Winter Warmers

Winter has felt long and dark, but there have been some brighter moments. For example I went to watch Heather singing with the Voices of Argyll at Kilmodan church in the Glen. It was a nice evening and even featured a special guest. Unknown in England but he has quite a following in Scotland - Beluga Lagoon. His voice is vey similar to David Gray and he does songs about Scotland with an attractive raw quality and nice guitar work.

Christmas was not as bad as I expected. I had a facetime call with both the girls, opened some lovely gifts including a gorgeous handmade butter dish from Charlotte, a smart and much-needed fireplace utensil set from Amber. I got a sweet book from H&D and some Japanese style outdoor lanterns from Mum and Dad. and these lovely incense sticks from Adam and Emma, which are maybe the most unique and thoughtful gift I've ever received. They smell wonderful too. They are used in Japanese funerals and so, after a lovely Christmas dinner of venison at Heather and Dave's, I set aside some time for John. I found a lovey guided meditation, lit some incense sticks and spent 20 minutes trying to find some peace and contentment with my thoughts of John.

I was invited over to Adam and Emma's for lunch and a walk in February, and we got a cold and windy day with bright spells. After a very hearty lunch that tasted like Christmas roast stew they showed me the progress on their house project, followed by a stroll down to the loch-shore. It was a lovely walk through mossy forest to some rocks where we sat and had tea and cake whilst the dogs chewed up sticks and ferns and we got chilled in both senses of the words.

On the walk back Emma called me up a slope to show me a hidden gem that you would never know was there.

This is known as Brainport Bay Solar Alignment. People first came to live around the shores of Loch Fyne more than 6000 years ago. The houses of these early farmers were probably built of timber, stone, turf and heather and are difficult to recognise today. However, some of their chambered stone cairns, built for the communal burial of the dead, can still be seen.

As farmers, hunters and fishermen these people would have taken a great interest in the changing seasons and eventually monuments were built where special ceremonies took place, and some of these may have been used to predict or mark the passing of the seasons.

This site was discovered in 1975 and excavated from 1978-1984 by members of the local society and Glasgow University.

The two upright stones in this photo can be lined up and mark the position of the surise on mid-summer.s day. There are other rock arrangements here that are supposed to mark the sunsets on mid-winter's day and on the equinoxes.

Back at their house I was introduced to Scrabble Dice, but was very disadvantaged having never played before and a clear strategy needed to be learned to get anywhere near Adam and Emma's scores. A lovely day.

Finally I decided to finally try and learn to crochet. I bought needles and a book about ten years ago but never got my head round reading the patterns. So, I founf a youtube tutorial and had another go. Only one basic stick so far, but at least it's neat and it builds up fairly quickly. I only have craft wool from when the kids were small, but it's enough to practice with. The cats had other ideas though!