Devorgilla Days..............A Book About Hope and Healing

 This is the second book I've read recently about women who have serious health problems. In June it was Josie George's book 'A Still Life'  The  memoir of her life with an unexplained painful illness that sometimes reduces her to having to rest for days on end. She writes about her small world between her home, her son's school, her friend's home and the community centre. It is beautifully written, noticing all the small things and finding joy in life as it is for her. The book sprang from her blog.

Now I've just finished "Devorgilla Days" by Kathleen Hart and this time her book came from her Instagram Account. 

 

Eight years ago Kathleen Hart was diagnosed with breast cancer but there were many complications after her surgery and she was ill and in hospital for months. But even before that she'd had other health problems so that eventually her partner left her and bailiffs took away her furniture as he'd not been paying bills. She was advised to try yoga to recover from her illness but then had serious back problems and ended up flat on her back for months and it was just after getting back on her feet that she came across the details of a small cottage for sale in Wigtown - Scotland's book town. Hundred's of miles north she visits and buys it straight away.

She names the cottage Devorgilla after a feisty Scottish C13 princess. The book is about her first two years there, the friends she makes, learning about bee-keeping and Scottish dancing and getting really immersed in life in the town. The book also charts her cold water swimming in the bay at Garlieston and the people she meets who all help in her healing.

 

Many years ago me, Colin and Lucy the dog, stayed on the Caravan Club site at Garlieston on our tour of Scotland - and Col decided it was somewhere he would love to live. We visited the bookshops in Wigtown and drove to the pilgrimage village of Whithorn and I can remember many of the places she mentions in the book.

 

Summer of Sport 2021 - Olympic Update Day 5

Woke yesterday  to hear that there had been another Gold in the pool - 4 x 200m freestyle relay, Andy M had been knocked out of the Tennis Men's Doubles and the GB team in Rugby 7's had lost their match too and then the first thing I watched was the 3m springboard synchronized diving. It was a bad day at the office for the GB lads. I'm just amazed at how they fit all the twists and somersaults into 1.8 seconds between board and water.

There was an unexpected medal in rowing but  then the other men's 4's didn't get a medal they were supposed to win. Swings and roundabouts  So many things going on at once that BBC kept flitting between one thing and another and then changing from BBC 1 to BBC 2 for some reason that only they know. After a look at Gymnastics they changed to the Individual Dressage in time to see Charlotte Dujardin. (How on earth do they get the horses to lift their feet like that?) Charlotte won a Bronze  - her 6th Olympic medal in total - more than any other British woman.

I think GB ended the day with  a new running total of 16 medals

Back Tomorrow

Sue