Kingussie

Towards the end of April, Suki and I had a week’s holiday in Kingussie.  Kingussie is situated in the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland and has several well-marked walks that start from the town.

For reasons that I will mention later, my cleaner suggested to me that I needed to get away for a break. On the spur of the moment, I looked for and found a dog-friendly cottage at a very reasonable price. Daughter lives and works nearby and I knew that we would enjoy the walks in the area.

The weather forecast for the week was not good and it looked as if our first day would be our best.  So off we set on the steepest walk up the hill Creag Bheag, situated behind the town.  It may not be high (487 m), but it is steep and I huffed and puffed my way, step by step, until I eventually made it. Suki, meanwhile, was racing on ahead and then rushing back to find out if I was still coming.  It was too windy to picnic at the top, so we continued down the other side.  Daughter can run up the hill effortlessly, Tom would have walked slowly but steadily and both would have been frustrated had they been with me.  However, I am proud of myself for persevering and getting there.

For the rest of our stay, we did less demanding walks.  We walked beside Loch Gynack and around Loch Morlich.  We went twice to Loch An Eilean, a place full of memories because Tom and I had walked there with our dog Benji and, over Christmastide in 2014, we scattered Tom’s ashes there. I also discovered a lovely, peaceful walk along the Gynack Burn and around the Tom Baraidh woods.  

We saw Daughter when she finished work and delighted in watching the lambs frolicking about in the field next to her house. 

I went away because I was trying to process a series of tragic events and, while they did not affect me directly, they were upsetting:

• A well-loved former colleague of mine took his own life
• A dear friend was diagnosed with dementia
• The newly elected president of our Art Club was killed in a car crash

While I was getting over the shock of hearing the sad news about my ex-colleague, the other two sacristans who share duties with me at church were also coming to terms with similar news of suicides of people close to them.  We simply do not know what mental torment others are going through because so often they put on a brave face and we assume that all is well. (Note to self – do not judge others).

My first ever sale at an art exhibition was a stained glass woodpecker.  The lady whose husband bought it took the trouble to write to me a few months later to say how much they were enjoying it and to encourage me to carry on with my art.  This lovely considerate lady was elected as president of the Art Club AGM and a week later both she and her husband were killed instantly in a head-on collision. (Note to self – do not put off being kind because you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow).

I returned home refreshed and hopefully with things in better perspective. Sometimes one has to accept that there are no easy answers to the tragedies of life while at the same time retaining the hope that there is life after death where “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).