Photo blog

For March:  A PLACE TO SIT…

Connected to the Land

Making space for the next generation!

The chilled piper

Perfect Lookout Point

Okay…not for people but for this osprey.

The Bog Cotton Cafe

Listen. I’m really not trying to sneak in another ’snow’ picture under the guise of ‘a place to sit’. This was simply how things looked today. Anyway, let me introduce you to the Bog Cotton Cafe in Cannich (check out a map of Scotland, put your finger about half way along Loch Ness and then nudge it a bit further north and west – you’ll find Cannich there).
The Bog Cotton is brilliant for all kinds of reasons. Kerry’s broth which is the best; coffee that beats the pants off the usual offerings from Starbucks or Costa; carrot cake that should be under lock and key when I’m about – as I frequently am.
But there’s another reason why the Bog Cotton is amazing. Two friends of ours built and then opened the cafe about 18 months ago. Before that you had to travel 12 miles or so to get a decent coffee. But the Bog Cotton’s about more than that. The cafe’s brought something fresh into our village. I call it hope. It can be tough getting new things going here. Especially new, good things. There’s a kind of unspoken (well, not always unspoken) expectation that not much good will ever come into or out of here.
Our friends were determined to keep the Bog Cotton open all year – despite a few hard and fast cynics who said it would never work. It did work. It does work. It gives people in our village a much needed space to meet – and a beautiful one at that; visitors love it, and it provides a few hours extra work each week for three women in the village. It’s even got a small shop selling crafts made by some very gifted local people.
I got chatting with a guy who works in the national tourism scene here in Scotland the other day. He’d sort of stumbled across the Bog Cotton almost by accident. He called it ‘a hidden gem’. Too right. But not quite so hidden now. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for those tucked away, completely Life-filled initiatives which are helping transfigure their communities in small and big ways to come into the light.

Seize Life!

On a trip to Italy a few years ago I leant the importance of these words:

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don’t skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!

Ecclesiates 9:7

Watch the world go by

Last year we visited Barcelona for a couple of days. We sat in this square for hours watching people come, sit for a while and then wander off.  I love that it’s a spot just for one – a place for your own undisturbed thoughts, a place ready just for you and the world just carries on by.

Okay one last door!!

This door (really a gate) is something old, turned into something new. It was taken inside a church building in London. I often wonder what the Lord has planned for the ever growing number of empty and half-empty church buildings across the UK. Where are the Spirit-filled interior designers and architects who have a vision to celebrate and pull forward our godly heritage in a way that is free of the entrenched, old-time religion? This prayer space for us was a beautiful past-present-future space for a season with the Lord.

Solitude

A difficult place to get to but probably amazing to experience”
There would be the sound of silence apart from occasional ptarmigan and grouse in the gully below.