It is all go for us these few weeks. Over the weekend we have been down in England visiting family- I loved spending time with my sister and her managerie of dogs and no-longer-kids. It was Ben’s birthday and Lily is off to work in a hospital in darkest rural Uganda…

I also took my mum out for the day to Woolaton Park– it is so long since I lived in my place of birth that these excursions to what where once local land marks increasingly feel like anchorage point on the high seas.

Talking of high seas, our next excursion is with a group of friends out to the Hebridean island of Coll. It is Michaela’s birthday on Wednesday and 15 of us have taken over the recently built community owned bunkhouse. Our ages range from 13 to 75.

See you the other side of the sea…