Calmer days ahead

The bustle that comes with the season of festive shopping is well underway here in Bath - even in the middle of a pandemic! We have been back in the South West for the last month or so (having popped back up to our building plot for a brief visit in November) and although the city looks beautiful - all alight with Christmas - we are both starting to yearn for our peaceful area of the Highlands.

Down here in Bath life moves at such a pace, the Christmas music in the shops seems just that bit too loud, the decorations just that bit too bright and the almost desperate need to have everything before Christmas is sending the Cities populous into a frenzy. Consumerism is in full flow - I haven't dared head to Bristol I might get trampled in the rush!

This time when we head up - planning to leave asap - we are in for the long haul of winter and are looking forward to life moving at a sightly different pace. The coming weeks will bring a calmer slower season and now is the time for winter fires (ours will be in an outside fire pit), cosy clothes, glasses of malt whiskey and good books. For the first time in years we are planning to have some time to ourselves over Christmas, we will not work, we will not be rushing all over the place to visit and we will not even be house or van designing! We need to take a few days to rest up, relax and just be us.

It will be a time for good food cooked together, empty beaches and bracing weather, some wildlife watching and maybe a hike or two.

So if these coming weeks fill you with dread then I suggest you to adopt the calming approach the Scottish Highlands advocates and enjoy the Christmas season at a slower pace.

Love Lizx