Yesterday was such a gorgeous day – too nice to be travelling – but that is the British weather for you– when I needed a nice warm day to dry the washing…..it rained.
There seemed to be more packing than usual. We had to fit the old water-butt into the car – we have bought a smaller one for home and will use the larger one at the cottage – good job we hung on to the estate car as it is most useful for ferrying things up and down.
I also had a box of old papers to take for the bonfire and a bag of items to drop off at one of the charity shops in Stranraer. The two Christmas trees will have to wait until our next visit.
As there is less room in the caravan and less storage space I am not able to keep as much stuff like gardening clothes, towels and bedding and I forget what we have up at the caravan when we are down at home. We keep a few extras but nothing like we had in the cottage. So I really need to work out a better packing plan – one that takes me less time to get it all together. When we were both working and set off for Scotland on Friday tea time I could get the car packed inside an hour – now I seem to take well over two hours and I cannot put my finger on why.
As it was such a lovely day we pulled off the motorway for lunch at the South Lancaster junction. We had packed a flask of homemade tomato soup which is far nicer than anything you can get at the services. The area to the right of the M6 is one of outstanding national beauty within the boundaries of the Forest of Bowland and has a wealth of delightful little villages with pretty cottages and those quaint country village churches. But it is an area we have never explored before. We drove through Hornby and stopped for lunch on a quiet country lane just outside Gressingham (famous for its ducks) to admire the view. The flatter plains of farmland are enclosed by the surrounding hills – not hills like the Pennines at home but a gentle rolling landscape and so green. We felt like we had driven into another world – no busy roads – just a few sheep grazing and an occasional tractor. It was so peaceful you could have heard a pin drop.  We will be back on another visit to have a better look around but yesterday we had to press on and reluctantly head back to the motorway. We made it to the cottage by nightfall but as is often the case it was too dark to see the garden – that is usually a surprise for the morning.
We awoke to more sunshine streaming through the caravan windows today and the temperature was warm too, so after a meeting with a lovely man from highways this morning over a wee problem that affects our woodland we set to in the garden.
A day working in our cottage garden is far more punishing than any Yoga class and we have to be very careful on the first day not to overdo things. So after lunch we had a walk along the beach and into the village, bought an ice cream (a rather lavish £3.80 for 2 Magnums) and sauntered back.
On our first walk to the village after the winter it is surprising how much has changed. When we first bought our cottage in 2004 it seemed like life down here on the Mull never changed; but increasingly year on year brings more.
This flight of steps that take you from the beach up onto Shore Street at the bottom end of the village by the little harbour used to be fully hidden by willow bushes that have now been chopped down. It is actually someones garden but they do not mind you using them – I preferred it when it was a secret entrance hidden by the bushes.
At the far end of Shore street you can just about see the Ship Inn – once a thriving little pub but has suddenly closed and up for sale again. It has been sold on two or three times in recent years and each of the new owners just cannot make a go of it.
The Queens Hotel in the middle of the village is looking so very run down now this could be next. The notice in their window is supposed to be a joke – but might well be true – either way I am not sure it is helping them draw in more custom!
The pub at the top of our lane might end up being the only watering hole in the village soon.
We also noticed that the door of the old corn store down by the harbour that used to be locked with the aid of an old shovel and has been like that for all the time we can remember…
has now had the broken windows boarded up properly, a proper padlock put in place and a notice pinned to the door. 
…but I thought the little wicker heart a very cute touch.
Wards garage in the village now looks very forlorn; the forecourt has been stripped of the petrol pumps as under new laws the owner is no longer allowed to have petrol pumps within 2 metres of the road (he is allowed a Palm tree however!) and without the sale of petrol has been forced to close – such a shame this business had served this man and the community for years and now we all have to drive over 15 miles to the nearest petrol station in Stranraer. This is a picture we took before the recent closure – such a sad end.
On the way back to our cottage we passed the community garden – the person who looked after it is not able to carry on and the local community council are appealing for another volunteer. Sadly it cannot be us as we are not here permanently. This might end up being yet another casualty.
So many changes each year – they may only be little but sometimes are quite significant and are just another example of our ever-changing world even in backwaters like this. I am sure that even in the Forest of Bowland that looks as if it never changes those who live there will see plenty.
A day of contemplating change and munching mouthwatering Magnums. x
Now look behind me – not so quiet and untouched as this is the busy M62 cutting through across the Pennines at its highest point.
Now look again – every verge as far as the eye can see littered with rubbish. 
We drove 250 miles in all, mainly on motorway and a major ‘A’ road, and every verge revealed so much litter – even this lay by near Dumfries in bonnie Scotland! Not so bonnie at the moment.
Dumfries and Galloway Council in their wisdom have removed many of their litter bins from the lay-bys on the A75 down to Stranraer – a decision they may live to regret.
The catkins on the corkscrew Hazel are just coming into flower.
