Wow what an adrenaline fuelled start to the day….. heading to work and I see a wee red car 🚗 pull out to overtake a huge truck.

The 🚗 disappears behind a hidden dip in the road and reappears STILL trying to over take the huge truck….

She keeps coming at me….. I start to think about reacting. Why I am still bombing along at 60mph? Should I start to brake? Why is the truck getting faster? Why is he not braking and more importantly why is 🚗 still heading right towards me????

🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘🚘

She pulled out further from the truck as if maybe I could squeeze through the middle between her and the truck?!?!?! The toward is not that wide!!!

Finally she realised that was not an option and must have slammed on the brakes and pulled diagonally across the front of the van and I swear I saw the whites of her eyeballs 👀

🚘👀

Then the adrenaline rush…. I was shaking all over, right down into my toes…. Do I phone Craig? He was still sleeping when I left? Do I pull over until the shakes stop? That seems daft? I just keep driving and the adrenaline finally goes. I drive like Miss Daisy the whole rest of the way though.

I wonder if she remembers my face like I remember hers?

🚘👀

The rest of the day was calm and in control until just before I finished work… I was desperate to leave on time and someone asked an question two minutes after I had wanted to leave….. anxiety hits the roof. Phone boss… get perfectly logical answer that I was more than capable of reaching myself, but just couldn’t without his validation. Wee life lesson there. What didn’t I think of that?! Question answered, feel sheepish because absolutely anxiety took over in those few minutes. A huge swoosh of it. Then a cringy calm came over me.

I had a lovely evening… met Lea in Starbucks and caught up on all the chat.

The poor love has a really sore cold sore so she’s strategically positioned the mug so you can’t see it. She still wanted and selfie 🤳🤣

We had coffee (yes I remembered decaf!), a toastie and a muffin between us… sat for two hours and then went for a wander round the shops. She bought me my 50th birthday present WAY in advance of my birthday. You might remember that I had huge anxiety around her 30th birthday present and didn’t get her something for about 2 years after it as I blew it up out of all proportion and couldn’t think what to get her. We did have various lockdowns during that time but I had a real block about what to buy her. I think she got her 40th present when she was 41 and three quarters!!! Here she is buying my 50th when I’m 49 and a half…… I may never get over that 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤣🤣

She’s been there through it all. That says a lot ♥️♥️

In other news, I cannot believe it’s 15 years since the Glasgow Airport terror attack….. I was due to fly out of Glasgow 15 years ago today with my friend Aileen and her two kids, Sam and Kirsty, for a week in Majorca.

The airport was closed and all flights delayed. We were very lucky to fly out about 24hours later after standing in an queue for about 5 hours to get into the airport…. We ended up being interviewed and had our glum faces photographed as we sat our suitcases in the queue. We made the papers! Would love to find that photo! We had the best holiday after that.

15 years and it feels like yesterday!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

£199.9 a litre…….

How is that actually possible. It’s sickening.

I could have filled up this morning on the way to the Fit Body Farm for £196.9 a litre but no…. I thought I’d wait until after work to pay more than that… 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😤

It’s just a joke now. The price increases daily and the petrol stations ⛽️ don’t get daily deliveries of fuel. What they pay can’t be fluctuating that much on a daily basis?!?

I guess the only saving grace is that I live 25 mins from work and not the hour and half I used to travel to my old job…. that and….. I was so close to Irvine Beach after filling up that I decided to come down here and listen to the waves and take some photos. It’s been too long.

The sea is glistening in the late afternoon sun. I went for a quick wander in my T-shirt and sat for a bit until the wind just chilled me that bit too much.

The clouds are stunning.

I’m back in the van sitting with the loveliest view but super cosy as the sun streams through the windows.

I’m tired today. The Farm was hard this morning as I tossed and turned a lot last night. That was our last training session before Tough Mudder on Saturday…. 😱 I could barely run 500m this morning let alone 15km!!!

I will not worry about that. What will be will be and what I manage will be more than I would manage if I stayed in the house. I might surprise myself.

Just beautiful 🤩

It’s lovely to see some sun after the last few days of rain. Everything seems brighter.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I learned today that a girl I used to babysit for…..has died of cancer.

I’ve not seen her for about 30 years, if not more, but knew that she has been fighting it for a very long time. She has a young son who’s only 11 or 12 ish. She is survived by both of her parents. So very sad for all involved. 💔

Another reminder that life is for living every day.

