This project began as a challenge to write a daily blog for the entire year during 2013. A daunting prospect became a reality and with it a shared dialogue that achieved so much in a relatively short period of time. The 2013 project has now been archived online but if you would like to see what the journey was all about visit Scottish island mum but make a very large mug of tea first. The back story is summarised on this blog for those of you who don’t have a mug big enough for the whole tale. xx
A sample of testimonials from readers…..
I’m not really sure how I found Scottish Island Mums blog. It was sometime in February/March 2013. I felt a real connection with Fiona instantly and really began to look forward to reading her blog daily. A warm routine began late in the evening ,when my girls were in bed. Kettle on, a cuppa made, feet up and some time catching up with Fiona’s day soon became the norm for me. I actually began to look forward to this treat every night.
I found myself really feeling a sense of wanting to be part of island life(I only live across the water in Ayrshire) and I have promised myself to take the ferry across in the Summer.
Over the year I found myself really connecting with Fiona, so much in common-love of writing, crafts and being a mum!
Fiona and I have become friends and she has taken my oldest daughter under her loving ,nurturing wings and has been both inspiring and encouraging to her to develop her own writing and to believe in herself.
Whatever our very own Scottish Island Mum sets her mind to do, she does, leaving a sprinkle of enthusiasm and a rainbow of hope and promise in the footsteps she leaves behind for us all to follow! ‘- Clare from Ayr
‘Scottish island mum became part of each and every day in 2013. Once the children were sleeping it was time for a cup of tea and a catch up with Scottish island mum. I now look at the world differently because of Scottish island mum.’ – Adele from Canada
‘Some things are just meant to happen, I think.
Fiona and I had been very close back in the day. But life moves on; circumstances change, jobs move us on, families grow and evolve, and sadly, all too often we lose touch. Apart from a brief greeting at Christmas, that’s where we were.
Then in March 2013, Arran was on the national news, snowed in and powerless. Intrigued, I scanned the news reports looking for familiar faces, and googled across Scottish Island Mum… I read the blog posts, sent an email and got a reply…. The rest is now the story of 2013.
On the last day of the 2013 Scottish Island Mum project, Fiona commented that she hoped it had made us take the time to reflect. Spot on, as ever… because I know that a) I had and b) I had needed to. And what a difference it has made in the way I look at life again…. The blue team acknowledging a place for a bit of pink (or, maybe purple!), and that acknowledgement has also pervaded throughout my whole extended family: a renewed closeness between all generations, shared experiences…
To blog every day was a huge undertaking and commitment. Fiona provided us with our daily routine. She inspired ideas, she shared real life, she provoked thought and reaction…. But mostly importantly to me, the blog provided the vehicle that “switched the light back on” in terms of looking at life , and in so doing has firmly re-established our friendship.
And I will be ever thankful that she took up that challenge’ xx Di from Ashley, Hampshire
Scottish island mum 