said that, the afternoon show is like being back among old friends, and I'm touched and grateful by all the 'welcome back' messages. I'll be off for even longer - four weeks - in August, touring the nightclubs and fleshpots of England and Scotland with Joe West from Texas and my son James while John Beattie and James MacPherson take on the show.
Anyway, to more pressing matters: peat. Our friend Lornie has cut three peat banks for us this year, and we're very, very late in tackling the crucial drying processes (raising, turning, stacking, bagging). It was a beautiful night, so I headed off on the bike for a couple of hours' backbreaking toil. Traditionally women's work, I can see why men didn;t fancy it. I'm aching, and I didn't even get one peat bank raised.
It's quite important, as we're thinking of moving much more to a solid fuel heating regime this winter. Oil has become catastrophically expensive, and looks like getting worse. So we're pondering some kind of basic windpower heating system, topped up with solid fuel (peat) or maybe retaining the oil for emergencies. At any rate, the sheer brutal tedium and physical work in peat production is essential to the plan. So it's off to the hill every night, if the weather's reasonable. Shouldn;pt have any trouble sleeping after that!
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