It’s been a good day at work again today. Very productive and in control. I can even answer questions thrown at me, safe in the knowledge I know the answers without thinking. Sometimes anxiety confuses all of that. It’s nice to have a day where you recognise the real you.

I want to share a FB post from a page called Finding Joy that I follow. Rachel hit the nail on the head with this one.

I loved the way she has written this. It totally resonates with me. I write so that others may feel less alone. I share so that people will see what goes on inside my head rather than what they see. If it helps one other person then it will have been worth it.

The news hit today that Scotland are going to have a 2nd independence referendum in October 2023.

I am going to spend the next year and a half avoiding the left hand side of that bus. 🤣

This next one is so true. I’m so I. Tune with peoples energies now and I know what works for me and what doesn’t. It may seem quick to judge but it’s quick to protect me from energy I cannot handle.

I’m a member of several women’s campervan groups on FB just now and I’ve become aware of the derogatory language many women use when talking about themselves or asking questions. We are so quick to put ourselves down, to blow up our inadequacy into something way bigger than it is. We need to watch the words we use about ourselves…

And this next one is just because I saw it and can’t unsee it… you have to all see it too.

Terrifying….. life is short. Love your best life.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I didn’t feel good when I woke up this morning…. It was the aftermath of my weekend somehow. I felt really sad.

Coming into July seems to be a time for holidays for everyone and their Auntie just now. I pride myself in not comparing myself to others but I’m having to really work hard at it just now. I am desperate to travel.

We were very lucky to have just come back from Tiree but we’ve nothing else planned at the moment and I have itchy feet. I am super envious of everyone else’s plans.

The thought of heading to the Farm and off to work today just felt really unfair. I should say here that compared to the Monday morning (or Sunday night!) blues that I used to have this was nothing. i used to start feeling sick early on a Sunday knowing I had to face work the next day…. Anyway that the old life!!

I felt tears burn in my eyes and I was wallowing in negativity and I knew I had to change it.

At 4.45am this morning I jumped onto my positive FB feed….. and fed off it.

And this was the one I took with me for the day. Choose Joy.

I could be miserable all day for no real reason or I could choose to be grateful for all that I have.

I look at these things all the time yet I very rarely allow one to actually change my mood and yet I thankfully did today. I chose joy.

The Farm was great fun this morning. Those exercise endorphins definitely help.

Work was good as well… I got a stock check done today and I hadn’t even really planned to do one…. Best to do it while I had a clear head. It’s a job I usually don’t enjoy but I got stuck right into it and cleared some shelves at the same time.

Craig and made lasagne for dinner tonight which was sooooo good.

I’ve sold another couple of things on Vinted, which needed posted, so I did that after work. Usually I need to come home and chill but the lazy weekend has left me with more energy than usual so I’m making the most of my evening and not wasting it. I’m taking action.

Long may that continue.

Yessir… I hear ya.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Jeez I’ve just been the lady of leisure these last two days….. another huge nap this afternoon but it wasn’t the most relaxing.

Craig’s been moving the office round which is right next for the bedroom so I’ve been snoozing next to a giant heard of wildebeest… the dogs have been loving the noise too running round the house with equal gusto to the wildebeest. Ach I’m just a bit out of sorts today.

We have Tough Mudder next Saturday and here I am lounging around like Lazy McLazerson. I’ll do the hard work through the week at the Fit Body Farm. I’m trying not to think about the actual Tough Mudder itself…. I’ll let it sneak up on me as that seems to be best way for me. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤣

The weather’s been pretty rotten today too. I couldn’t think of anything to do.

I’m bored. There it is. Bingo.

We did an online food shop and I’ve reorganised my wool…. Again. I’ve tidied up more of the upstairs office but then I just thought… nah….. I need a nap. So lethargic.

My muscles have been really sore again today though I think they are slowly starting to ease off.

When I’ve been like this in the past it would always be made better by going to the pub for wine….. don’t drink ❌, eating chocolate or crisps….. don’t have any ❌, shopping or buying myself something nice….. don’t need anything and trying to save all my pennies for diesel these days ❌

Where is my positive head?! Actually it is still there and I’m smiling as I write this… I just seem to have needed rest this weekend and my mind is fighting it. Still.

