Christmas...

Wherever you may be, I wish you the happiest Christmas!

May the global economic slowdown have us all re-defining what's really important in our lives.

~~~~~ The Journey of the Magi by James Tissot 1894 ~~~~

There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries. ~W.J. Cameron

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~Charles Dickens

May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through! ~Author Unknown

Peace to all who read this and thank you for continuing with me throughout this somewhat chaotic year.

Thanksgiving...

Seems like a lifetime since I last was here. So much has happened, not just in our lives, but all over the world...unimaginable events that affect us all.

Today America celebrates Thanksgiving, a timely exercise, and one we would all to well to practice. So, to all of my American friends and family I wish you a peaceful and happy day.

What’s Really Important?

Yesterday, while reading Rhonda Jeans’ blog, I came across the quote below. Originally part of a post written some months back, it first appeared on another remarkable Blog. This young couple are facing tremendous challenges supported by an amazing family and it seems, a large slice of the blogging world. You can read the whole story and get updates here, http://blog.cjanerun.com/.

I’m always a sucker for writing that helps me slow down and stop and think. And again as we find ourselves at another threshold in our lives and while we assess options and explore possibilities, Rhonda reminds us to “mine everyday for the joy it holds”. Surely a small wisdom we should all remember … How I wish I had written the words below for they speak what has been in my heart since our family photographs were taken and lost in some dusty African shanty town (my missing moments). The few that remain are poor mementos of the freshly bathed, sweet smelling babies, soft-furred companions, sunlit rooms… moments that I treasured (but not enough), moments when the very busy-ness of our lives made me impatient and irritable. Moments when as a mother, as a wife, I should have stopped whatever I was doing, paid attention, worked out was really important. Things can change in a heartbeat…they often do, lives turned around…fragile, precious. And what is really important? And how do you tell? And so, I pass this on to you…because I was this mother too and that is one of my regrets…

"The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make... I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less" by Anna Quindle.

Goodbye Summer, So Long…

With the rain and the wind, it would seem autumn is truly here to stay…

Small (and big) birds gather at the feeders…along with Red Squirrels who perform all sorts of acrobatics while they hang on the peanut cages, munching away. Unfortunately, the squirrels very shy and run before we can take their photo even though we see them hanging there for up to half an hour... One day...

But inside the shop, flowers brighten things up…


Friends drop by for a chat…


Lots of ice cream waits for a warm weekend…


Splashes of colour all around…


The new coffee corner is working it’s magic…mmm, what an aroma.


My first granny squares ever…really good ways to use up some of the giant bag of yarn I thrifted back in July! These little things are addictive! I love being able to combine crazy colours but am only getting adventurous now after the first nineteen squares. Put-down, pick-up projects are useful with the rhythm of my days when painting or sewing would involve too much of everything – equipment, time, concentration. They stop me getting jittery and irritable because I’m not keeping busy. Even reading (which I love) doesn’t help because there’s nothing (tangible) to show for it at the end of the day. Many a book has been abandoned lately because the intricacies of plot or train of thought are taking too much time to keep track of…sigh…when did that happen? I still believe a wonderful book is as good as a holiday.


Time to put out the freshly baked scones and start the day. For the moment the sun is trying to peek out and the rain has stopped…

Have a wonderful weekend...

Turn, Turn…

The swallows left Sunday morning…swooping and diving around the house, filling the sky out over the water, their curious, melodious, trilling song filling the air as they bid us farewell. These summer residents have been such a part of each day, filling the sky with acrobatics breathtaking as they skim the water with millimetres to spare, dive, roll and swoop through the air. Now they start the long journey back to Africa, leaving us behind to face autumn and the cold Scottish winter.

And as if someone has pressed a button, the season has changed to autumn; nights have a nip in the air that wasn’t here a week ago. The swallows left on the 31st of August and by Monday the 1st the quality of the light had changed, somehow brighter and richer; even the trees are turning, changing their gowns to amber and gold.

Today the steady rhythm of the morning rain did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of hungry birds crowing the feeders. When a red squirrel “captured” the one peanut feeder, the small birds are forced to scratch around underneath him to catch the bits of nuts that fall. Everything is gathering, preparing for the coming winter, laying in supplies.

~ My take on the traditional scone - Our "bread- and-butter" ~

Normally, Fall brings a respite from summer heat; I don't think we had one day over 19 degrees Celsius - OK maybe one or two, but as M says "the sun always shines in Scotland - it's just covered by clouds". We hope to have the benefits of a mild autumn, perhaps even an Indian summer. With summer being such a non-event, some gloriously sunny fall days would be a wonderful gift, bringing visitors to enjoy the countryside and cream teas at the Jolly Otter!

Apologies for the spacing problems - Blogger won't let me fix it!

It Comes and It Goes…

A weekend playing hide 'n seek with the sun meant a slower pace, very useful for recuperation but not so good for the coffers.

A bright spot was the arrival of some new Otter Ferry postcards specially made for us. Although the photographer had a grey and cloudy day, she managed to make this little spot look peaceful and atmospheric.



They have been well received by customers and the first batch has almost sold out – always a good sign.

The patient is taking it easy, needing occasional reminders to not take the stairs two at a time and only having to be dragged from the workshop once ;◦) Although this has not been our first experience of cardiac crisis (in 1994 M had an Angioplasty), we certainly hope and pray it will be the last. To this end, we have wound down the work a bit and adjusted diet and exercise once again and I was shocked to see how far away from the old guidelines we had strayed.

Living out here we should have slowed down a lot, but like workaholics everywhere, we dived right in concentrating on opening the shop, setting up the carpentry workshop, trying to manage Internet sales, all spare time spent finding interesting stock. Since last Friday when time stood still, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about quality of life; old wisdoms that previous generations lived by; the worsening economy, the lack of time, the erasure of basic survival skills (like being able to cook wholesome food) and above all, the lack of joy in our daily lives. Some of the new links lead to web pages written by women who have found a quieter, more considered way of life and found great satisfaction along with it. And I suppose this means that I’m still on a journey, albeit a detour on the way as the destination shifts and changes. A destination glimpsed now and again…the oasis through the sandstorm…


Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all.

~Emily Dickinson

Homecoming Heroes (ermmm, Heroines?)

Fortunately the empty spaces here didn’t stay that way for long before M was back; realising that anxiety about being so far away was causing his patient much distress, M’s cardiologist sent him home for rest and recovery (and a bit of Olympic fever).

The wonders of modern medicine are such that some clots and blockages can be busted from the outside in and the injections that left such impressive bruises on M’s abdomen, were the weapons of this battle. The blockage, leaving its permanent mark on his ECG from Friday onwards, was gone by Saturday night and he was ready to come home! This doesn’t mean that the war is won; tests and specialists appointments are going to become part of our lives for the foreseeable future not to mention a concentrated re-commitment to diet and exercise.

Getting the man home from the hospital presented a new set of problems neatly solved by a dear friend and neighbour. Having spent most of Saturday helping a very spaced-out me (after four hours restless sleep) to manage the shop and do some dreary chores, she was quick to spot that I was in no condition to drive and volunteered to get me back over the water to take some of M’s things to him. When I got the call that he was being discharged, a stop at a supermarket was arranged so that I could get essential supplies.


And as if that wasn’t enough, this good Samaritan arrived to pick me up, bearing a freshly baked quiche for our supper!

A neighbour, a friend, a very special person…Thank you from us both.


“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

~ Winston Churchill