Friday 11th August 2023

Almost mid-August, and the sunflowers are blooming. I don’t normally grow them, but this year I have about a dozen dotted about the croft and garden in different stages of their rising and setting. My mother once grew a sunflower at my childhood home, and it grew right up to the second floor window. I recently posted a picture of it on a local Facebook page and it engendered quite a reaction. I was surprised, and touched at the number of people who remembered it, almost fifty years later.

It’s been a decent few months here in the Hebrides. The weather has been more summery than not. The holidaymakers have arrived in their tour buses, campervans, bicycles, and cars, and the island is busy. I have had my own visitors too. From midsummer onwards, I have enjoyed the company of a series of family and friends. Our days have been full with visits to the beach, leisurely wandering around galleries, a trip down to Harris, even a wedding at the standing stones. Much of the time, however, has been spent drinking endless cups of tea around the kitchen table, chatting, laughing, reminiscing - re-filling our cups in more ways than one.