So yeah… just like that it’s Sunday night already. The weather’s not looking great this week but it’s up to 17C in time for Tough Mudder. That should help a bit.

So here’s to a great week for you all. I’ll shake my lethargic coat and get back to it in time for work tomorrow.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I didn’t sleep that well last night, 3 diet cokes before bed probably didn’t help. 😆 we have no plans this weekend so the day was my oyster. If that’s even a thing?! 🤣

I can hardly move this morning… my butt and legs are totally seized up. Not sure if it’s the Fit Body Farm yesterday morning or the go-karting last night… maybe a bit of both.

It’s funny when you get up to move and have to try to swing into action.

So after the busiest day yesterday I had no plans this weekend. I set about some housework this morning, did two washings and got it it out to dry as it’s so windy again… clean bed tonight. My heart wasn’t in it today…… by 11am the rain had stopped so I took the dogs out.

I took them into a freshly cut field for a good run.

When We got back I carried on with a bit of weeding…. A wee bit of work made a massive difference.

I realised Craig would be home from work in a hour so I thought I’d have a wee sit down and a rest….. I went and lay down on the bed and woke up at 3pm!!!!

Musta needed it!!! Out for the count.

I’m really dizzy just now and I have a bit of a sore throat so I did a covid test this afternoon but it was negative so all good.

Craig’s on a night out tonight for the first time in like a hundred years it feels, so I’m on taxi duty….. £40 I reckon it costs to Kilmarnock and back twice tonight. Used to think it was free when you got a lift but now it seems really expensive.

This photo of the dogs made me laugh… please don’t go out daddy…. He’s getting ready in front of Bhru and Calaidh!

Please don’t leave us….. 🥹🤣

So quiet night for me. I’m watching Spiderhead on Netflix and so far it seems really good.

I have to stay awake long enough to pick Craig back up again…. Volume on phone turned up high just in case.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

The farm was great this morning! It’s a lovely start to the day. This is going to be our warmest day of the year so far I think.

I’m writing this lying here at 11am….

When we got back for the Farm I got changed and started tackling the weeds in the garden. They’ve grown so much over the last few months. Taken over.

It was hard work but I was on a roll. It’s lovely to work in the garden in the sun but now I’ve hit a wall and have finished my book and am having a wee lie down for an hour or so until I need to get ready to go out.

I’m heading to work with Craig as he’s off to West Kilbride and I can have a wee wander down at the beach. I’m waiting to see how hot it is before I take the dogs with me.

It was a fair bit cooler so I took Freya and Bhruic down onto Seamill Beach, West Kilbride.

West Kilbride looked lovely with al the houses perched on the hill.

I have to be honest here and say I didn’t relax much on this walk. I was really anxious about letting the dogs off the lead so I walked with the on lead most of the time. It didn’t do them any harm as it was warm and it stopped them running about too much.

It clouded over a fair bit but looked really quite dramatic.

I loved the look of these flowers in the rocks.

I’m then off to my works’ Christmas night out!! We are heading to ScotKart in Camuslang…. Go-karting 🏎🏁

I went through a huge range of emotions this evening….. fear, anxiety, terror, thought of backing out at the start, what have I done, fear, absolute terror…….. and by the second race I bloody loved it!!! Ok so I was always gonna be last but my fastest lap first time was 1minute and the second race my fastest was 51 seconds.

The second race was so much better, no more moving out the way for the boys… Julie’s racing line all the way! I was so chuffed it took them so long to lap me the second race. The first race they lapped me a million times!

What a rush…. Followed by the best pizza!

I’ve had the best day. ♥️

Stay safe everyone 🏁🏎🏁

So yeah, I’ve had a busy few days….. and I’m so pleased to say that The Rambling Sloth webpage is now fully functional. Click on the link to have a look!

Now don’t get too excited…. If you read the blog then it’s not really anything new but it’s way more professional than it’s been in the past. Previously if you looked up theramblingsloth.com you got Day 100 and could never see anything passed that. As lovely as Day 100 was…. There was more to my blog than just that 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

So…. Long story but I’ll try to be brief…. I’ve had to temporarily find an alternative provider for my Health Kinesiology sessions due to ill health.

As devastated as I was by this and determined to “go it alone”…. things happened that meant I had to seek out a bit of help. None of these have been my story to tell but have impacted me enough that I’ve needed some support through them.

