She will always be young and beautiful in my mind. I aspired to her and I loved her dearly. Memories are of her endless energy and dashing around taking care of the horses! I don’t think I ever saw her in ordinary shoes. She always wore those beautiful leather riding boots, and her curly blonde hair would cascade down her back behind her Harris Tweed cap.
That was my Auntie Marta. She was very traditional. She wore Aran jumpers and tartan trews in the winter months, and, if any summer months, her pretty Fair Isle cardigans would come out. Whatever she wore, her Harris Tweed flat cap was somewhere in the mix.
Aran was her extra, extra warm knitwear. She had quite a wardrobe of sweaters and cardigans. We had to, in chilly Scotland. Her Fair Isle knitwear, on the other hand, was more delicate, using traditional knitting techniques to create patterns with multiple colours. It’s named after Fair Isle, one of the Shetland Islands. The patterns were simple and geometric at first but became more intricate over time. Each garment is hand-knitted; otherwise, it’s not a real Fair Isle.
I thought then she was awfully young, but, given calculations now, she must’ve been in her 50s. She trained horses — black trotting horses and had a few acres on the Bannockburn Road. I have no idea the breed but I thought they were the most beautiful jet-black horses on the planet. I was only 8 or 9 years old at the time and I was rather afraid of them, especially when I saw the whites of their eyes.
Aunt Marta’s place was on the Bannockburn Road. It’s a very historic area and where the Battle of Bannockburn** was fought. Allt a’ Bhonnaich is named for the Bannock Burn, a stream running through the town before flowing into the River Forth. My parents and my paternal grandparents also lived on the Bannockburn Road. And I was able to walk freely from one place to the other. I don’t ever remember that it was unsafe not to.
Sadly, Aunt Marta’s house and her little bit of land are there no more. Scottish Education snapped it up and built a monstrous, modern high school on it — Bannockburn High School — from what I can remember.
Aunt Martha let me have my own pet. Not a horse, surprisingly, but a small shaggy coo. I named him Hector. He had his own little stable along with the horses and I loved him to the moon and back.
Hector was the sweetest coo ever and I thought he was beautiful. I’d groom him almost every day and used to plait and tie ribbons in his fringe (US “Bangs”). Sometimes I would dye his fringe and long tail in pretty colours. We painted Hector every Harvest Festival, Halloween and Hogmanay. We’d also paint a couple of the lambs in Spring.
It was perfectly safe. I’d never do anything harm Hector. You see, Auntie Marta was also a bit of an artist. She used to make her own vegetable dyes and paints. We had great fun together, smushing up all sorts of veggies and fruits to make the dyes. We had a whole bunch of vegetables like beetroot, carrots, red onions, nettles and spinach. Sometimes, we would go blackberry picking just so we could get a pretty pink. She had all these big, old, banged-up pans bubbling away and the smell could be awful. I think that’s why I remember it so vividly.
Hector lived a good, long life in the care of Aunt Marta and I was very sad to leave him and go attend a school down there — in the land of the Sassenachs! But every holiday or high day, every chance I got, I would be on the train back up to Stirling to be with my darling Hector.
** The Battle of Bannockburn (Scottish Gaelic: Blàr Allt nam Bànag or Blàr Allt a’ Bhonnaich) was fought on 23–24 June, 1314, between the army of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, and the army of King Edward II of England, during the First War of Scottish Independence.
If you would like to read more about Sue Quigley’s travels, please let her know at [email protected] or [email protected].
