Touching the stars

I walked home this evening and was struck anew by how spectacular the stars are. As I climbed up the hill to the croft it was like I was climbing further into the sky and the skyline was dropping so it felt I could almost reach out and grab a handful. I had a chance encounter last year with a woman on Skye where we sat for a few minutes, exchanged very brief 'how I came to be sitting on the side of this hill' stories and shared a few deep and philosophical thoughts. It brings that side of you out does Scotland. She told me about the idea of thin places -

 There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller.

We decided we were in a 'thin place' right there at that moment. Tonight as I looked up at the millions of stars, to me just tiny pinpricks of light but somewhere else much bigger and brighter than me and my whole world will ever be I thought just maybe I was in a thin place, one where whatever it was that might have worried me today was all put back into perspective by those stars, that little box at the top of the hill with a light shining out and my family inside, cooking dinner, chatting, listening to music.

We picked winkles again today and Dragon, Star and Bonnie all came down to join in. We had a good day and got a fairly decent haul - we have nearly 2 sacks now as a result of 3 mornings work. We're hoping for a good few hours again tomorrow. Dragon and Star really enjoyed it - Star brought a bucket and her net and aswell as helping with winkle collecting she also filled her bucket with crabs, eels, sandeels and some little fish. She released them all back into the sea before we left but thoroughly enjoyed watching them and closely inspecting them. They both want to come again providing it's not raining. Well actually that is probably my proviso rather than theirs...

We had a very interesting chat about pocket money yesterday including why I don't agree with either pocket money as a concept or pocket money in exchange for helping with household chores. I often wonder whether our children will utterly rebel against our unconventional ideas, embrace them as their own or fall somewhere in the middle...

I had another meeting this afternoon. I must have been down to the village more times in the last few weeks clutching a notepad and pen and heading for yet another meeting  for one steering group, community interest company, community association or trust related pow wow than in months of working in proper jobs with Manager in my job title. This time it was for the Visitor Management Group, something I am very passionate about being involved in - both from providing a service to visitors and ensuring we make the most opportunity from tourism possible as an island, as a community and as an individual business with our croft. Interesting stuff.