A NEW LIFE: It took Doutsje Nauta a while to adjust to life on Achill Island, she tells Sylvia Thompson, but once she grew accustomed to the silence, she realised she'd never return to city life in Holland.
Often you can tell how people are coping with their lives simply by studying their faces. And the beautiful, warm smile with which you are greeted by Dutchwoman Doutsje Nauta gives the immediate impression of a life enriched by an understanding of human nature and the calm that comes with that.
Now living on Achill Island, Co Mayo for the past seven years with her husband, Dutch painter Willem van Goor, Nauta willingly reflects on the busy city life she left behind in Groningen in northern Holland.
"For 20 years, we lived in the heart of the city. With a business partner, I ran a company of organisational consultants which employed 25 people. I loved the pulse of the city, but Willem wasn't happy there.
"We came on holidays to Ireland and we made an agreement that if we saw a house with a big garden and mature trees, we would buy it and move to Ireland. On the fourth week of our second summer holiday here, we saw this house floating in the water in high tide. It was the beautiful summer of 1995.
"We thought it couldn't be for sale, but it was. So we drove to the auctioneers and had a look at the house.
"By July 1997, we had sold everything we owned in Holland and moved here."
Inspired by the striking beauty of Achill Island, van Goor was immediately at home at this western frontier of Europe.
However, for Nauta, the transition from city life to rural living was a slower, sometimes more difficult process.
"I was so at home in Holland. I had my place in society and it was a good place. When we moved here, nothing seemed natural anymore and I felt very insecure. I had to pull myself together and learn how to survive."
As their daughter, Hesseltje, started secondary school in Achill Sound, Nauta began an exhaustive study of plants, trees and later fruit, vegetables and herbs. And together with van Goor, she has developed a fascinating garden in which ornate shrubs, trees and sculpted natural materials blend harmoniously with fruit trees, beds of herbs and a polytunnel oozing with succulent foods.
"I had a lot of energy, so I spent the first year cleaning up, sawing branches and pulling up weeds and briars. On St Stephen's Day 1998, five of the huge Monterey Cypresses in the garden fell in a storm. And although we lost five beautiful trees, we gained a lot of light and used the branches to make fences. At this stage, we were beginning to get to know the people around us."
In her former working life, Nauta trained people in how best to manage situations, delving into the nuances of language and studying the intricacies of cultural context. Now, living in another country, speaking a language that was neither her first (which is Frisian) nor her second (which is Dutch), she often felt she couldn't clearly express herself.
"It changes you personally. For a long time, I felt speaking another language was a handicap. But it is a process and now I could never go back to Holland. I wouldn't fit in any more. I have discovered another side to myself and gained some wisdom along the way."
Over the years in Achill, Nauta has built up a small business selling plants to the shops and herbs to the local restaurants. Three years ago, she also joined the country market which is held on Friday mornings in Lavelle's Bar, Cashel on Achill Island.
"I have never earned so little money per hour as I do here but that is not what it's about. I needed to be involved in some things, which is why I joined the country markets.
"I couldn't survive without contact with people. I really need a foot in society to enjoy it."
She also maintains a self-catering chalet next to their house, which is for rent throughout the year. "People come from Holland to stay in the cottage - which was once the lodge's gardener's house - and in the beginning the silence is almost a threat. But, I feel we have something special to offer people, a kind of back-to-basics life to which they can retreat from their busy lives."
And what does she miss most about life in Holland? "Now and then, I miss the possibility to cycle in a safe way on a good road. I always cycled in Holland. But what I have instead is the beauty of the landscape, the physical presence of the mountains, the water, the sky, the birds and the gardens. There is so much to enjoy here."
An exhibition of new paintings by Willem van Goor will be on show in the Ferndale Restaurant, Keel, Achill Island from August 29th -September 3rd.