http://threeyearsoniona.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/whats-this/

And I now have an answer: Escalonia

Just like last spring, the work-weekers are proving to be very useful, both in terms of labour and knowledge!

For a few years we have both been excited about skiing, having been to La Plagne in the French Alps, and Banff in Canada in the past. With a more restrained budget, and less inclination to travel, we thought we’d give Scottish skiing a go this year. Looking ahead it seemed like Cairngorm would have the most reliable snow of the five Scottish resorts to choose from. Well, there was certainly no shortage of snow. We left Iona on Thursday morning, aware that there had been a pretty bad storm in the highlands. We drove across the county, all the roads were fine, but once we were on the mainland we found the hills around us totally covered and very pretty. Once we arrived at out hotel in Aviemore that afternoon we found the carparks only partially clear of snow, with huge piles of snow taking up the rest of the spaces. We eventually found out (cranky hotel internet) that up the mountain there was a more serious problem. The access road had drifts upto 15ft deep, which meant that nobody had got near the ski base station for a few days. Heavy plant was working to dig through it all, but we weren’t going to be able to get there for a while.

So we choose to drive to the nearest ski resort that probably was open – The Lecht. The drive over the hills was a bit hairy, with some snow on the highest roads, and we got within 4 miles before the police closed the snow gates just in front of us. We killed the rest of the day drinking coffee and driving back to Aviemore. We asked two nice gents in the tourist information what we should do, and they suggested…

Cross- Country skiing! We had a morning lesson being shown how to move in the skiis – which were quite different to downhill ones. Then the guy let us loose in his back garden which consisted of a forest full of trails. It was hard work and I got a blister on my heel, but at least it was a snowsport.

The next day we got word that The Lecht was definitely open and the weather was good, so we drove the hour to get there again and found the place heaving. I’d been clever and got the ski hire elsewhere so we were able to get onto the slopes pretty quickly. It took a while for me to warm up and remember what to do, but after that it was great. The lifts were all a bit more basic than those we’d used before, but they did the job.On our way home we saw a few mountain hares, which was fun!

The next day, we finally managed to get upto Caingorm to have the lessons we’d booked. It was great even though most of the mountain wasn’t yet open as they were still digging out the lifts. The instructor was great and I soon got confidence back that i was lacking a bit at the Lecht.

The next day was our final day skiing, and the weather was atrotious once we got to the top of the hill. Nethertheless our lesson continued with the winds blowing ice crystals into our faces. It was a bit extreme but people say – if you can ski in Scotland you can ski anywhere.

We stayed in the ‘Isles of Glencoe’ hotel – nice but a silly name.

We did a few little walks – and took a silly picture:

Following this picture, we wanted a cup of coffee so attempted to go the ski resort at Glencoe, unfortunately it was closed so we couldn’t. So much for the ‘food available all year’ sign. Instead we went to a nearby hotel the name of which I forget. Not only did they have coffee, but also a very fluffy dog. It was a very old and lazy Newfoundland and took up most of the corridor.

We also managed to have lunch and dinner in the Clachaig Inn on the same day – lovely.

The return journey after dropping off the out-laws at Fort William station was a bit interesting as we worked out we needed to get from Fishnish to Ffionniphort in 1 hr 15. I did it in about an hour, which I wouldn’t recommend!

Firstly, we all went a bit feral. Table manners went out of the window and we all spent half the week wandering around not quite understanding what was going on. There was a total shift in mood and pattern, and when our whole season is based upon pattern, that can be a bit disarming.

The main changes for the winter:

• We worship in the Michael chapel, a beautiful small chapel ‘behind’ the main abbey buildings. It has a glorious acoustic, and is nice and cosy (at least compared to the abbey church).
• We worship at 9.30 in morning, not 9am. Which means an extra 30 minutes in bed – horray!
• We only do evening services on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. And we do those at 7.30pm not 9pm. That means we have a reasonable portion of evening free to do what we want – a new luxury.
• The ferry timetable has changed – only runs once an hour at best.
• Most small shops on the island have shut. The only places remaining being our shop, the Spar and Finlay Ross. The hotels have also shut – except for the Columba doing fish & chips each Friday night.
• The Mac is all closed down – it’s strange going up to the craft room or our office – it’s very cold and there’s nobody around.
• Two full days off per week.

Most of that lot I was expecting to some extent – what I wasn’t expecting was how quickly the weather would be awful. For the best part of a week we were lashed by rain and wind. The ferry stopped running altogether and it was pretty difficult to go outside. I found myself unable to open the doors of the van I was in. Surprisingly, the ferry ran to bring us our first lot of winter quiet week guests (although it looked a bit ‘bumpy’).

Winter quiet week – a restricted number of guests (so they all get a private room) and a more relaxed programme. I felt a bit detached from it, as we had our two days off near the beginning of the week. Without the requisit amount of daylight to do a full pilgrimage we did a shorter walk just to Columba’s bay at the south of the island. In the wind and the rain it was more than long enough (although we did wait a day for it to get a bit les extreme). I was wet through to my very bottom layers of clothing.

