Tales from Holy Isle

The retreat came and went and I was, as always, pretty exhausted by the time I got home yesterday. Everyone seemed to have had a very good time in spite of only a few hours of warm sunshine... for the rest of the time it felt like Autumn.

I did actually manage to watch a bit of the Wimbledon Men's Final as, after we'd come out of silence on the Sunday, I was asked to go to the office and the guys in there got me a cuppa and insisted I stayed and watched until I needed to go back to my work. I watched the first set and then up to the rain break in the second, so that was something.

Because I had quite a few people on the waiting list and all the people from this year said they wanted to come again I was left with a dilemma. I only ever have a max of 10 and at that rate some people would be disappointed, so, after careful consideration, I've decided to do the retreat twice next year, once in April and again in August. Luckily my co-facilitator is keen to come, so that's a weight off my shoulders. You'll also notice that I've managed to avoid any nearness to Wimbledon, so I won't have that problem again.

Sunday was the day with sunshine and after lunch I took off for a walk along the shoreline. I came across something I've never seen before. A pony dreaming. It was lying on the ground with it's pal standing guard and then it was snorting and whinnying and it's legs were going, just like dogs do when they're dreaming. I've been around ponies and horses for a lot of my life and had my own for many years, but I've never experienced that before.

A pic of the dreaming pony... you'll have to trust me on this one!

I thought I'd also take a couple of pics so you can see how beautiful it is on Holy Isle:

The view across to Arran

The centre where I facilitate my retreat with a wonderful bit of garden to walk around

I don't know if you're aware, but you can visit Holy Isle just for the day and if you're ever on Arran I highly recommend it as a day trip. You won't be allowed in the centre as it's off limits to day visitors, but the island is just fab. There are wild Eriskay ponies, Soay sheep and goats and, because there's no predators on the island you can walk amongst them with no problem.

I also saw what looked like a very young foal (I'd say a day or so), who was wanting to play with the sheep, who just weren't interested, but he was charging up to them and running away again... hilarious! I also saw a fabulous blue butterfly.

After I got home in the late afternoon yesterday I had to rush up to Edinburgh to pick up Vespa, who sadly has picked up an injury on his foreleg. It doesn't seem too bad and we have a vet appointment arranged for tomorrow to check it out. The person he was staying with was very reluctant to give him back to me... she fell in love with him and she was almost in tears saying goodbye to him. Apparently he was very well behaved, so that's a relief.

And now we're settling back into our normal lives, though Mountain Man is away on his Eurocities event and only due home for one night next week before he turns around and heads off to work on a London to Paris event. Meanwhile I have to go to London on Sunday for a meeting on Monday morning, so Vespa will be off again to stay (hopefully) with Amber, who seems to have made a full recovery from her illness. It's all go here!