So anyway, new HK lady has web design experience so had helped me sort out the issues I had with the website. How lovely is that?!

She has an appointment that you can book with her for a half hour, called a Zoffee….. a “zoom coffee” and she told me to book one and she’d use the time to work on the page.

So huge thank you to Angela Daye – Inner Pathways for this unexpected IT support!! Again there is a link to be clicked there to take you to her business page. She is highly recommended!

Kinesiology helps me to live from a place of abundance rather than lack. It’s the best treatment I have ever found. I will never be able to explain it but it works for me every time.

So….. in other news…. Work has been good this week. I’ve felt calm and in control.

We sadly had a step incident at work….

Someone killed the step to our portacabin yesterday so the boys had to build a step from pallets…. as you do!

It’s a very fancy set up that I was able to use as decking for a quick seat in the sun at lunchtime!!! I always wanted a job I would wear shorts too in the summer… and here I am!

I also had a lovely massage at Harmony – Beith this afternoon after work. Norma worked her wonders as usual. I felt so relaxed when I left. 💆🏻‍♀️🧘🏻‍♀️

Back home for a bite to eat and then Claire popped in to the garden for a cuppa.

That’s the first time we’ve caught up in weeks due to our holiday and then she caught a bad COVID-19 variant and had been really unwell. It was lovely to see her smiling face again and get a good natter!

So that’s all from me today I think. Have to get to bed for the 5am alarm for the Fit Body Farm.

Tomorrow is going to be a lovely day!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Of course it’s cloudy today and I had to put the lamp on as it’s dark cloud…. But today is the longest daylight of the year. The first day of summer.

It’s been up to 16C today though so it seems warm (remember it’s Scotland so that’s warm to us!) tomorrow will be hotter. 🙏🏻

I’ve just filled the van with diesel on the way home…. only put £70 in and just got over half a tank…… 😳 I paid £196.9 per litre….. I remember when we went over £1 and that was horrifying. Where will it stop?!?

Some good news though, I was renewing my van insurance which is a usually a task in itself. I like to pay in full rather than pay the monthly fee and pay money for nothing. They quoted me £406 and I said that I couldn’t afford to pay that…. Said I would have to do monthly amounts so they stood to get £469 if I did that….. they came back and knocked it to £298. I couldn’t believe they took so much off it. So just thought I’d mention this in case anyone else wants to haggle at insurance renewal time. It was so easy and better in my pocket than theirs. Same insurance. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve been shattered this week, really lethargic and eating really badly which I know doesn’t help…. Early night tonight 😆

Took this photo of Calaidh out in the garden after work… she’s a cutie.

Also took a photo of our rose bush at the back door, it’s really beautiful if a bit scraggy.

A lot of foliage fell off it last year. I’d love it to bloom all up the wall.

Oh that reminds me (the word bloom is the trigger 😆) I won an online competition yesterday on FB – a page called Tiree Photgraphic.

I don’t win anything but it’s so lovely to have one of my photos mentioned on the page. This was the lovely Balevullin Beach on Tiree on the most beautiful day.

I love the light nights that summer brings.

Tomorrow we will all be saying “aye the nights are fair drawin’ in…… 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤣 a wee Scottish joke… the first person that says that to me will get a slap. We can’t think of winter just yet. 🤣

Remember this for tomorrow morning ♥️

Stay safe everyone ☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

So I finally issued my Staffa blog at 8am this morning but it seems to have bombed as hardly anyone has seen it. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤣 it only took me about 7 days and 3 hours to write. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

Anyway, it’s a quickie today as I’ve been out since 9am on a day trip with some of my lovely neighbours to Edinburgh for the Lion King. 🦁👑

I don’t think I’ve been on a train since COVID though, so even that has been a wee adventure.

We’ve had a lovely day but it’s 8.37pm and we’re on the train still closer to Edinburgh than we are to Glasgow!

Both our trains were cancelled today so we had to be inventive and we’ve managed to get the train on different routes but way better than the bus.

Sent this next one to mum and dad saying… “where’s Julie?!”

They both guessed!

We went for pre-theatre drinks at a Festival bar on top of Edinburgh’s Waverley Market.

It’s actually been a lovely day weather wise too.

