Darutti Harris Tweed

Neither the lady from New York nor her colleague from the South of England were in the Harris Tweed shop today. Indeed their part of the homely store was closed for restoration work. Consequently the three jackets they had helped me choose yesterday afternoon remained on the shelves, for I had vowed only to make a purchase after hearing how these two characters had got themselves to the remote village of Grosebay on the Isle of Harris. Without their factual explanation I might have to drive forward fanciful interpretations of my own; Kate says they weren't sisters, which was my first presumption. We heard that Prince Charles and Camilla had visited the shop, perhaps the two assistants had a royal connection (Kate is busily looking up the equivalent of an hotel maitre d' for a clothes shop to improve the use of the word assistant) The shop is in truth a private house, as far away from the High Street as any shop anywhere in the world. The clothes are all of Harris Tweed, the jackets I care for are by Darutti. The ladies tell me they are of Italian design, by German manufacture, using the most exclusive fabric in the world (they were not in the business of underselling their wares). They told me in one I looked slimmer, in another I was the perfect country gent ready for a day at the races, and in the third the colours in the tweed picked out perfectly the blonde colouring in my hair (at school it was called ginger), as I say they were not in the underselling business.

Intrinsically Safe

…you sit at your desk ~ I stand beside the stones ~ the gale tears away all doubts ~ no need for sages ~ we are among true believers ~ barefoot warriors ~ freed from our desks ~ free to bless the stones

Jungian

Back into the warmth. Or did the warmth come from the book. Early on, an easy understanding of the many levels of consciousness; given to me through Jung's interpretation of his early 30's dream. My arm is warm, the thin pullover clings ever so lightly; these are the paths my mind now wanders along, the slightest of touches, the merest of movements invoking memories of a gentle love, a love even more gently imagined, a memory so easily painted with soft lights and warm colours, a time past that lives fleetingly as a time present, an energy that reminds me that the warmth did not come from the book, the warmth came from within me, a warmth within that has loved and lost and loved again. Such a warmth that reminds me, that the loss of love is not a love lost but a love that waits to be rediscovered, whenever the warmth calls by.

Workshop World

In the shade of the pine, with pebbles and sand at my feet, I sit on the log barrier to have my photograph taken. Kate somehow manages, even though it is just after noon, to bring the flash into action; it was clever she says later, to the accompaniment of beating drums. The pine brush carries it's own random patterns, the rings of the sawn log gives away it's age, it's full time of life over, before helping to form a new human support venture. Times, and places run their course; where once there was unfettered imagination, and freedom of will, there is now ageing and signs of repetition, which in turn leads to decay. We are all  in need of the search of a new beginning, a new motivation; it is no longer sufficient to talk of community, or to dance around the word retreat, or to paint the words of grace and patience onto fine ceramic mugs.

Age of Community

The dust of previous occupancy smothers any possibility of individual reckoning. Like a swathe of blankets thick in felt and embroidery the weight of others is overbearing.

Yet this place names itself the community, so I wonder why do I feel so estranged? Rather than becoming engulfed in the question I judge it better to retreat to the pebble beach, take solace with the solitary fishermen, cast my cares to the clouds, abandon my thoughts to the rolling sea. The talk turns to Finnish lodges, space in the heart of the forest, a place to sauna and swim au natural - this sounds more like an enlightened engagement with life to me.