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Crowditch

Our New Home

by Lydia December 16, 2024

This update has taken about ten months longer to write than I thought it might.

Life has been a tad hectic this year but, though it doesn’t promise to slow down in any way, things have at least hit a certain stride. There is a skeleton of a pattern to most days now, meaning I can start to see how I might scratch out a little more time to share a few updates here.

In January 2024, we moved into our new home in a village on the Black Isle, in the Highlands of Scotland. Though we’ve covered most of the length of the UK between us over the years (well, Kent to the Mainland of Orkney, at any rate), this time we only moved a few handfuls of miles from the other side of Inverness.

The house is going to be a work in progress for some time. A “many-year project”, as I describe it to friends. But it already feels like home.

The first month was a challenge, moving into our house in the middle of winter, only to find the central heating didn’t work. We lived out of a single room, heated by electric radiators. When we needed to dash to the kitchen to get something to eat, we could see our breath in front of us by the time we got there. We picked up the keys on Auri’s fifth birthday, and Elfi had only turned one year old the month before.

There were (and continue to be) other less than great surprises. I’m sure I’ll mention them over the months that follow. But at no point – and perhaps this reflects more my underlying optimism than the reality of the move – did we regret moving. We love our new home, and we are enjoying bringing her back to life after a few years of being unloved.

I’m hoping to share some updates here a couple of times a month. After taking a step back from social media and whatnot in recent years and archiving a lot, I have now decided where and when I want to be (digitally, and for now at least). The easiest way of finding me elsewhere is by checking out my Inventory or signing up for my newsletter ((re)launching later this month.

A wintery landscape, with snow-covered fields, a strip of water, and hills and mountains beyond.
A view from our village, early February 2024.
December 16, 2024
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A baby grins cheekily from a highchair at a campsite.
Crowditch

Cheeky Camper

by Lydia September 11, 2023

Back from a weekend camping. Elfi’s first time in a tent! She loved it, as she does anything that’s outside – definitely an outdoors baby.

September 11, 2023
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A man, a baby, and a little girl stand in the woods with their dog and a basket full of mushrooms, smiling for the camera.
#TheMistySolitudesCrowditch

Mushroom Haul

by Lydia September 2, 2023

Quite the haul of chanterelles!

September 2, 2023
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A child's drawing of a family, with three stick people (one of whom is holding a stick baby) and a stick dog.
Crowditch

Family Portrait

by Lydia August 30, 2023

Family portraits don’t come much cuter than this.

August 30, 2023
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A margarita sits on a table in a restaurant in the foreground, with a glass of cranberry juice behind.
Crowditch

First Day of School

by Lydia August 15, 2023

Somehow, today was Auri’s first day at school. Already.

As I did when Elfi started nursery earlier this month, I spent half the day flinching, thinking I’d misplaced a child somewhere.

Euan and I dropped Auri off in the morning, then went for a very civilised coffee and breakfast pastry in a mildly shell-shocked daze. Later, there was lunch.

August 15, 2023
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Thoughts

On Notes and Notetaking #1

by Lydia August 5, 2023

I have noticed (note-iced?!) these last few days, since I have had time to think (Auri-juggling, though exhausting and challenging at times, is nowhere near as constantly intensive as looking after Elfi every minute of the day), that my notebook is becoming more and more full of fresh ideas and scattered with observations. Previously, though I used a notebook almost daily, the content would be leaning towards lists: things to do, things I hope to do. Now it has a different flavour.

It’s strange how easy it becomes to assume, when you’re lost in the midst of the parenting jungle, that certain energies and abilities to process certain ideas might be lost forever when, really, they’re just lying dormant, like plants waiting for spring.

August 5, 2023
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Two fly agaric mushrooms nestle in woodland undergrowth.
#TheMistySolitudesCrowditch

Accidental Ramble

by Lydia August 4, 2023

Today, we had one of those lazy family walks which turned into a two-hour ramble. Auri kept saying, “I’m having too much fun!” and Elfi kept laughing and chattering away. The promised showers hadn’t really come to anything, and it was still, warm and calm. We are in peak mushroom season right now, with several varieties popping up in different parts of the woods. Auri knows not to touch any, as I’m not confident enough in my identification, but keeps reminding me that our friend Daša knows which ones we can collect and eat so she’ll be doing that with her one of these days.

August 4, 2023
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Sunshine filters through into a wood of Scots Pine.
#TheMistySolitudesCrowditch

All Change!

by Lydia August 1, 2023

And it’s all change for August! A beautiful day, and a walk filled with pale, dappled sunshine in The Pinewood. Elfi has now started nursery, Auri has two weeks left before starting school, and I’m officially on annual leave rather than maternity leave now.

August 1, 2023
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A young baby smiles delightedly in her pram. In front of her, on the cover of the pram, is a heap of broom petals and a couple of bluebells.
#TheMistySolitudesCrowditch

Gifts of Broom

by Lydia June 13, 2023

The recent rain (three afternoons of thunderstorms, two accompanied by deluges, breaking the heat) has turned the first of the paths through the woods into a broom jungle, the sheer weight of all the water pushing down the whips and closing off the way forward. We picked our way through yesterday, and pruned a few lost branches today.

Auri loves the broom. Whenever we go for a walk, she presents Elfi and me with handfuls of the petals.

June 13, 2023
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A little girl in a summer dress and hat stands in a shallow burn (beck, stream) by a bridge. She is smiling and striking a happy pose for the camera, her hands in the air.
Crowditch

Mess Jungle Feral

by Lydia June 6, 2023

Resurfacing after a mad two months, half of which hasn’t been spent at home. Catching up with messages and somehow wondering how Elfi is six months already this week.

Current status: the house is a mess, the garden’s a jungle, and the children are feral.

June 6, 2023
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Elosa

Take one Southern and one Northern. Throw in two determined (very) young women and their four-legged guardian and partner in crime. Immerse in the Highlands.

#ElmHunt #ElmWatch 2024 art Auri Autumn beach Black Isle books Caithness Christmas creativity dogs Elfi elm Euan fog food frost garden habits Highlands home house Lydia lyrics mushrooms news notebook Osa rain reading Scapa school Scotland seasons snow Stempster sun Tove Jansson trees walks weather woods writing

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