End of sabbatical

My six-month sabbatical has come to an end and I am getting myself into more of a routine for autumn and the computer activities that come with impending winter. Lest you think I have been off travelling somewhere exotic or holed up on a tropical island let me put paid to that. This, being our 50th Wedding Anniversary year, we chose to do a grand tour of friends and family – often in the motorhome, always with Misty and inevitably with a bottle of bubbly or two. So there have been barbecues, hot-tubbing, concerts, meeting new people and generally having fun. So – no time for the poorly blog which has languished here unattended and largely unviewed.

Excuse the poor quality of the scanned photo but here are The Happy Couple cutting the cake made by a friend. It was a very small gathering of a dozen guests. When we got to the hotel it turned out that they had forgotten we were coming. Just as well then that we were so few and that they could rustle up a good meal in what seemed like no time at all.

Memories of the day are like snapshots in my mind: a face that was sore from grinning; a bouquet trembling in my hands as my uncle walked me down the aisle in the church;  the Minister’s kindness; the drive to Loch Lomond in the pouring rain; a feeling of having come home. And thereafter a few days honeymoon in Argyll, the county where we are now enjoying the retirement we thought about all that time ago. There is a photo I would love to share of the two of us side by side – we really do look like children. Unfortunately the scanner has taken against it, so that’s something else to sort out.

A confession now. Setting up this blog post has taken me over 2 hours. Apple have updated their operating system to Yosemite which has taken some getting used to, and of course I have been hopping and skipping through life instead of sitting in front of my trusty imac. I find myself somewhat deskilled, simply by a combination of factors. What I am sure of is that it is worth keeping going with the technical side of life. Over this summer we have seen the advance of computer-speak, as it were; bank cards have become touchy feely, indeed all you need to do is wave them near the appropriate terminal and money up to £20 a time is whizzed from your bank account. (Memo to self, keep my wallet away from counter tops.) Apple TV is another innovation – it does lots more than is on the box. New phones are getting more and more tempting and digital cameras are a whizz.

Hopefully, this is me back in the world of blogging. I want to catch up with blogging friends from all over the world and make the most of my faculties while I have them. It really is true to say that if you don’t use it you lose it. One question for anyone who does find their way here – is there anything you would like me to blog about? My tastes are quite eclectic, but I freely admit I get terribly anxious about many of the wrongs in the world. I’m not really sure whether worries are better ignored or shared. But I don’t want to spread sleepless nights or alarm abroad, as it were.

It’s fun to mither¹ on herein, therapeutic in fact, so thanks for reading and please do share your thoughts and ideas. Blessings to all from the wilds of Argyll.