I put my heart in your hands

All too soon, it was Friday. 

Where does the time go when you are having fun? 

We lazed around, drank coffee and tea  and then we took the boat out.   The weather was forecast to be raining, but it wasn't.  It was forecast to be windy, but it wasn't.     One side of the sky was dull, one side was like heaven. 

We took a last trip round middle island, and headed for the south of the Island.  Once we were there we were still.

no waves; brilliant sunshine, heat, swishy of water.  Glorious. 

Not one bite.   

We must have sat for an hour, and then moved farther south, and sat for another hour. 

Then we decided it must be time for our last wee run around the island. 

It honestly couldn't have been better.  The whole way round the island, the water was like a mill pond.   There was not a sound. 

we stopped a couple of times, to watch the seals, and just gaze at the hills and the trees, and the fields, and the islands, and the birds. 

Look.  


On our final turn around the north end of the island, the Castle Came nto sight.  And there.. The last thing on my "want to see" list.  The deer.  The deer were standing on the lawn in the front of the castle.  I'd seen them all. 

Sea Eagle, Seals, Porpoises, Otters, and the Deer.   Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick. 

We drove the boatie into the jetty for the last time.  I disembarked with grace, and pretty fluid movements  - practise all week had me perfect. 

We sanitised the life jackets, and topped up the tank for the first time, and walked the little way back to the cottage. 

I hadn't visited the castle.  Himself and Tooli had gone while I played with the drone. I wasn't sure I'd make the climb. 

We set off anyways. 

Up the path, past the boat house, past the pheasant farm, past Garnde Cottage and the Path to the Oakwood Cottage,  Right turn up to the farmhouse, and then right again through the trees, and there she stood, proud in all her fuchia growing out of the window and roof glory .

When Himself was first there, in 1975 the family still stayed on the island in the castle.  When we visited first in 2007, it was derelict.  They all just moved.  They moved to the mainland because the upkeep was too much. 

There were magazines sitting on chairs in the sitting room.  There were tins of hot chocolate and bovril sitting on the side in the kitchen, beside cups and saucers and cooking bowls. 

Now - the ceilings have collapsed, trees are growing through the walls and floors,  it's slowly disappearing into itself. 

We wandered round the building, up and down some overgrown garden steps, and looked in awe at all the rhododendrons which had been cut back - and there were still masses.  The tidying of the garden is a constant work in progress. 

We walked down the gardens, and into the trees, sliding down some more dodgy steps and some mud, and then we were at the side gate of the cottage.

Pasta was cooked, wine was opened, garlic bread heated.  

The last game of scrabble was played, and Tooli was declared the champion, (removing all trace of cheating) ... we packed most of our stuff and then a last look out on the deck and we went to bed.