As we now have freesat installed I decided to bring a freeview box back with me and as I stood in the queue for security at the airport I wondered if the combination of laptop, freeview box, i-river, an assortment of chargers and a couple of hard drives together with white powder (in the form of a sherbet dib dab and sherbet fountain, purchased by Richard in a nostalgic moment in a Little Chef) in my hand luggage might lead to me having my bag taken apart - fortunately not!

I have no intention of boring you all with a description of every flight but my latest one on Saturday was quite spectacular. We were about fifteen minutes late taking off so the sun was just rising and there was thick mist collecting in the glens. The effect from the sky was almost prehistoric with the valleys looking like huge glaciers with a backdrop of a clear blue sky and deep red sunrise. A photo through the plane window would never have done it justice - you had to be there.........a note for potential visitors - seat A gives the view of Moy loch both arriving in Inverness and departing.

Some of you will remember the magnificent Christmas cactus which dominated the conservatory each year. Sadly it was inadvertantly left out on the decking at the end of the summer a few years ago and was caught by an early frost causing it to go the way of all frosted succulents - mush!! This was left in Keilingha and I feel is a worthy successor.

I have added 'Making it with Pallets' to my current reading and a 'wrecking bar' (crow bar to the uninitiated) has been added to my armoury. Richard was disconcerted , but not altogether surprised to come back out from sorting out the marble restoration to find that I had talked the workmen into letting me take away the pallets outside and was loading them into the back of the 807. For a tenner and a cup of tea I had another load delivered by a man with a completely unintelligible accent and now have the challenge of taking them apart while preserving as much of the wood as possible. Others may see pallets but I see compost bins and chicken coops and raised veggie beds and ........

In a similar vein the leaves I collected are being stored in wire mesh bins to make next years leaf mould. Richard tells me that it has been quite blustery and the ground is covered again. Last year the snow fell before some people had a chance to collect them and I'm told they had quite a mess to sort out in the spring as a result. I'm hoping that I will make it back in time to avert the same problem this year.

Now that we have completed on the house in Belmont it is time to make a decision as to when I hand in my notice at work in Sutton. It is unrealistic to try and maintain a property with so much land when I am spending more than half my time 550 miles away. With the property market so sluggish this year we were very fortunate to sell the house so quickly and although I will very much miss my colleagues and the unit I first worked in 30 years ago I need to focus on buildinga new life in Moy. Continue to watch this space....

A quieter life??

Well having completed on the house in Belmont it would be reasonable to think that life would get a little quieter - but no! Richard left for Moy and Liz departed to the nurses home at St Helier to start a run of seven nights. Ironic that after housing so many over the years she found herself 'homeless' the day she left. It was an 'experience' to stay at Ferguson House which took her back over thirty years to her early student days. After a week of trying to sleep through drilling and hour long fire alarm testing she was more than ready to depart for the peace of the highlands! The plus side though was that she was able to catch up with some friends - and it wasn't far to go to work!!

The day before we got back our kitchen table was delivered, a lovely oak farmhouse table big enough to seat ten - ordered ten weeks ago and arrived in the nick of time as we had an influx of guests.

Having taken a weeks annual leave to give me a longer period in Moy we enjoyed having Tim, Ruth, Bethan and Toby to stay for a week. It was great to have a bit more time with them instead of the flying visits that seem to have been a feature of the last few months and suffice to say that there was much cake eating interspersed with occasional bursts of activity!! Friends Nick and Jane joined us unexpectedly on Friday for the weekend and we were delighted to be able to introduce them to some aspects of highland life (more cake eating!) including a trip up Cairngorm during a spell of lovely weather.

Much of the rest of the week was spent in the garden and Sarah has already posted a shot taken while I was sweeping a mountain of leaves from the front lawn. The colours at the moment are beautiful and we are hoping that the leaves hold until next week when Joes Mum, Kay is visiting. The veggie patch is looking impressive and the fabric has arrived to re-cover the settees and make curtains for the front room as well as cushions for our wonderful kitchen chairs and roller blinds so I expect to be busy when I get back.

We had another amazing experience with our coffee table. Those of you who have holidayed with us at Dalfaber will remember the huge marble coffee table in the living room. The units are being upgraded and the coffee tables sold off. We were keen to buy the one from our lodge as it is perfect for board games (or food) in front of the log fire. The price they were asking seemed extortionate but we went to look at it anyway and found it cracked from side to side. The resort declared it worthless and gave it to us. We gingerly drove it to a marble restoration company in Inverness who have repaired it almost invisibly at a fraction of the cost that the resort were asking. We are thrilled to have it as we spent many great evenings around it with family and friends in Aviemore.

I continue to battle with the internet and am reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the combination of 18" thick walls and a geriatric laptop are working against me - frustrating when Richard and Sarah can both connect with few problems. I'm now back in N Cheam though, staying in the flat of a good friend who is away for a while and enjoying the luxury of a good connection! I think some of my spare time this week might need to be spent researching routers and laptops!

End of an era

Much has happened since my last post. As Sarah has already said we completed on our house in Belmont on 25th Sept, the day after Tim and Ruth moved into their new house in Winchester. Needless to say it was a busy week and there was little time to reflect on the time that we had spent there as we gardened, cleaned, packed and ate the remains of the food lurking in the fridge. We were very grateful to Tanya and Nicky who helped so much with the cleaning and consequently took a lot of the pressure off us.

Most people who have been part of our lives in the last 22 years will recognise scenes like this:-

But few will have seen the house like this:-

.......and no-one will have seen our studies, (scenes of much preparation,not to mention spider solitaire) like this -not even us!!

When we moved into the house as a young couple with four young children my prayer was that we would be sensitive to how God wanted us to use it. We were privileged to be entrusted with a lovely home in which to raise our fantastic children and it also proved at different times to be a temporary home to many others. I hope that we have been faithful to the phrase which was above the hob in the kitchen 'Entertaining impresses, Hospitality serves.' As we hand it over to the new owners we wish them every happiness and turn the page to the next phase.........

If you go down to the woods today...

The thing about living in the country is that every time you look out of the window you will see something different!