In with the new out with the old

Well another year has come and gone by so fast that I am not sure if I blinked and missed most of 2007?
We had a very busy time during the Christmas holidays, I had two weeks holidays from my normal work, which I might add also passed very quickly.
We went to my husbands nephews place in Forth for Christmas dinner, his wife did an excellent job of making us feel welcome, she prepared a wonderful meal for everyone.
The children were all exited and had a great day too.
We did not stay as we had to get back to see to the animals, we arrived back late, the cattle & sheep were fed and watered for the night.
We spent a few days driving far and wide collecting feed for the animals, as I have said previously it is cheaper for us to transport ourselves sometimes, we do not mind it as it gets us out and about visiting with friends on the way, that we have not seen for a while.

On New Years day, we had my husbands sister and family over for dinner, it went without any hiccups, and past the day away, we were first footed by someone that works with my husband, he is dark complexion (from Portugal) a stranger, we have only known him about 7 weeks and he came bearing gifts, a box of chocolates for me, lets hope we have better luck this year.
In with the new and out with the old.

My husbands cousin died just after Christmas which was a shock to us all.
He was in hospital in Glasgow for a short time, he seemed to be picking up a bit, but we were told that a hospital bug got to him and he died on Sunday 6th Jan.
I had to take a couple of days off work as the funeral was going to be on the beautiful island of Uist just of the West coast of Scotland, as this was were he lived up until he died.
My husband had to catch the ferry from Uig in the early hours of Tuesday morning as the funeral was on the Wednesday, transportation to and from the islands is a bit scarce during the winter months, so he would have to travel back on Thursday.
I stayed at home and looked after the animals.
My husband said that he had not seen anything like it, when the coffin came over on the ferry to Uist late on Tuesday night from Barra there were at least 50 cars waiting on the Pier for the arrival of their now departed friend, brother, cousin, neighbour.
I suppose they all wanted to welcome one of their own back to the island for the last time.
He was a kind quiet man so I have been told, I never got the opportunity to meet him, we were supposed to visit him over Christmas in the hospital, but as usual, other things get in the way, of the smaller important things, so regretfully I never got to speak to him.
Time is always eaten up by what we feel is important at that moment, and then we have to live with the regrets later.
I know he will be sadly missed by a lot of people including my husband.
We have all been suffering from flu bugs at the moment, so things are a little harder to cope with as the bug is so debilitating, but never the less we soldier on, there are others out there who have worse lives than us and we should be grateful for the things we have in our lives.

Our neighbours had to have their dog put to sleep last Saturday, he was a beautiful friendly collie called Max, they are so distressed with the lost, I feel for them, it is like losing a child, companion and friend all in one go.
Our collie always jumps up at the back window of the car when we pass by their house to see if Max is out and running along the fence line, which is what he liked to do when cars passed by his house, he is still jumping up at the window hoping for a glimpse as he has no idea that Max is no longer there.
We will miss him also, as he always gave us a warm welcome when we paid a visit to the family.
We have lost two collies in the past few years, even though they are not there in body they will always be in our hearts.

So over this past Christmas and New Year period it has been busy here in Arisaig.

Maybe you will join me through the next year of our lives.
I look forward to you visiting again where ever you may be.