The winds ....

The winds have dominated our lives over the last few weeks, but Saturdays wind was the strongest so far, with gusts up to 109miles an hour. We lost a pig arc which landed 6 crofts away. It was extremely heavy –Ron & I couldn’t lift it on our own. Walking down the croft the next day the spray & waves coming of the sea was really powerful. There were lots of boats hugging the coastline, weather is always a talking point up here. The local Gaelic speakers greet each other by a comment on the weather.

Even now whilst I am writing this, the winds are growing again. Yet in between we have had beautiful calm days. I have been down to Callanish today. We picked up 2 new piglets a very spotty female & her pink brother, both Tamworth crossed. Ron & his friend Donald have been out mending the pigsty & tidying up the yard. Ron is now moaning that he aches all over, its a long time he has worked so physically hard.

I also popped to Great Bernera to meet Simant & his partner Dizzy, he is a sculptor & she a psychiatric nurse, he does some amazing sculptures based on Celtic mythology. I t was lovely to meet him & I could highly recommend his work.

He uses a lot of spirals in his work, those of you that know me will know about my fascination for them. I hope to get to know them both well over the next few months.

The short days are already getting longer, I have noticed we already have an extra hour of light in the evening since Christmas, & it is 5pm before it is dark. We have almost survived our first winter !

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Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

Snuggling with a howling gale around us ...

We are having a long lie in snuggled under the duvet as a howling gale surrounds us with expected winds of 70 miles an hour. Ron & I did some work on the house to reduce some of the drafts yesterday, brought in loads of coal and peat so we don’t need to go out much. Unfortunately Francesca has a birthday party this afternoon so I will have to venture out in the van I hope there is a lull in the wind.

Yesterday was the funeral of our dear friend Ian Murray. A community psychiatric nurse who worked in North Wales he was a lovely man, a fantastic practitioner, who worked towards recovery, he had a intuitative understanding of why people self harm and has helped take thinking forward on this subject, he was also a great dad to his talented son’s and husband of Anne a fellow mental nurse. Our thoughts are with them as we were unable to travel to the funeral.

As I thought our trip to Palestine has been postponed to later in the year, as it was deemed unsafe, also staff were in no mood for training in the west bank as they hear more and more about the destruction of Gaza. The mental health centre in Gaza, a ground-breaking, very forward thinking community mental health project has been bombed and completely destroyed. The mental health workers have to work from their homes. They have lost all their records and are practicing in extreme difficulties. These were some of the staff we were meant to be doing recovery training with next week. I feel so powerless as the West continues to allow this degrading bombing to go on. No human being deserves to live in these conditions. Our thoughts are with our friends in Gaza who showed us such wonderful hospitality last time we were there.

Ron & I will now use this free time to catch up on writing and planning for the coming year. We hope to complete a manual on person centred planning and develop some further training packs.
I have some workshops coming up at the end of this month in Glasgow and am looking forward to training again. As I have not done any since our return from Australia in November. Its also the Celtic Connections festival so I am hoping to catch up on some good music too.

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Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.

A crazy world ...

Back home in Lewis, concentrating on getting every thing sorted for Christmas. Finn had the flu like virus whilst in Denmark & I think I might be next. I have had an on going problem with my thumbs, you don’t realize how important they are until they are painful to use, so we have decided the pigs will have to go and we will get new weaners in the spring. I had become very attached to the pigs especially Charlotte but this is what crofting is all about, living off the land and making it work for us.

I did go down with the flu Saturday before Christmas, couldn’t move from my bed for 2 days, Francesca went down with it on Christmas day, luckily just after she had opened her presents, Ron followed on boxing day and Rory yesterday. We are a house full of sick people, thank goodness it ‘s the holidays.

Ron and I have been following the news in Gaza , we are meant to be working there in 2 weeks time. It is horrific what is happening there. Having been there and seen how closely every one lives together it is impossible for civilians not to be hit. The mental health of the people is deteriorating rapidly.

We are meant to be doing some recovery training and teaching some future planning skills, how to do that in a meaningful way? I know it can still work we have had some fabulous success in Bethlehem, the Palestinians certainly understand hope but the fear of not surviving must be huge at the moment.

How can one persecuted people do this to another. The walls that have been built around Bethlehem are such ugly concrete monstrosities. They tower over you, imprison you and try to suck the spirit out of you. But the spirit of the people is still so strong. They hold their heads high as they are forced to wait hours to get through he check points. To be a mother in Gaza at the moment must be a terrible burden, how to keep your children alive and safe. I have just watched on television as they pulled the bodies of 5 sisters out of their bombed bedroom. We sure do live in a crazy world.

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Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor have an international reputation as speakers and authors. They are the directors of ‘Working to Recovery Limited’ an innovative international consultancy, training and publishing company with a cutting edge approach to supporting and improving mental health provision.