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Document 1471

Conversation 35: Three Shetland women on gardening in Scotland

Author(s): N/A

Copyright holder(s): Prof Christian J Kay, SCOTS Project

Audio transcription

F969 And, what is it you ca at?
F1074 [tut] Weel, the written wey is Hjogaland.
F969 Mmhm.
F1074 But the wey that the fock spak aboot it wis that they caad it Hjoland.
F969 Mmhm.
F1074 And there are two idder Hjolands close by, baith in Burra Isle, wan Ester Hjoland, an wan Waster Hjoland. [laugh] But for the sake o [exhale] ehm, postal address, we thought that that was [laugh] that was kind of difficult so when we cam, we sort o modified it an made it Hjogaland. And we thought that that was maybe mair accurate for what it would mean. Cause I looked at that and it turned out that there were a lot of places caad Hogaland. And the Hoga actually referred to the Scattald of the common grazing.
F1073 Mmhm.
F1074 But the places that had the /ju/ soond there mair or less referred to a hjog or a hill.
F969 Oh what does that mean, Christian?
F1074 Hjog means a hill.
F969 Right, uh-huh.
F1074 So it's like the hoose on the side o the hill. //That's what what we think the word is.//
F1073 //Mmhm.//
F969 Do you ken foo lang fock have bidden there?
F1074 Not really, no, I really don't know. No.
F969 Wa de a hoose dere when you cam?
F1074 No. Not a, well not a habitable wan. The original hoose was doon at the banks of the [?]road nearly[/?]. And [exhale] I don't know what it di-, when it di- [inaudible] but the faimily's story aboot it is that ehm the fock didnae even bide in it, at that time, that would have been in the [inhale] twenties, nineteen-twenties, or somethin like that, [cough] when Harry's faider had the croft.
F1073 Mmhm.
F1074 And he lived in Burra Isle, the next isle, of course, there was nae brig, but they would come across, they would row across frae Burra to Trondra, in order to cultivate the land. //Right? You see?//
F969 //Yeah.//
F1074 And they keepit horses, in in Trondra for plooin an that. And a crood o them would come ower and work togedder. And because they were a crood o them were goin doon, some o the women thought they'd mak [?]met[/?] to them and they wid pit on the fire in the hoose, and of course they were grand muckle widden lintel. Right? And what happened that particular day was that they were makkin their wey hame after the day's work in the field, //right?//
F1073 //Mmhm.//
F1074 And as they gaed ower the hill, they turned back and they saw the smoke risin.
F1073 Oh, heevens!
F1074 Uh-huh. And a spunk oot o the fire had set had set the whole place, whole fireplace alight. And erm they rushed back, they couldnae save the hoose, but they did save the horses that was in the in the byre next door. It was a kind of stables that was kind o attached to the hoose in the auld-fashioned wey, ye ken, the peerie hoose and then the stable and then the byre was beyond.
F1073 Mmhm.
F1074 But they saved it and they saved the horses, but the hoose was brunt doon.
F1073 Mmhm.
F1074 Ehm, efter that then the hoose where we bidit [inaudible]. Ehm [tut] Harry's stepfaider and his faider, they biggit a hoose, er wi no intention o ever bidin in it on ony permanent basis, but they biggit it in order to bide there when they were ower w- wi the lambin or onything like that.
F1073 Mmhm.
F1074 So that's the story of our place.
F1073 And on it is the most wonderful gairden. //And gairdenin in Shetland//
F1074 //Mm. [laugh]//
F1073 is no easy task, and you've made this, created this wonderful oasis.
F1074 Well it's an act of faith, I think.
F606 //[cough]//
F969 //[laugh]//
F1073 //[laugh]//
F1074 An I mean first of aa, I mean we startit sma, and just made a peerie bit on it. And the main thing was really to mak, put up shelter, plenty o shelter so we had fences and shrubs and things that were biggit for us. And then of course I got ambitious and wanted an idder bit, an it kind o grew and grew, organically. [laugh] //[laugh] A bit here and a bit here and so on, it did,//
F606 //[laugh]//
F969 //[laugh]//
F1073 //[laugh]//
F1074 until Harry said, "That's enough. //No further." [laugh]//
F969 //[laugh]//
F1073 //[laugh]// But I bet you still buys plants.
F1074 Oh certainly, yes yes, mmhm, every opportunity.
F1073 And it's quite unusual because the rhododendrons that blooms there. //And that's really exotic for Shetland.//
F1074 //Oh brilli- yeah, mmhm mmhm mmhm.//
F969 And you've been cuttin doon trees.
F1074 We hiv. Mmhm mmhm. We planted them far too close, you see, because you never ever thought for a moment that they would [laugh] grow to the size that they did. [laugh] //[laugh]//
F1073 //Goin roond Shetland noo// //can you no see that, the number o peerie hooses wi these great muckle trees aside them, and it is because fock never [?]reckoned they'd[/?] grow.//
F1074 //Mmhm, mmhm, mmhm, mmhm.// Mmhm. //That's right.//
F1073 //And noo fock are haein to cut doon trees.//
F969 //Mmhm.//
F1074 //Mmhm.//
