Happy Christmas 2025!
!
Newsletter
What you’re getting is version 2 - for some reason version 1 was overwritten during preparation! There seems
to be an inverse correlation between computer savvyness and physical age! Heigh-ho, hopefully you’ll get
version 2 without further glitches.
I’ve had some memorable visits this year - in the spring Mick and Hillie came for their annual visit, and later
Mick and Dave came back totouch up the outside painting that had suffered under our climate.
Hot on their heels came Keith Jones and his manuscript, so June passed quickly amid sampling the latest
Island product: Cow Gin. (Yes, it’s made from cows: when turning their milk into cheese, the whey is scooped
off and turned into gin) Mull is becoming 100% recycleable these days.
Having heard that the Ballygown lady, Jeanette, had opened her new restaurant, Croft 3, Keith and I decided
to check it out with a Sunday lunch - a delightful experience with some fabulous Yorkshire pudding atop
roast beef and a plethora of assorted vegetables and roast potatoes. Croft 3 immediately became the venue
of choice for my upcoming 90th next October.
Peter Barclay-Watt came for his now regular annual visit to Mull in early September, and then James and
Anita Stafford and family came for the October half-term break, rapidly followed by Ruth Aird on her rather
shortened annual visit.
Squeezed in between these was a short visit by Julian and Rachel Foster at the close of their Route 500 trip,
and Neill Fraser’s annual visit. Julian was a great help in taming the side hedge at AnDorus, while Neill
complete with chainsaw and loppers did stirling work keeping my garden tamed, as well as bringing order
back at AnDorus by burning the large amount of debris created by the earlier hedge-cutting operation.
Preparations are afoot for the 90th birthday celebrations, organised by Colonel Toby. So if you would like to
join in but haven’t had an early invitation from him, let me know and I’ll get him to include you on his list.
Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very happy and Blessed Christmas and much joy ahead in the year to come.
Eric.
Happy Christmas 2025!
Musings
“L’homme propose, mais Dieu dispose” is a saying attributed to Thomas a Kempis. - a phrase that
seems particularly apposite in today’s world, with strutting world-leaders behaving more like
capercaillies on a leck than true leaders of their nations. Increasingly there are alarm bells ringing
in Western European nations as the Russia aggression in Ukraine rumbles on without a clear plan
for its resolution being acceptable to all parties, and the “grey war” of drone flyovers and the
cutting of undersea communications cables rumbles on.
So it’s good to remind ourselves of Who is ultimately in charge: the One “in whose eyes the nations
are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; Before him all the nations are
as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.”
As if such scare-mongering were not enough, the fears about humanity becoming subservient to
AI artificial intelligence rather than the other way round seem to proliferate in many circles.
I heard an excellent talk by Prof. John Lennox on the subject recently, where he pointed out that
since AI was created by humans it will share the same flawed characteristics of its creators.
Another “worry factor” seems to center round the compulsory introduction of digital ID cards -
giving governments the power to access a person’s privacy, such as bank accounts, medical
records and the like, and to be able to use such information for their own ends.
It’s almost as if there’s a hidden agenda to de-stabilise self-confidence until every human being
becomes controlled by the state - a vision forseen by George Orwell many years ahead of its time.
How good is it then to muse on these words of the psalmist David, who wrote:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the
sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High
dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. (Psa 46: 1-6)
Happy Christmas 2025!
!
Meet the new incumbent! Fluffy last year decided to house her first litter of kittens in my
greenhouse. At this stage she was entirely feral, but both her and her offspring were duly
captured and neutered by Cat’s Protection. After that she returned and hung around behind
the shop, whose ladies took pity on her and left out food for her to eat. Then in February my
previous cat, Storm, died, and so Fluffy seized her opportunity and moved in just a few days
later. The rest, as one says, is history.
You can tell whose the
boss around here!
Though Fluffy is a
feral cat, there must
have been some
Maine Coon in her
ancestry!
