'Last' as in previous not as in this is, or that was, the last week (of our existence).
Living my life as I do in two halves I have always found the last week or so of each life quite difficult. It's not so much the packing because I usually only have a small amount of stuff to transport between my worlds. I came back from NZ last time with a suitcase weighing 14k plus my 6k cabin bag. When I went to Italy this summer I had three cases (plus my laptop backpack etc) and all the other odds and ends. There are so many other things to be taken care of from making sure the house, car and garden are set up for the winter and all the paperwork is done to saying goodbyes.
So the last week was sort of planned in my mind. What I had not expected was last Monday and Tuesday being such wonderful days that I spent most of them in the garden doing, you guessed, gardening and outside house maintenance. The rest of the week was a mixed bag though.
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| Upper Bayble across the valley from me - a valley filled with mist on a still and frosty morning |
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| and in a different light |
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| From the kitchen window |
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| No wind - that doesn't happen very often |
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| Dew and spiders |
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| The spider must have been dizzy when it had finished that untidy lot |
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| The next day the weather started closing in |
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| and the squalls came through running South down The Minch |
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| and the snow showers came in squalls |
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| followed by some sun |
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| and then more squalls |
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| and even more |
Then the week ended.
All four seasons in a day or a week anyway.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful images
Yes Adrian sometimes they do come in one day and thanks for the tip on stitching a few weeks ago which resulted in the first two panoramas.
DeleteOh, that poor spider! Imagine what it must be like to be him! Perhaps the same as it is to be you the week before you leave? lol.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photos, as usual. However, this is the first time I noticed the creature overlooking the bay (the minch?). An outcropping, but I think I see a creature there! I'll probably always see him from now on.
A sleeping dinosaur head!
DeleteYes Lisa that is a bit how I feel! I'd never seen the dinosaur head before (thanks for that Fi!). Now I, too, will see it when I look out of my kitchen window.
DeleteYes!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures, Graham. In the first one, Upper Bayble looks like an island.
ReplyDeleteI wonder which is the dominant feeling for you during that last week in either world; looking forward to the next half year and going back to your other home, or nostalgia for leaving one home behind, with all that entails.
I find it a very difficult time mentally Meike because there is no one feeling but an incredible mixture of things unfinished where I'm leaving and things to be done where I'm going; friends left behind and friends with whom to be re-united; and things I won't be doing and things I will be doing (notably when moving to NZ playing croquet again).
DeleteGood grief, I see that dinosaur head, too. Has that always been there? These are beautiful photos!
ReplyDeleteYes it's always been there (dinosaurs have, after all, been extinct for a while now).
DeleteA view from kitchen window - beautiful!
ReplyDeleteYes, Jaz, there aren't many with such a beautiful view from their kitchen.
DeleteAnother set of beautiful and dramatic views from your window... (And now I see that dinosaur too!) I can well understand that your last week before leaving must be full of mixed feelings. You're good at "being in the present" thing though so no doubt you will be just as glad to be back in New Zealand again once you've landed there.
ReplyDeleteHad to laugh at your comment about the spiderweb... Reminding a bit of your own networking, perhaps? Hither and thither across the world... :)
Too true, Monica. Now that the first leg is over and I'm in Glasgow and ready for the last night of sleep before I leave Scotland and there is nothing more that I can do back on Lewis I am just ready to get back to the warmth of New Zealand, my friends there and my beloved croquet.
DeleteGB, these are lovely photos as usual.
ReplyDeleteLoved the intricate spider web, confused as it may be, and the dew on the barbed wire fence.
I too will always see the sleeping dinosaur from now on....thanks FFFPAW.
How do you know what to wear with so many different moods to the weather in one day? That would drive me crazy I'm sure.
Lovely morning views across the valley seem to be putting on a show just for you as their way of saying "So Long for now."
Thanks Virginia. The sensible answer to what to wear in such changing circumstances and bearing in mind that I can be working in a biting wind outside or my cosy 22℃ house is layering. I'm not sensible. though, and seem to end up wearing all sorts of different things during a day like that.
DeleteYup, in Lewis 'if you don't like the weather, just wait half an hour'. Although, having said that, sometimes it gets worse.
ReplyDelete