The big surprise was our family Rhododendron growing in the lower wood (named after DH’s grandfather who grew it for the Castle Kennedy estate, he was head gardener). We grew this from a cutting, it is an early flowering variety but even this is quite early and the one at home in our garden is only just in bud.
And some even more unexpected news – coming home late yesterday evening we left the M62 at Milnrow as usual and drove through New Hey, Denshaw and Delph towards Marsden and to our surprise came across about 8 fire engines and a few police cars parked on the verge side with flashing lights. At first we thought there had been a bad collision on the road but as our view opened up we saw the mass of fire on the moorland (this is looking from the other side of the moor you see in the top photo). It was quite bizarre as the fire raged in straight lines across the open moorland – some of the burning lines zig zagged across the moors way into the distance.
We stopped on the side of the road with many other passers-by to take pictures and spoke to some of the fire beaters who were having a break. They told us it may have started in the nearby lay-by and could have been just a cigarette. Although quite spectacular it is sad for all the wildlife that will have been harmed by this.
It is a community in mourning, feeling the loss of a friend and neighbour – many of the locals are calling for a road barrier to be put in place now so this loss of life does not happen again in the future when the sea is at high tide. The sea that I love so much has suddenly become quite a fearful place but even so now I am back in landlocked Yorkshire I miss going to sleep with the roar of the waves in the background.
Our nearest store is – a bit too far away for a our weekly shopping but we always call in on our way to or back from Scotland at the Penrith or Kendal branch. It is packed with photographs of deliciously tempting Christmas fayre to order or buy in store interspersed with a few recipes to make.
So I collected mine yesterday and spent my elevenses this morning pouring over all the Christmas food on offer and a quick look at the recipes in the back. I find it remarkable that Booths can produce such a lovely little book and give it away free – I was a truly happy bunny.
As you may remember from last year I decided to do something different to the usual wreath on our front door so I hung my chicken wire cone 
Pack the front and sides with moss (I had collected a small heap in the summer in readiness). Find an empty jam jar and push down into the cone as far as it will fit and so it is not visible.
Remove the jar again and push some chicken wire into the jar to hold the stems steady when filling with foliage. Fill the jar with cold water and start arranging pieces of foliage. Hold the cone steady in a small bucket then lower the jar into the cone making sure it is a snug fit.
At the moment I am using some dried red hydrangea heads and a dried white one, some ivy and a few holly stems. As we get closer to Christmas I will swap these for eucalyptus, holly and Hypericum like last years.
As you can see I am no florist but it is not too difficult to get a pleasing arrangement. You could add sprayed leaves, ribbon or pretty much anything. Just remember to keep topping up the jar of water.
…a pack of watercolour notelets (right) painted by a local artist to support the Aldouran Wetland Garden and these two pretty little felted Christmas tree cards for each of my daughters – made by a local crafter.
The frilly cake band takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of Christmases past – they would appear each Christmas round our Christmas cake – at 99p I just had to have one. The packet contains an iced ginger cake – we always buy one when we are at the cottage but usually we get the un-iced version – these too are only £1 from Tesco or Morrisons but I have never seen them south of the border. I thought the iced one would be a nice treat for Christmas. 
And on the way home a few small inexpensive things for Christmas from Tebay services of all places – each of these little tissue parcels were a £1 – you will have to wait a while until I unwrap them to find out what is in them.
I stuck a few cloves into the end slices and the smell was really nice. I wasn’t very impressed with this microwave method – one or two of them scorched a bit but this won’t be that noticeable when the colour darkens with age. I will take them back home and put them in the airing cupboard for a while. I decided not to continue with them here and wait until I get home and can use my oven.
…with the Three Wise Men on camels who were awesome (as Sybil would say) though it was hard to get a good photo without all the police escorts and minders getting in the way of taking pictures.
They were like big cuddly teddy bears and didn’t seem the least bit phased by the noisy crowd, the bagpipes and the loud speakers on the castle belting out Christmas music; and were very amenable to the children stroking them.
As it is quite a small town the parade circulated a couple of times and as it became dark everyone gathered in the square by St John’s castle (which had become Santa’s grotto for the day) for the countdown to the switching on of the lights by the winner of the Primary Schools competition. There was such a sense of excitement in the air.
Once the lights came on a big cheer went up and it was quite spectacular but not something easily caught on camera. It felt so nice to be part of this community spirit here.
All the shop windows around the town have been dressed with a Christmas theme and lit up too – it was a wonderful sight that you don’t see very much now on most high streets (well not in Huddersfield) since the national chain shops seem to have taken over and don’t really go in for window dressing in this way; but up here in Stranraer the majority of shops are mainly small family concerns and whether they are bakers or hairdressers they all join in to make their little town look delightful. Here is a quick tour of the shop displays and haven’t they done well.
where the journey takes me 2 