Becoming a Highlander

I had long wanted to live in Scotland, first visiting when I was 11 and seeing much of the country on holiday with my Mum and Dad. Living in the Highlands became a dream realised, eventually, in 2005 when I moved to Fort William. At the end of that year I moved to Ross-shire with my new partner. We bought an old stone-built cottage high on a hill in 2010, and a mother Pine Marten moved in while we were having the roof re-slated. I thought this was the most "Highland" thing that could happen to someone, so I felt as though I really belonged! (A year or so before that, a lovely colleague told me I was an 'adopted Highlander' and I was so pleased!) My journey stone image shows one of the Pine Marten kits who had got itself stuck on the scaffolding one mid-summer night. Let me tell you, they are very noisy neighbours. The stitching is not so great as I am a bit of a novice. This was done very early on in the process.