Heading Home

A few days ago, after staying at a lovely Eco campsite in Skye, we said goodbye to our friends and headed north to Inverness to pick up our van.

We travelled through intense rain and wind and eventually reached Inverness where we were reunited with our van. Vauxhall had replaced the blocked injector so we were hopeful that we could drive home without any issues. After dropping off our hire car at Fort William, we headed south down through the mountains of Glencoe. We were determined to enjoy our journey down and to take it slow and steady.

After walking around the gorgeous lake at Glencoe, we headed to Crawick Multiverse, an amazing land art installation. Created by Charles Jencks, a leading figure in landscape architecture, the multiverse explores cosmology, science and art. The 55 acre site is very grand with incredible installations and spectacular views of the surrounding valley. We arrived late in the afternoon and were rewarded with the whole site to ourselves – absolutely stunning.

The weather transformed and the sun blessed us with its warmth. Away went our winter clothes and out came the sandals and sunglasses!

After staying at our favourite AirBnB of the whole journey, we continued our travel south towards home. We spent a couple of gorgeous days in the Lake District walking around the lakes and in stunning woodlands with waterfalls. Very soothing.

Travelling South

From there, we had to travel on the M6 which again was hellish with 8 lanes of full on traffic for 3 hours. We’ve made a pact that we’ll never put ourselves through that again.

We’ve enjoyed the places we’ve been but we really haven’t enjoyed the travelling. At home, we don’t get in a car very often so to travel so far and to experience such difficulty has been very challenging. It’s not for us. We’ve been shocked at how many people are out there travelling, so many motor homes, so many people on adventures of one kind or another. So different to when we visited Callanish 19 years ago.

Summer Solstice

We’ve now reached the Summer Solstice and the peak of the year. We’ve arrived at our friends in Hay-on-Wye which is such a relief. It’s so gorgeous here and a perfect place to take a breath before we do the last drive home tomorrow.

We’re so ready for home and we’re looking forward to jumping in the sea. Our journey has been epic. Being away from home for a month is such a long time and so much has happened. So much to process. We’ll be so happy to stay still and Undle will be over the Moon not to get in the van again for some time!

Moon Viewing

The whole time we’ve been away, we’ve only seen the Moon once. Our spring in the UK was so hot and sunny and then the day we left on our journey, the rain and unsettled weather set in. We hope you’ve been able to see the Moon and to experience her swing from really high in our sky to really low. Our journey has swung from very high moments to very low so although we didn’t see the Moon, we definitely felt her.

Epic Journey

The Major Lunar Standstill has been such an epic time for us. For over two years, we’ve been studying and learning about why the Moon has an 18.6 year cycle. We hope that our work has helped you understand more about her cycle and inspired you to look out for the Moon’s swing in our sky. This swing continues all year so look out the for the Moon when she’s in Gemini/Cancer, she’ll reach very high in our sky and two weeks later when she’s in Sagittarius/Capricorn, she’ll be very low. You can refer to our Moon Diary and Calendars which show the Moon’s swing.

Slowly over the next 9 years, the Moon’s swing will become less and less extreme and so less noticeable until we reach the MINOR Lunar Standstill in 2034. From that point, the Moon’s swing will again increase slowly over the years until 2043, when we will experience the next Major Lunar Standstill. Who knows where we’ll all be by then!

For now, remember to watch out for the July Full Moon as she’ll be low on our horizon.

Thank you for following our blog.

Summer Solstice blessings.

Ceri, Tina and our very patient dog, Undle xxx