At the end of every retreat I teach, I take notes about how things might be improved the next time around. I notice the things that go well, the things that fall flat, the rhythm of the days and the balance of activity, engagement, adventure and rest. And at the end of each retreat, especially one I'm creating for the first time, I usually have a little list of things to change the next time out. After I was in Scotland last time, one of the things I put on this list was to invite a Scottish storyteller to come for a night of authentic stories. We'd had a fire in the giant Newbold fire pit out on the grounds last time, and it seemed like a terrific idea to bring in a storyteller to share Scottish tales before the fire. And so on this trip, my trustworthy assistant Marie located the ... [Continue Reading]
Virtual Vacation: Clava Cairns
On this ten-day Write, Travel, Transform trip, we alternate a couple of days centered at "home" at Newbold House, with tour days. Today was one of our all-day tour days. Our first stop was Clava Cairns, laughingly described by one of our writers on the bus as "Stonehenge for wee people." But once we arrived, no one felt like joking except Allistair, our bus driver. "There's no restrooms here," he told us, "but there are plenty of trees." Off the bus, we gathered by the entrance in a circle with Margot, our gifted storyteller from last night, and waited expectantly. She looked around at each of us and said, "I imagine you're all waiting for me to tell you about the Clava Cairns, but I'm not going to do ... [Continue Reading]
Virtual Vacation: Loch Ness
On the final outing in our ten-day trip, we headed out after lunch, with Alistair at the helm of our bus, on our way to Inverness to catch our boat to Loch Ness. "If you come from Inverness, you're called an Invernessian," Alistair told us over the bus microphone. As we drove by a the river and saw some fisherman, he said, "If you're a tourist, it costs 200-300 pounds (about $500 dollars) a day to fish and you're not guaranteed to get a fish, but you are guaranteed to get eaten alive by midges." We love Alistair. As we queued up for our boat ride, I heard Julie A. singing the theme song from Gilligan's Island. Julie is always good for a song whenever the spirit moves her. This was our boat: Once we boarded, I climbed up to the top deck of the ship. A crew member was scraping ... [Continue Reading]
Virtual Vacation: Laikenbuie Farm
Today, on the last afternoon of the last day of our retreat, seven of us hopped in the Newbold van with Christopher and Martin from the house and drove out to a local organic farm that produces grass fed lamb and organic eggs, owned by a lovely farmer couple, Peter and Therese Muskus. They've completely transformed their 150 acres of land in the 40 years they've been working it.
The Muskus' only farm 1/5 of the land, growing grass for raising organic sheep and chickens. The rest of the land is full of stunning meadows and woodlands and even a green burial site where the Muskus' plan to be laid to rest when the time comes.
When we arrived in our van, the first thing Peter did was come out and read us a list of all the things we could do on his farm: drive an ATV, look at an ... [Continue Reading]