What next?  A few days breathing space, then another quiet week, then a couple of weeks before the adventure that is Christmas.

Other staff around the place were exhausted and were pleased to see us back so we could take up a bit of slack. It was nice to feel wanted, but also daunting that there was still so much to be done with so little energy.  Still, we ploughed on through a gathering place and autumn community week.

Community week, although tiring in a different way to normal, was actually a pleasure. It seems that all the nice, interesting, inspiring, low-maintenance community members choose to come in the autumn rather than the summer. Perhaps it was also bearable because there was only one centre of them. The Abbey was half full with ‘normal’ guests, including a few interesting characters.  We thought we were settled in for a nice end-of-week when we heard a bad forecast for Friday morning so had to pack everyone off on Thursday after lunch. Thursday evening and Friday were the weirdest days yet on the island.

The last week of guests here was work week. Just 20 people staying in the abbey and working hard. I had one afternoon of work out of them in the pouring rain before my garden helpers got stolen for scrubbing floors, but I’m actually pretty pleased with what they achieved during that time. New rhubarb beds dug (to plant roots dug up and divided  during community week by members), Willow cut back and bulbs planted. It makes the rest of my winter tasks look doable.

And then, after the work week guests left at 7am last Friday, it was just us and the vollies.

So we tried to celebrate a little. We had a social evening, followed by a gorgeous dinner the next evening (with wine!), followed by a ceilidh in the cloisters, and the next day a special leaving service for the vollies.  For me I was too exhausted to really take it all in. There was however, a sense of unwinding.

On Tuesday morning, at 9am we waved off the vollies from the jetty, just as we have done for hundreds of guests throughout the season. It was at the end, a lot easier than I expected. I am secretly relieved that we are small in number once again.

A couple of folk have mentioned that they looked at this blog (to my surprise) which reminded me that I was going to post something about last weekend.

Our guests left as normal on Friday morning, but overnight we were hit by gales approaching force 9 or 10. The wind lasted most of Saturday  which meant that there were no ferries for our new set of guests to arrive on the island. In fact, there weren’t even any ferries from Oban (‘The big ferry’). Annoyingly the ferry company wouldn’t commit to canceling their ferries for the whole day so we just had to wait around all day until they decided each possible crossing. In the end, all were canceled – just as I’d predicted.

So I ended up leading a’gathering space’ i.e welcome service, with only one guest (someone who’d stayed over from the previous week)! Our Sunday morning service was also deserted, and we didn’t really have guests until 7pm on Sunday – a full 24hours after they should be all safely allowed. Incidentally – Sunday was a gorgeous, almost entirely still, day.

• Greenbelt.
• An exciting trip back to Iona from Greenbelt including missing a vital train link.
• I’ve led several sessions, including one which started about 10 minutes after getting back home from Greenbelt.
• A few staff crises – one resident staff member  asked to leave, one resident signed off sick for a month, one resident sent out of the country to get a new visa and another resident hanging in here by the skin of her teeth to get a new visa.
• H was in charge of the whole place as sole remaining management team person.
• Bedbugs – but they’ve gone now.
• Some awful weather.
• Some glorious weather.
• Lots of weeding – particularly getting grass out of one particular flower bed.
• Two weeks of mainly German guests in the Mac.
• Both H & I had stinking colds for a while.
• Folk from Wesley Memorial (our old church) came to stay in the Abbey.

Generally things are good. It’s helped to have a less than full centre up at the Mac – certainly taken the pressure off us. The rest of the staff have really stepped up to fill in gaps caused by those away for whatever reason. Hopefully we’ll last the rest of the season (end of Oct) without falling apart!

In a couple of weeks time we’ll gbe getting away from the place for a couple of weeks. It should be great to have a break – although a little tiring perhaps. We’re traveling all over the place and seeing lots of people. Look out London, Oxford, Isle of Wight and Milton Keynes!

Planning was a bit last minute, and I ended up writing and delivering the ‘reflection’ which come in the service just before the magic happens. Here’s what I said:

In a world church today with a rich and broad variety of worship, why do we still do communion – the Eucharist – the lord’s supper? When we have the freedom to sing, to preach, to dance, to have multimedia presentations, conversation, dramatic reading or this and that symbolic action as parts of our churches’ worship – why to we still re-enact just one meal of Jesus’ life?

Of course it’s one of those things where many reasons come together to justify the whole.

One reason: We were told to by Jesus himself: “Do this in remembrance of me”. Christians can be an obedient lot – so we do as we’re told.

Another reason: We can literally grasp the elements of communion. It isa symbolic action that really works – as it’s appeal is beyond the cerebral – beyond words. It is a reminder of God in the broader creastion, not just withing scripture.

And one reason which appeals to me most – it is an action which we can do together – as community – seated around a table. Eating a meal with others is stil part of our culture – just as it was for Jesus.

So this is something we have in common with Jesus,  his disciples, and now his followers around the world. That’s why we celebrate communion.

To put this into context, this service happened at the end of a week where the WGRG were with us, leading sessions and worship with the theme “Voices from the Edge”.