It's May already! And it's T-SHIRT weather!

Hey - it's been a while - I hope this finds you all well!

Interesting times living on a Scottish island with the recent cyber attack  - we only have the Coop supermarket and the shelves are empty - at least all of the small foodie independents are benefitting!

And the wild fires of Glen Rosa came as a devastating shock - a reminder to us all to be careful in this dry weather - basically NO FIRES!!! - very pleased that NTS Arran Ranger Service quickly organised a mass tree plant - so touching how the people of Arran came together to plant 6,270 trees in the Glen Rosa valley (one of my favorite swimming spots). https://www.facebook.com/ArranRangerService/?locale=en_GB 

Amazingly I'm still off the socials! As the months go by I'm realising I have more time to plough into other things....

Over the last few months Mr H has been focussed on building his pallet shed (there's a lot of preparation that needs to go into the pallets before they can be used - it would be so much quicker/easier to buy the wood!) whilst I've been making our garden bird and wildlife friendly,  preparing the polytunnel for spring planting (we're a month behind on Arran - lambs & mixed lettuce, kale, brocolli, leeks, spring onions, tomatoes and herbs are all in, and our blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries and grapes are all showing life too), carrying on with my potting (had my first pots raku fired) and designing a new chicken coupe by up-cycling a fridge freezer and using the redundant oil tank from having the heat source pump installed - can't wait to get the chickens! Has anyone else done something similar for their chickens and any advice on which chickens to get, of course I'm thinking rescue?

We had a wonderful Easter family trip up to the outer Hebrides and wild camped on Barra and Vatersay. Sea swimming, fishing (only caught a couple of tiddlers mind), BBQs (fire-safe) and card games galore. Nice to get off the island (onto another) and to be van-life-ing again,  we finished the trip with a couple of days living it up in Oban - if you haven't been, it's a beautiful and vibrant town to visit!

We often reflect on how much simpler and less hectic our lives are since relocating to  Arran and closing our high street stores. Since significantly down sizing our business we both seem less stressed and have more quality time for the kids and even more time for the dogs! Of course we have less disposable income, but we also need less.

We have time to notice the changing seasons, the sunrises and sunsets, absorbing the fresh sea air, take lengthier dog walks whilst listening to audio books and to speak to folk you bump into, we even have time to help others which of course gives you a lovely warm feeling inside.

We managed to paddle around Holy Isle on Easter Monday (kids were at school), fishing rods were out (not a bite, I'm told it's too early). Half way round we disembarked and sat beneath the Eriskay ponies, drank our flask of red bush and ate our packed lunch - I don't think I've ever felt happier.

If you've been considering making a significant change in your life, but it seems impossible or untouchable, consider doing it, I can strongly recommend taking the plunge!

Of course we miss feeling that we matter (never mind missing family and friends), Cherrydidi gave us a sense of importance, a sense of real purpose and that has all gone but we are slowly filling it with other things. To be honest I've taken a good 18 months to reenergise as I felt totally burnt out after working so darn hard for 11 years! 

Swimming has been my meditation - in the sea, lochs and indoor pool, I can never stay dry for long! I've just secured a place in the Lamlash Splash again, the 1.3 mile sea swim from Holy Isle back to Lamlash pier so I'll start to up my distances again. I'm currently exploring starting an open water swimming business on the Isle of Arran which seems like a natural direction to explore - watch this space.

Mr H has joined Bay Wool and Crafts with his Arran T-Shirt Collection, it's a lovely little shop in Whiting Bay with a large selection of Arran themed handmade goods produced by local craftspeople on the island - thank you for giving Zak the Collie Dog collection this opportunity. Do check them out if you're in Whiting Bay or visit  https://www.baywoolcrafts.co.uk/

After 12 years of screen printing 1000’s of Zak the Collie Dog t-shirts along with being inspired by our recent adventures Mr H is finally expanding the Zak the Collie Dog clothing range. Mr H creates the quirky illustrations which I then turn into designs and hey presto we have new t-shirts!

We're working with an ethical Lancashire based business for the print side (Mr H will carry on screen printing one colour designs at the Arran based Zak HQ) and have changed our clothing brand to the sustainable Stanley / Stella, they're comparable to our previous clothing supplier Earth Positive and we've tried and tested both clothing and print quality and can honestly say both are superb! We've added a number of collections; active, animal, cat (Zak would be miffed!), food and drink, horses, nature, swimming, dogs etc.

Just shop here https://cherrydidi.com/

As always, thanks for taking the time to read. Enjoy the great outdoors in this wonderful sunshine, I hope you're doing as much alfresco dining as us! Stay safe and look after our wonderful planet.

Until next time.

Mrs H.