september feeling

We are enjoying some beautiful September weather. The days are warm and golden, the evenings are a little colder, and appreciably darker, and every morning a rising mist softens the light over Carbeth loch. I think the weather is definitely contributing to my own characteristic September feeling – an urgent sense of new beginnings, which is somehow weirdly bound up with a little wistfulness and nostalgia. If I’m thinking about new beginnings, it is probably because we have a brand new colleague starting work with us in the KDD warehouse this week (hurrah) and if I’m feeling wistful it is because I was reflecting yesterday that it has been a decade since we moved here, to Carbeth, and that an awful lot has happened in that time.

I lived in my childhood home, in Rochdale, for my first 18 years. Since that, this is the longest I’ve stayed anywhere.

I love this place.

When we decided to move to Carbeth (for Tom’s new job at Glasgow University), I was two years post-stroke, and had recently published my first knitting-related title, Colours of Shetland.

And so, at the end of summer in 2013, we bought a house at Carbeth from Paul and Susie.

We settled in. I passed my driving test.

We loved our new rural life

But the University post that Tom had taken sadly proved to be a disheartening dead-end. So he left academic science, and, after working his way through several courses at City of Glasgow College, became KDD’s full-time photographer and book design maestro.

We got married.

I wrote a lot. I designed a lot of knitwear. Tom photographed it all.

https://youtu.be/gKf1NGhIrlk?si=55c_5Q7tTqLIqoVE

With our friends, we worked hard, and we had fun.

In 2017, we helped my mum and dad to move, and join us in the west of Scotland – where they love living too!

Here at Carbeth, we kept on walking, writing, making, learning. . .

. . . and swimming!

https://youtu.be/b95ZAcpD42w?si=FWd7nzogQTPIObx_

We have been joined by Bob and Bran

But lost lovely Bruce

I’ve had my low points with depression

and, at times, people have proved disappointing. But they’ve been surprising and heartening as well.

Through the past decade, the beautiful landscape of Carbeth has always been a source of inspiration

The scene of many scenic photoshoots!

and – perhaps especially during the pandemic – a place of genuine solace.

When we came here ten years ago, I had published one book under my own imprint. With Tom and the rest of my team, we’ve now published twenty four different titles.

we’ve manufactured a lot of lovely yarn

and knitwear

Through making things, we’ve encouraged other people’s creative making. We’ve supported ourselves. We’ve provided employment. And hopefully, through our books, provided enjoyment too!

This September morning, I’m feeling very grateful for this place

And for this time of creative flourishing

May the next decade be one of flourishing too!