I had to get this next photo as my in laws have two cool giraffes in their living room and I reckon they have escaped and been found in Edinburgh 🦒🦒

The Lion King is in the Edinburgh Playhouse.

The show was amazing. It’s not the same as I remember from the last time I saw it, I think a few less special effects this time round but still amazing.

After the show we went to Guilliano’s for dinner.

Check my pizza… it was amazing!!

Edinburgh is looking amazing in the evening sun…. a lovely end to a lovely day!!

You soooooo know I am freaking out about getting home late. My phone just told me I should be getting ready for bed….. eh yeah!!!! I know that…. We don’t get into Glasgow Queen Street until 9.30pm and we have to walk to Central Station. Rachel two doors down has just announced that there isn’t a train to Glengarnock after 7.40pm.

At this rate I’ll take a taxi…. 🚕🤣

To the boss man… I’ll be the burst couch tomorrow… least you know I’ll not be hungover 🤣🤣🤣

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I didn’t plan to go to the Farm this morning as I was so tired…. Of course I woke at 5am and tried so hard to go back to sleep. I should have just gone to the gym…. I gave myself all the excuses under the sun…. Even thinking I’d save money in fuel by not going. How ridiculous is that?

I’ve put my day to great use…. I’ve not sat down (she says writing this as she’s sitting down…. 🙄)

I’ve blitzed the housework and honestly had to empty the hoover 4 times….. FOUR…. So either the house was disgustingly unclean, which it actually wasn’t, or the Shark hoover really is soooo small that it honestly can’t be made to hoover up after animals. It’s a nightmare!

Anyway, it’s all sparkling now…. With dog hair glitter and water splashes from when they shake the rain off…. 😆🤣🤣

It has been pouring today…. Honestly it was torrential this morning, the dogs were soaking wet after a few minutes outside. I had to wait till this afternoon to walk them.

The skies have cleared.

It’s the first time I’ve been round this way for ages and the roadsides are so overgrown. There’s nowhere to stop when cars go past. The 4 of us had to bury ourselves in the grass! One van came flying along at some speed and had to slam on his brakes….

So I’ve been busy putting some things up for sale today. I have generated way to much clutter and things need to go to make some space … a tidy house is a tidy mind.

I sold one thing as soon as I put it up for sale! Now I’m not making a fortune but it’s money for things that are taking up space in the house.

Just sold a second thing too!! Kind of glad I didn’t rush to post the first parcel… 😆

I’ve not managed a nap today so I hope I get a good sleep tonight. Lazy evening for us which is kinda he we roll these days. Just the way I like it!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

It’s the first time I’ve said it in a long time but I feel wiped out tonight…. I woke at 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep so ended up in work for just after 7am. Was determined to get away 4pm and finally made it at half past. 🤨. I could hardly keep my eyes open driving home!

It’s quite hot here today so it might just be that. When the sun shines it’s meant to be 18C… then it rains and feels a lot cooler. Obviously….

Being busy and working late is a real “wine” trigger for me.

I’m tired, walked in the door and saw Craig with a glass of white and my heart sank…. I wanted to have the ahhhh moment that we all think that drink brings.

He quickly poured me an alcohol free wine (which to be honest are still fairly rotten) but honestly it did the trick. I’m now halfway through a bottle of red, without the after effects.

How funny that I saw that sober school post on Fb today. I swear sometimes I actually manifest this blog. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣🤣

So not much else to report tonight other than it’s suddenly my weekend again. 🥳🥳

It’s been such a quick week. Tiree seems a distant memory already. I hope to get a chance to do my Staffa post this weekend before I actually forget about it. 😆

Think it’ll be an early night for me 😬🥱😴🛌

Stay safe everyone 😴😴😴

It’s been another busy day in the life. It’s 18.45 and I’ve not sat down…. Well that’s not entirely true but I’ve not sat and relaxed is more like it.

I didn’t go to the farm this morning as I was so late in bed last night I was shattered. Of course I woke at 4.45am but thankfully fell back to sleep until the 6.30 alarm and felt better for it.

I had little Peanut for company at work today and I sat outside for 10 minutes and lunch and he sat with me, wee sweetie. Still unsure of me but much happier than yesterday.

So I’ve been doing a bit of budgeting recently. We’re all in the same boat just now with finances and so I thought I’d have a look through to see if I could make any changes or improvements…..

