Reunited

Reunited

I was planning to go back to Englandshire today, but about an hour before I was due to get on my train, I changed my mind. It was my sister Kate's day off, and she was planning to drive down to Craobh Haven, south of Oban, to meet a cousin that we hadn't seen for over ten years. She'd been in Campbeltown with her husband and other family members, to scatter her father's ashes. He died last year.

We used to see a lot of these cousins when we were all based in Argyll and they in Fife. Our grandfather rented a wonderful but run down house called Fernwoodleas on their estate, which we loved to visit as little children. Kate spent a lot of time hanging out at the 'big hoose, Inizevar, with her cousin Sineva in the late 70s. It's all been sold now, and the area was changed by open cast mining.

So Kate and I nipped down, if there is any nipping to be done south of Oban, and met at a seafood pub/restaurant in the yachtie 'village' of Craobh Haven, which looks like one of those ambitious private developments that was never quite finished. Never mind, the views were spectacular, and we sat outside in the very stiff breeze, admiring the sun for daring to come out. Sineva's husband Justin even persuaded me to eat oysters, which I had never dared to try before. I don't know what I was so scared of!

NB the picture was taken with my self timer and of course I did not entirely know what I was doing. Despite that, I'm pleased enough. L to R: me, Justin, cousin Sineva, sister Kate.

The hours flew, plenty of catching up to do. Eventually we had to head back home for chicken curry and a final session of Obsessive Compulsive clearing of the house. The kids (both my sisters') weren't there, they'd gone dog walking and stayed over at my other sister's, apart from Nat, the eldest one still at home, if you don't count Maria, my brother's daughter, who lives on Crete but is based in Benderloch at the moment, working in the pink village shop. So I won't get to say goodbye to them, which is a pity.