I could spend every weekend cleaning, tidying and decorating my house and it would still never come close to being Scotland’s Home of The Year.
It’s not for the want of trying. I’m handy with a tin of paint and have so many interior design magazines I could wallpaper each room with the pages.
It takes dedication and imagination to create the homes featured on the BBC Scotland show and it was exciting to see three Aberdeenshire properties in the running for top prize.
Each property is different but what they have in common is the love and hard work poured into everything from the light fittings to the floor finishes.
We do that with our homes, don’t we? Whether it’s a two-bedroom flat in a high rise or an eight-bedroom mansion in a leafy suburb. We plump up cushions, put up pictures and gather our precious things around us.
Even Neolithic man had his own ‘home of the year’ in Scotland
There must be an interior design gene. At the Neolithic settlement Skara Brae in Orkney, there are stones arranged as shelving and alcoves facing the door.
Known as the dresser, it was where decorative items were given pride of place as the first things anyone would see on entering the home.
Now, instead of a rudimentary ornament, it might be a knick-knack from Matalan but the drive to put it there is the same.
Our lives, family, history, identity and finances are tied up with our abode and all that we invest in it.
No wonder it’s so distressing when we are displaced from the space we call home.
Families evacuated from RAAC-ridden homes
We’ve seen it with families having to be evacuated from their RAAC-ridden properties in Aberdeen.
This week resident Erica Mitchell told The Press and Journal her mental health is at an all-time low as she is one of hundreds of tenants waiting to be moved from their homes in Torry.
Home is meant to be a sanctuary, and as I write, the dog reminds me of this as she hides under the sofa.
She is spooked by the noisy TV as American riot police break up pro-Palestinian protests at UCLA.
I turn the volume down and read the captions so my spaniel can sleep more soundly in her living room as chaos reigns on college campuses.
I turn it back up to hear what John Swinney has to say about the sticky situation in which the SNP finds itself.
What puzzles me most is the series of events over several years that have led to this political moment.
The planet we call home…
I’ve watched as both the SNP and the Scottish Greens appear to have drifted ever further from their core missions.
Delivering independence and tackling the climate emergency should be more than enough for anyone’s inbox. We call Planet Earth home too.
I’m noticing lots of properties for sale along the coast, in areas affected by flooding, storms, and very high tides.
It’s just a few ‘for sale’ signs, but I can’t help think of other parts of the world that have seen huge displacement of people due to climate change.
The Scottish Greens have been champions of biodiversity, at risk from a warming planet, pollution and deforestation.
In Scotland, hedgehogs, turtle doves, wildcats, water voles, and some species of woodpeckers and butterflies are endangered through loss of habitat.
And there’s another word for home.
Travellers move into their new homes
Meanwhile, Clinterty Travellers’ site has undergone a £5 million facelift with families now moving into modern accommodation.
They have upgraded kitchens and bathrooms, enhanced insulation, infrared heating systems and solar panels.
Above all, the project is a reminder that home is also about community.
UN says 80,000 homes destroyed in Gaza
This week Reuters reported that the UN has estimated it could take until the next century to rebuild the Gaza Strip, describing it as a “moonscape” with 80,000 homes razed to rubble.
And what will become of several million displaced people when there is nothing for them to return to?
No one knows where this all will end, but it’s clear where it started.
Follow any thread in any debate over the situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories, and there is one central, inescapable theme.
The right to a home – and a homeland.
Read more:
Scotland’s Home of the Year: Banchory cottage goes through to final
Scotland’s Home of The Year is currently airing on BBC Scotland and available on BBC iPlayer.
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