Posts From 20 Years of Hard Work
This section pulls together posts covering more than two decades of life on the croft—livestock, vegetable growing, breakdowns, weather, and the perpetual grind of making things work when they won’t. Since we moved here in 2004, I’ve written about everything from repairing roofs in gale to midwifing sows, building retaining walls and plucking chickens, felling trees to repairing machinery.
It’s both reflection and record: what worked, what didn’t, and what had to be bodged in between. The posts aren’t polished lifestyle pieces—they’re fragments of a working life, written in spare moments before the next job started or after it went wrong. Some are practical, others reflective, more than a few written with mud, blood or muck still on my hands. And a few poems creep in to, although the Poetry page is the place to find the widest selection of those.
The archive stretches back to when the croft was little more than rough grass and hope. I’m reorganising the archive to make it more accessible—adding images, fixing links, and reformatting old posts—but the bones are all here: the land, the work, and the lessons learned the hard way.
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Northern Lights, Croft
A brief, frost-sharp observation of the Northern Lights over the croft: green and pink drifting behind the hill, trees held in silhouette, a turbine waiting. A poem written quickly, as much record as response.
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What I Need
What I Need answers a simple question with stoic grace. Between ward and croft, Dennis Johnstone sketches sufficiency—roof, spade, quiet integrity, and the will to keep doing right. A meditation on purpose, humility, and…
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Old Bob
Old Bob captures a rural standoff between ignorance and instinct. A crofter’s warning meets arrogance; a bull waits beyond the hill. Spare, wry, and unsentimental, it’s a portrait of human folly against the quiet,…
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Glitter Ball
In Glitter Ball, Dennis Johnstone captures the space between breath and landscape—a frozen earth turning underfoot. Each step fractures silence, each shimmer of ice a memory of older winters. A meditation on fragility, endurance,…
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If Only…
In If Only…, Dennis Johnstone fuses black humour and bedside realism. A dead van, a defibrillator reflex—one spark bridging mechanical and mortal failure. Beneath the wit lies quiet exhaustion: a healthcare worker’s instinct to…
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Winter roads, crofting realities
The snow came heavy overnight, blanketing the hills with silence and soft edges. Out here, there are no council gritters weaving past our gate at dawn. Just the occasional farmer with a tractor and…
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Proper Snow
Proper Snow It started with a flake,A single fat flake the size of a five-pence coin,Falling like a drunk ballerina,Twisting and twirling in the bitter wind’s jig.“Ach, just a tease,” muttered the farmer,Kicking the…
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Break in the Rain
Break in the Rain distils perseverance into a wry shrug and a nod. Dennis Johnstone faces the weather — literal and otherwise — with his usual stubbornness. Hope rises, rain answers, and still he…
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The Croft of Doom strikes again
A 15-Minute Job (That Took Two Hours) As anyone living on a croft (or indeed, anywhere vaguely self-sufficient and off-grid) knows, there’s no such thing as a small job. Not here. Not on the Croft of…
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A Legend in my Own Puddle
In A Legend in my Own Puddle, Dennis Johnstone turns a blocked water pipe into comedy and small triumph. Earth, wire, and foul water become emblems of persistence — a gunk-soaked celebration of problem-solving,…
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Tepid
Tepid pares luxury down to a few shivering seconds. Dennis Johnstone captures the raw pragmatism of illness and endurance — where a quick wash in cold water becomes both necessity and metaphor for surviving…
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A patient once lived on our croft
A very elderly patient of mine spent several of their formative years on our croft in the years leading up to WW2. Their father was the grieve, that is the head farm worker who…