Well I found a major one. I have been paying 2 TV licences since October 2015…. How is that actually possible?!? I mean that more from a how have I never noticed that perspective?!?!?!

It’s seems I’ve paid them from 2 separate bank accounts…. One is for this house and one is for the house we loved out of in 2015. What a total and utter waste of money!!!

However, on the plus side I am liable for at least two years of a refund as long as I can prove that we moved out of our last house legally……. Now where would that paperwork actually be…..

So at the very least I am saving £12.47 next month so that’s gotta count for something eh?!?

Got to laugh….. 😉

So now I’m in the village pub with the Crochet Hookers working on my latest blanket!

It actually matches the pub carpet…. 😉🤣

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

The blog will be quick… nothing else!

I had the busiest day today. It started badly when I seemed to hurt Peanut the office pup and he spent the rest of the day hiding from me. In our morning excited shenanigans, I must have stood on his paw or something as he squealed something chronic.

I tried too hard to do too many things at once today and felt a bit flustered. I worked till 5.30 but ended up doing new things that weren’t on my list to do staying late if that makes sense.

Anyway, I have a plan tomorrow and I just need to try and stick to it to get through everything.

Once again I found myself getting irritated by the interruptions or the additions to my day and yet that is life. I can see now that there is absolutely no point in getting antsy.

The day ended with a scraping at the office door….. Peanut without harness and lead that he should have been attached to…. I was forgiven. I picked him up and we had a big cuddle.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Just a quickie tonight guys… it’s 8.02pm on day 802…. How weird is that???!

I had a really good day today.

Alarm at 4.45am was actually bearable and I really enjoyed the Fit Body Farm. I worked hard but it felt really good.

I walked into work to find they had re-upholstered my seat when I was away.

That made me laugh out loud!! My tartan chair… 💙

I’ve had a really good day… not everything went smoothly but I handled it in my stride and turned it around. It was a really good day.

I’ve had a really busy evening chatting to people either on the phone, at the door or by text and it’s been really nice to catch up.

I’ve also done some Village Hall accounts and a personal budget spreadsheet…. Feeling like I’m taking control and it feels good.

So that’s all for tonight as I’m shattered now!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

4 loads I’ve done already today…. But it feels good to get everything washed. Considering we hardly took any stuff with us, that’s a whole lot of washing. 🤣

I put it out on the line to dry Tiree style….

Leave it out, it may rain but the sun and wind will ultimately dry it at some point… that’s what I’m going with.

It was lovely to be in a big clean bed last night and have a huge bathroom (by Tiree portaloo standards that is….) yet I didn’t sleep that well as Calaidh stayed in with us and seemed super excited every time she remembered we were back. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

She didn’t wake me enough to think to put her in her room but enough that my sleep was disturbed!

The day after a holiday is always a bit rotten. Did I actually appreciate every minute I had off, every lie in that wasn’t 5am, how did it pass so quickly…..

Then I remember that we did have a great time. There are plenty more weekends away and holidays to be had this year. It’s only June.

And for some in the UK it looks to be a hot one…. Not so much for Scotland but still warmer than it’s been all year.

So I’ll leave you with a few pics from the ferry trip, from Scarinish in Tiree to Oban on the Scottish mainland, yesterday.

Back to reality tomorrow… 5am alarm set.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

It’s been a very stormy few days. The wind has been relentless!

I didn’t write the blog yesterday as there was no way I was standing outside to load the photos in my 4G spot….

I should say here that I’ve reached another milestone. 800 days of my blog. What started as a daily chat of my life with anxiety, coming out of depression and straight into COVID-19, has become a pretty life altering event for me. I can still talk through my feelings on the bad days, but I love sharing my adventures and taking photos of the lovely places we visit.

So back to yesterday….

We still managed to get out and about, despite the gales and walked Bhru down to Balemartine Beach and sat in the sun for a good while. Even although the wind was howling, the sun came out and it was nice to be outside in the fresh air.

Oh wow witting the blog from The Clansman ferry today and the photos are loading straight away… what a luxury!

This lovely guy lives on a field at the camp site. Now I’m not a horsey person but honestly this poor guy looked so bored with no shelter from the intense sun, or the strong winds and nothing to do but say hi to passers by, which were few and far between. Maybe horses don’t need much but I get this one wanted more.