F1073 So I hope they're gaen to keep them and cure them an mak bonny things wi them.
F1074 Yes, I think we're goin to mak them into a garden feature. //Mmhm.//
F1073 //Right.// //Uh-huh. [laugh]//
F969 //[laugh]//
F1074 //[laugh]// But I'm no tellin you aboot it! //[laugh] It's a secret until I see if it works. [laugh]//
F606 //[laugh]//
F969 //[laugh]//
F1073 //[laugh]//
F606 Have you both got gardens too?
F969 [tut] Sad to say I don't have a gairden. Ehm, my mither was a keen gairdener. But er my excuse is that whaur I live, the gairden is very weet, the soil is too weet. But er it's likely just my ignorance as much as onything.
F1073 Mmhm.
F969 So every summer I just rush oot and buy ready-made flooers, and stick them into containers and that's my gairdenin done for the year, more or less. //I really am just a non-gairdener.//
F1074 //Mmhm.// But there's no that mony plants that grow in wetter areas; you just need to look for them.
F969 //Yeah, I ken, it's likely me.//
F1073 //Mmhm mmhm.//
F606 //[laugh]//
F1074 //Blogga.// //Mmhm Seggies.//
F1073 //Oh there's blogga, yes, but er you wouldnae want a gairden fu o blogga.//
F1074 Well I never [?]had that[/?] in me ponds.
F969 //Oh that's right.//
F1073 //Mmhm mmhm.//
F606 What's blogga?
F1073 It's marsh marigold. //Mmhm.//
F606 //Uh-huh.//
F1073 //Aa the wild flooers have Shetland names.//
F1074 //Mmhm.//
F606 Mmhm.
F1073 //And seggies is the irises.//
F1074 //Irises, iris is what you caa it.//
F1073 And we hae primroses that grows in oor gairden, primroses and rhubarb and that's it. //We're just a disgrace.//
F606 //[laugh]//
F969 //[laugh]//
F1074 //[laugh]//
F1073 A braa lock o weeds.
F969 Uh-huh.
F1073 //The odd daisy. I did hae a tree or twa.//
F1074 //Mmhm mmhm.// //Mmhm.//
F1073 //But er sorry, nae flooers.//
F606 So what kind o trees do you have, Christian?
F1074 Oh well the the ones we've been cuttin down are sitka spruce. They're not very satisfactory. They're
F1073 Mmhm.
F1074 they're subject to the wind damage and they're also subject to aphid damage, but erm but we have a lot o ither kinds, we have er elder and elm, we actually have elm. And we have numerous kinds o willows. And a lot of sycamores cause they grow everywhere.
F1073 Is there any alder, cause //alder's one that usually grows weel on Shetland.//
F1074 //Yes, uh-huh, oh yes alder.// That's a weet wan, you can grow //[laugh]//
F1073 //Oh! [laugh]//
F969 //That's maybe what I hae, and dinnae ken the name.//
F1074 //Then there's// some birch, an there's lodge pole pine or, what else do we have? Oh right, ther- I have a mmhm, cottonwood. Black cottonwood. //Larches, plenty o larches.//
F1073 //Mmhm.// Somethin you used to see an aaful lot in gairdens in Shetland was southernwood. Does fock still grow that?
F969 //Aye mind the, that's the stuff wi the bonny smell.//
F1074 //That's lovely. I mind when we were bairns,// //du must have done it too. We used to poo aff all the thi- and you used to mak what you said was perfume, you used to pit this in a bottle of water, and that was a game, to mak perfume.//
F1073 //Mm, mmhm, mmhm, yes, perfume, [laugh].// And wisn't it interestin in the gairden on Jura yesterday, comin in just efter the rain, //the real scent comin frae the wild flooers.//
F1074 //Oh! The scents. Mmhm.// //It was just gorgeous.//
F1073 //That was [inaudible].//
F1074 Just loved it.
F1073 Du took a lot o photo.
F1074 I did, mmhm mmhm. I'm goin to mak a wild flooer gairden when I go home.
F606 [laugh]
F1073 Du can do that ootside the deck.
F1074 Yeah.
F1073 Mmhm.
F1074 Mmhm.
F1073 That's pretty good. Well I reckon the place whaur we bide in Lerwick, I reckon that that field used to be covered and smothered in primroses, but noo o coorse it's //aa biggit up, it's aa biggit. Mmhm.//
F1074 //It would be very fertile yonder.// //Mmhm. Yeah.//
F1073 //It wis actually the pairt o Lerwick doon as the slets, that they used for the pig fairm.// //Mmhm.//
F1074 //It wis the pig fairm, mmhm.//
F969 //When when wis that?//
F1073 //All all// //Mm, my grandfaider's youth.//
F1074 //Mm.// Mmhm. //Mmhm [inaudible] mmhm.//
F969 //Oh right.//
F1073 //An it's writt- it's written aboot in er "Lerwick in the Last Half Century",// //which was written by Mortimer Manson's faider when he was the editor o the Shetland News.//
F1074 //Mmhm, mmhm.// //Mmhm.//
F1073 //He wrote, it was a weekly column to cheer up fock durin the First World War.// //Yeah, and he just wrote aa the, it appeared weekly, and he just wrote aa kind o reminiscences and stories.//
F969 //Yes, that's a good book.//
F1073 And the ree story aboot a terrible terrible er gale o wind and severe //sea that cam to the slets.//
F1074 //Mmhm mmhm.// //Mmhm, mmhm.//
F969 //What?//
F1073 //And all Lerwick's pigs were sweepit oot tae sea. They were//
F1074 Mmhm.
F606 //Pigs?//
F1073 //Pigs, yes, mmhm. Pig farm.// So you can imagine that were a very sad and sorry day in Lerwick when we lost all that lovely food! //[laugh] Yeah.//
F606 //[laugh]//
F1074 //Mmhm.//
F606 Well thank you very much, I think that will do. [laugh]

