Farewelling the cottage

 Time has once again been a bit fluid this trip. Three months seem to have flown; yet at the same time the chores we did back in August feel like we did them on our last trip maybe?

It is intriguing and I never cease to be amazed at how much one suddenly has to try and fit into the final week!

This is a favourite scene. On the drive to our favourite bakery we cross the blanket bog. It has these wee lochans alongside it; the heather and the bracken have turned russet; and the mountains grace the horizon. This day sun showers were about and just added to the beauty.

I will love this landscape forever.

But we are also farewelling the cottage until we return. It is such a place of solace and contemplation; of slow looking; and friendly companionship. We are fortunate indeed.

Here she is in many moods.

We have both been researching a bit whilst here, and in sorting through some paper work we came across this photograph of the cottage taken back in about 1997, before the previous owners began to renovate.  We understand the cottage had lain fallow as they say, since around 1950 and had been used as a barn for storing hay. We are interested to see that the upper windows were in by 1997; but the door and windows were boarded up, and must have done the job as the cottage is very dry.

And a highlight of the trip (among many) was seeing the Northern Lights dance one evening. So often they are around when we are fully overcast or in the dead of night when I am not getting up and ducking out into the cold just to see if they are there...

Just wonderful.

I love how many stars you can see. I am standing just outside the cottage, looking north and using an iPhone. Magic.

Farewell, until next time...