All the lifestyle gurus say how important it is to have a bit of wildness in your life.  They don’t mean tigers or even wolves, they mean nature.  And although I’ll never be a lifestyle guru I do feel they’re right about this.  (However, I’m still never going to drink a green smoothie.)

 Whenever I go to our little corner of heaven, and stand on the foreshore by the loch and look at the expanse of water and the hills beyond I feel almost shocked at how beautiful it is.  The burn, rushing (or idling, depending on recent rainfall) which is our fridge as well as our water supply, is a fairy glen.  Watching my grandchildren playing in it is magical, especially when not so long ago (it seems) it was my children playing there. 

 I love fires and I love cooking over them.  We had a new Dutch Oven this year and they are the slow cooker of the campsite.  We cooked a wonderful stew on the ashes of the previous night’s fire, one day.  We did baked potatoes the day before.  (They didn’t take as long as we thought.)  I love the challenge and discovering that you don’t need much flame, if any, if the fire has been going for a couple of days.

 Life up there is different and quite hard work.  There are no light switches, no taps, nothing instant.  When we get home life suddenly seems ridiculously easy.  What?  You don’t have to take containers down to the burn so you can wash up?  There’s a fridge and a deep freeze?  That seems so amazing and for a while, you stop taking these things for granted.

But the refreshment this wild beauty gives me is priceless, and well worth being a bit grubby for.  Seeing one of my youngest grandchildren, walking over the stones saying ‘ow ow ow’ but still carrying on was magical.  As was seeing him when he found a deodorant.  He pulled down his jumper and stuffed it under his arm.  Obviously he’s only ever seen people apply deodorant after they’ve put their clothes on.  It’s not just me who does this then!