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APA Style:

Conversation 35: Three Shetland women on gardening in Scotland. 2024. In The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Retrieved 29 March 2024, from http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=1471.

MLA Style:

"Conversation 35: Three Shetland women on gardening in Scotland." The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2024. Web. 29 March 2024. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=1471.

Chicago Style

The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech, s.v., "Conversation 35: Three Shetland women on gardening in Scotland," accessed 29 March 2024, http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=1471.

If your style guide prefers a single bibliography entry for this resource, we recommend:

The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. 2024. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk.

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Information about Document 1471

Conversation 35: Three Shetland women on gardening in Scotland

Audio

Audio audience

Adults (18+)
For gender Females
Audience size 3-5

Audio awareness & spontaneity

Speaker awareness Aware
Degree of spontaneity Spontaneous
Special circumstances surrounding speech The three Shetland women were friends and colleagues. An Australian woman was also present, but was silent.

Audio footage information

Year of recording 2006
Recording person id 606
Size (min) 10
Size (mb) 38

Audio setting

Private/personal
Recording venue Sitting room of temporary home
Geographic location of speech Bowmore, Islay

Audio relationship between recorder/interviewer and speakers

Professional relationship
Speakers knew each other Yes

Audio speaker relationships

Friend
Professional relationship

Audio transcription information

Transcriber id 718
Year of transcription 2006
Year material recorded 2006
Word count 1647

Audio type

Conversation
General description Three ladies from Shetland attending conference in Islay.

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 606
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1940
Educational attainment University
Age left school 18
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Academic
Place of birth Edinburgh
Region of birth Midlothian
Birthplace CSD dialect area midLoth
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Glasgow
Region of residence Glasgow
Residence CSD dialect area Gsw
Country of residence Scotland
Father's place of birth Leith
Father's region of birth Midlothian
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area midLoth
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's place of birth Edinburgh
Mother's region of birth Midlothian
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area midLoth
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes All
Scots No Yes No Yes Work

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 969
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1940
Educational attainment University
Age left school 17
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Retired teacher
Place of birth Lerwick
Region of birth Shetland
Birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Voe
Region of residence Shetland
Residence CSD dialect area Sh
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Clerk / crofter
Father's place of birth Voe
Father's region of birth Shetland
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Machine knitter / housewife
Mother's place of birth lunnasting
Mother's region of birth Shetland
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes In formal situations, or wherever required
French Yes Yes Yes Yes As appropriate
Scots Yes Yes Yes Yes Incl. Shetland dialect. At home and elsewhere

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 1073
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1950
Educational attainment University
Age left school 17
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Freelance broadcaster / journalist
Place of birth Lerwick
Region of birth Shetland
Birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Lerwick
Region of residence Shetland
Residence CSD dialect area Sh
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Whaler / Crofter / Postman
Father's place of birth Delting
Father's region of birth Shetland
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Crofter / Post office worker
Mother's place of birth Aith
Mother's region of birth Shetland
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes Whenever and wherever required
Scots Yes Yes Yes Yes At hame, among friends, on radio if appropriate

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 1074
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1940
Educational attainment University
Age left school 18
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Retired
Place of birth Lerwick
Region of birth Shetland
Birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Trondra
Region of residence Shetland
Residence CSD dialect area Sh
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Businessman
Father's place of birth Lerwick
Father's region of birth Shetland
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Florist
Mother's place of birth Lerwick
Mother's region of birth Shetland
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Sh
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes Social etc
Scots Yes Yes Yes Yes Shetlandic. Social, in company

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