Here be dragons.

The dragon T has landed and Sandy is delighted. He wore it to archery last night. It isn't really that much too big. They must cut them rather small which is why the one I bought for 11+ is already tight. The ones I bought for three-year-olds were also small so the Chillside grandson should be just right any time now. Many thanks for ours. I think I might keep the black on black one when he finally releases it - I shall frame it. Best dragon I've seen for ages and I'm very taken with them mythologically and artistically.

Chillside's reason for taking up smoking for the 'naughty girl' effect reminded me of the day we found my ma-in-law, sitting up in her hospital bed after her first hip replacement, puffing elegantly away at a cheroot. She said it helped to keep her feeling human in the face of the dehumanising nurses! What can we replace this weapon with? Last time I was hospitalised I took a 'protective' Aura Soma oil in with me. It smelled so nice I got more attention from the nice nurses so maybe it worked.

Not much news here except that I won a £15 voucher for meat from a local butcher by finishing the crossword in the local weekly rag. YES! Pity Sanders has decided to go veggie (he's a piscitarian actualy as he is still eating fish.)

I have a fluey cold - is that IT? Chloe has had the same. So far it isn't even enough to stop me sitting in the shop dammit. I should be grateful but - what an anticlimax!!

Doubt sends custom.

One of yesterday's customers told me that he had read about the closure of my shop on the internet - but because it was on the internet he hadn't believed it so came looking for me anyway!

The Moray Art Centre, Findhorn.

Suddenly I had a rush of enthusiasm for taking photos. It must have been the nice weather. The new Art Centre at the Foundation won a prize for its architect; I'm not sure I've done the building itself justice but it was the outside features that I liked best today, especially the big shiny balls and the illusory window which is really reflective metal.

Whilst I was at it I wondered around the rest of the place - see below...

Remembering Frances.

Two years ago Chloë and I scattered the ashes of a very dear friend, Frances De Silva, here in the Quiet Garden and around the little sanctuary. I don't need to go back here to remember Frances, whose caravan was only a pace or two away from the bushes we shook her into, but it was quite nice to sit there today and give her a bit of extra attention. She made many cups of sanity-saving tea for me on difficult post-separation days, whilst she shared tales of her own marital woes - most memorably the day she threw a plate of food at her first husband and knocked him cold. She watched the potato sliding down the wall and wondered how many years she'd get if he was dead! That's the sort of tale to put a bit of iron into the soul and momentary distress into perspective!

I was always jealous that I hadn't had the brio to throw a plate of food...

Gateway.

Barrel housing.

Harley (see below) was in at the meditation to envision this first experiment with new housing for the FF. The idea of making a house in an old whisky barrel was greeted with derision in some (many?) quarters but it succeeded. I believe it took a long time for the whisky fumes to dissipate but don't think the first inhabitant minded too much. The idea caught on and now there are several barrel houses of ever increasing complexity and grandeur. I still think this is the nicest. Most like a cosy Hobbit hole.

Amazing manifestations.

I don't often gt down to the Foundation these days but today it was a pleasant place to walk, out of the wind and into some interesting memories. None of these houses were around when we first came to live here so they have no part in those memories but are a constant source of amazement. Some of them are so huge!!