Could do better!

I seem to have had little desire to set aside very much time for Blogging recently. My Drabbles may only be 100 words but with a busy job that sometimes feels all consuming, recently, the last thing I’ve wanted to do at the end of the day is fire up the laptop and compose. Even on holiday when I wasn’t as tired and had more free time, I preferred to cook and sew rather than scribble. Maybe it’s just a temporary reaction to the amount of time that I spend writing rather dull stuff in my work life! We’ll see.

Never forgotten

One of the most poignant things we saw on holiday  were the graves for unknown merchant sailors; victims of war, their bodies washed up and buried far from home. My father was from a Fleetwood fishing family and during WW2, aged 15, lied about his age and joined his brothers on ships carrying food convoys across the Atlantic. I’ve never forgotten how he reminded me when watching “All Our Yesterdays” that the men seen on a sinking German vessel “were all somebody’s sons”. He was very much alive to the suffering of all families affected by the horrors of war. 

The Nuns' Cave

For all that some of my family laugh at my geocaching enthusiasm, they have to agree that it has taken us to some really interesting places or shown us things we wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. And so it was at Carsaig on Mull. With no opportunity to visit the distant Carsaig Arches, it was a welcome alternative to discover the hidden Nuns’ Cave. It is named after the nuns who are believed to have taken refuge there after being driven out of Iona. The route along the shore was littered with geological features and fossils, all discovered thanks to geocaching.

Fingal's Cave and Puffins

Our boat trip to Staffa to see the magical Fingal’s Cave was enhanced by the unexpected delight of puffins flying onto one of the island’s cliff tops. Perhaps the tour boat’s puffin logo should have been a clue? After an uneventful sail across from Fionnphort, on landing, we scurried along the basalt column path to the entrance to Fingal’s Cave where we took in the beauty of the chasm. But then, after climbing to the top of the cliff, we were captivated by the comedic antics of hundreds of puffins, posing for photos and chattering among themselves. We must return!

Beaches!

Having grown up playing on the golden sands of the Fylde Coast, I love the seaside so one of the joys of holidaying on a small island is the ability to visit different beaches. Mull, being blessed with a richly diverse geology enjoys a variety of different coastal landscapes. There are the golden sands of Calgary Bay in the Northwest, the rocky coves of Knockvologan and Kintra and the grey, volcanic Laggan Sands on the Ross of Mull. Each day of our holiday proved to be an adventure as we headed off to explore our chosen beach of the day.

Mull

Our holiday in Mull shared with Grandma, Robin and Cathryn, seems a long time ago although we came home just over a week ago. It was a restful interlude in an otherwise hectic life and coming swiftly after the results of the EU referendum, was a welcome haven from the horrors that seem to be afflicting all the major political parties. As Robin and Cathryn had never visited, Grandma had only passed through on her way to Iona and we’d never had good weather on previous holidays, it felt like a first visit for us all and that was exciting!