The rest of the day was spent inside Abbie the camper van while the wind RAGED at her rear end. I’ve lost an upper reflector as the wind worked away at it and broke the clips off.

We had a movie afternoon and night with lots of munchies which was really nice. Had to keep upping the volume over the wind though.

We’ve had the pop top roof down since 1.30am on Friday morning. Too windy for that. We had to unhook the electric hookup as the flap that covers the inlet was squeaking like mad right next to my ear!

We got a text last night to say that the ferry was being rescheduled to 3.20pm today which meant a lazy morning.

Sadly poor Bhru was up half the night with the runs again. Think the noise of the wind really unsettled her… so we were pretty shattered.

It’s wild today…. The sun came out and doesn’t show just how wild it is… gusts up to 47mph.

The waves are huge. The Clansman appeared around the headland and my stomach was on the ground just watching it.

It was heaving up and down in the swell…. Then Bhru threw up over Craig’s crochet blanket and then proceeded to have more runs outside despite having no food today.

My anxiety was out banging the drum. Then I read this on FB….

Now if that wasn’t meant to be then I don’t know what was. Thank you to the lovely lady who posted this on a wild sea swimming group. I really needed to see it.

I drove on to the ferry shaking but thinking calm as the storm will pass. We get Bhru out and across deck when they call me back as they might need Abbie to move. I could hardly stand up with the swell. I joked with the CalMac guy that he should move it for me…. He said I’d be fine…. and I was…. I helped a couple with two kids and loads of bags, get upstairs and found Bhru and Craig at the top of the steps… I was still shaking like a leaf!

As we sail out of Tiree, a calm washes over me (which you will all agree is way better than a giant wave….. yeah too soon….) I think these big ferries have stabilisers and honestly you’d hardly notice the swell. Unless you look at the horizon abut I’ve tried to stop doing that. Bhru is the most settled I’ve seen her thankfully.

We have towels with us in case she is ill but so far so good.

We docked into Coll with a good few lurches.

We are currently powering down the Sound of Mull and just passed CalMac’s Isle of Mull.

It’s still very windy but honestly you’d never know here inside.

We’ve had the loveliest holiday. Bhru has been on her best behaviour and I commented to Craig that we’d had a great time and hadn’t even really argued. My anxiety could start a fight in a teacup at times…. He smiled and said yeah but Bhru’s had a lot to say about me…. So that’s kept him sane.

We should arrive in Oban in a few hours.

My lovely father in law is manning puppers 1 & 3 today for the next few hours then we’ll be home to surprise them by 11ish…. Can’t thank my in-laws enough for looking after them this week and letting us get away.

I’ve still got squillions of photos to share and of course, my trip to Staffs but I’ll get to them over the next few days.

Tiree you have been stunning and blown us away with your beauty.

Stay safe everyone 🏝🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿♥️

There’s a storm a brewin’… it was a nice enough morning but cloudy until the rain came on about 12ish and rained most of the afternoon. The wind is up to gusts of 28mph and tomorrow and Saturday that only keeps increasing. To the extent that our ferry is likely to be disrupted or cancelled.

So we took a drive up a new road today but went back to Balevullin beach to take Bhru for a walk and watch the Blackwater Sports Surf School.

The black dot in this next photo is Abbie the camper van!!!

We had a coffee and a wee snack then headed down to Gott Bay to watch the kite surfers.

Then we went to visit the Yellow Hare cafe and gift shop and it’s the first gift shop we’ve seen on the island. We had coffee and cake (again…) 😬🤣

We went to speak to the CalMac office to see what they thought about the ferries on the next few days and they told us to download the app to keep up to date with decisions made but it was ok for now.

Within about an hour that had changed and Friday’s is called out for disruption or cancellation. We sail on Saturday and the weather is forecast to be worse 😳

It’s raining by now so we came back to the campsite and moved to a more sheltered pitch.

We had a lovely relaxing afternoon and I finished the book that Claire leant me called “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens.

It was sooooo good. I’ve read it in a few days.

By 5pm the sun was back out so Bhru pup and I took a walk down to Balemartine Beach.

We had toasties in the Ridgemonkey for dinner.

And planning a lovely lazy evening though it’s 7pm already. We might need to baton down the hatches overnight but will see if the forecast changes. The bushes are providing a fair amount of shelter though it’s eased off for now and the sun is out.

Stay safe everyone 💨☀️💨