Hello, beloved souls!
Do you remember me?
I know, it’s been nearly a month and thus I would not blame you if you would not remember who I was.
It is more about Marjorie anyway, right?!
Oh, but it feels so good being back on the laptop and doing something so dear to my heart again- not that I do not love my work for clients! I am so blessed, aren’t I, being able to say that I have not had any time at all because of an abundance of client related work.
Paid work!
Can you imagine!
Paid work- and every single pound, every single euro, every single Swiss franc is stored safely for the time when I am beginning the next chapter of my full-time travel adventure: a car!
So many exclamation marks- so much joy. Whenever my thoughts drift into the near future and the visualisation of a home on four wheels, that will bring Marjorie and me to Iceland, I could burst!
And I will take all of you along with me, of course!
But I am getting ahead of myself. I am picturing a future while not having updated all of you on what has been happening. It might just have been one month but it feels like an eternity and I am so excited that finally, today, this very Sunday, I was able to sit down and feel inspired to give you an all inclusive insight of the last four weeks.
On the top of my list:
Coming home to Aird Uig!
Although I have spent September and October on the Isle of Lewis itself (Great Bernera and Leurbost, to be precise), it was more of an exploration of new territories. Uig though is so close to my heart, especially my hosts Sarah and Andrew with their pack of dogs- it is hard to describe and I think home is what comes closest. The warmth, the generosity, the mutual appreciation and respect, the care, the laughter, the… well the home-y-ness.
And the spectacular scenery of course!
And the dogs - oh, how I adore the dogs and my time outside exploring with them!
And of course the croftwork, all hands on deck to feed the cattle and sheep and chickens, take care of the polytunnel and harvest from the abundance of growing plants in there!
This time around I am the croft-sitter because my hosts, now that the tourist season came to an end, are doing some travelling of their own. So I am in charge, and despite my previous experiences in being here alone and have all of the responsibilities, this time around a special guest joined me to share it.
Which brings me to the next thing on the top of my list:
Leslie flew out from Switzerland to join me for a total of 2 weeks!
As many of you know, I do really like solitude and being on my own. And while I also have a lot of opportunities to go to parties or dinners or afternoon tea invitations from the local, beautiful souls that I met here, having a friend from Switzerland here in my paradise has been truly unique!
Especially since Leslie is such an uplifting spirit, full to the brim with positive and loving energy, warm and kind, bringing so much laughter with her. And she loves self-development and self-growth as much as I do, fitting as she is a coach herself and never ceases to work on herself and get better at who she is in order to serve those in need of her know-how. She helped me the first time at the beginning of summer when I thought I would not make it as a freelancer and be forced to give up and go home to Austria.
This time around she helped me see the bigger picture of a past love interests of mine and why I reject the whole concept of relationships, why they scare me. She digs deep, and there almost always come something forth that I would have never anticipated or put in connection with the pending issue. I admire her work a lot. And I admire how much joy and love she brought with her, sparked within me and freely gave away throughout our days together. And I admire her cooking and baking skills. I swear I have not seen the oven being used this much since ever- and with so much dedication as well.
Oh, the food… oh, the porridge, oh, the cakes!
I appreciate the time spent with her the more because I got to share my perception of paradise with someone I know from one of my other homes, Aarau.
Our friendship evolved and I am beyond grateful for that.
I love you, Leslie!
Apart from a lot of adventures outside in the hills, on the beaches and in general the vastness of what Mother Nature offers us here on the island, there were countless other precious moments as well: I saw the same eagle twice, the sheep were moved to another field more suitable for the winter months, one ram (male sheep) had to be caught and sheared, Sarah took Leslie and I to do some drone footage of us and once again I was re-trained to drive the quad because I need to use it a lot while my hosts are away.
I also wanted and needed to share a couple of my most favourite songs that run up and down my Spotify playlist at the moment because what could convey the emotions and the sentiments of someone more clearly than music?
At the moment I am also downright addicted to the OST of ‘Spencer’ - it has so much longing and intensity in it, so much unspoken spirit and potential, so much unseen creativity in its expression. Of course a little bit of spiritual enlightenment while maintaining human form should not be missing: FACESOUL with ‘Grow - A COLORS ENCORE’. And while we are in the realms of unearthly sounds that make you want to dissolve within their notes: “HeartDust’ by Matteo de Grandis, ‘In My Loneliness’ by Andrea Vanzo & Victor Fumagalli or ‘Time’, a cover from the OST by Hans Zimmer, performed by Peter Buka combine the soundtrack to my aspiring soul. And what is life without love? Right, I am melting, not purely because of the songs but also because of admitting to being a hopeless romantic… but who cares, life is too short. And also, most of the time I sing a long with either Marjorie or the land, I am fortunate enough to tread upon, in mind anyway. So here is ‘Like I’m Gonna Lose You’ by Micky and ‘Would That I’ by Hozier.
Life brings with it those joyous moments- and it also brings with it death. For a long time I have been warned by Andrew about the tumour that prevented Bolt, the oldest gentle-dog in the house, from accompanying the pack and me on longer walks. You might remember me talking about his nickname: Bolt-iness, because he was just the happiest dog ever.
No matter what time of day or night, if you’d open the door for him, he’d jump out and be happy to be alive, and be with you outside. Or inside, getting cuddles, or a bath. During my first month alone here and while Leslie was still with us, he was doing more than fine. He seemed to have more energy and be in such high spirits. He wanted to be outside as often as possible. Less than a week after Sarah and Andrew were back home, suddenly his condition deteriorated quickly. He could not get up by himself a lot of times, sometimes when he did, he would stumble and fall. One morning Andrew called up the vet for an appointment because Bolt seemed to be in pain and not able to hold his own weight anymore. That was the day that he died.
His tumor had leaked during the night, causing him to suffer a lot. In his last hours he got a lot of cuddles from all of us, we drove to his favourite beach and partly carried him there and back into the car again. I think he was smiling and happy there with us, sniffing the salty breeze, feeling the soft sand under his paws, munching on his last seaweed-stick.
I think he knew it was his last time. I think he was aware of all of it.
Maybe a vet is supposed to say things like ‘It was absolutely necessary!’, or ‘He was in quite a lot of pain, this was the best solution for him!”. But I do believe that they would not make it up just to make the family feel better. They would not take such measures if they were not righteous or reasonable.
I miss him a lot.
His ‘wife’ Freyja misses him too, especially at night because she now has no one to cuddle up with.
We all miss this huge bear of pure happiness.
But we also know that sometimes when we walk the well treaded paths that Bolt knew from almost 12 years of living here, and he pops up in our minds, we may smile and send him our heartfelt hugs, and he will receive them, because he is with us and the pack wherever we go.
I’d like to conclude now- and be forgiven for the raucous, the unorganised, the babbling that is this blogpost. I do feel all giddy and excited to be able to write again- for my own pleasure. I have missed not having time to edit vlogs or write blogs. And I feel, since today I finished up quite a big project from a client, I might be able to just have enough time again, to get back to consistency?!
One can hope and dream.
One is also grateful and happy to be able to score client work that provides me with fulfilling future hopes and dreams.
One is thinking about all of you and thanking all of you for continuously being with me on this journey.
Feel hugged and loved.
And as always, my beloved souls, from my heart to yours
Love and Light
Nadine