Morag Watson / It’s amazing what can sneak up on you when you’re not looking…

The beady eye surrounded by scaly skin is just inches from mine, and the look it is giving me is not a friendly one.

The tornado that is my life has dropped me, not in the magical land of Oz, but in the magical place known as Knoydart. Someone must be smiling on us as the sun is shining out of a cloudless sky and the sea is like a mirror. As for the scenery, words just can’t do it justice.

It is as I bend to put on my boots, ready to do some exploring, that I come eyeball to eyeball with the unexpected local. The peacock is just the other side of the glazed door from me and looks as surprised to see me as I am to see it.

The day has unfolded as a series of activities intended to help us start to focus and push distractions out of our minds. The location and the weather (plus the lack of mobile signals and internet connections) is doing everything it can to help and I think I’m doing this quite well. But then before I know it some thought about emails, forms, agendas or work plans is looking at me eyeball to eyeball just like the peacock. I suspect that they aren’t giving me very friendly looks either.

Tomorrow we will be heading off for THE SOLO; spending from dawn until dusk alone outdoors. I’m half looking forward to it and half scared. I know that all the emails, agendas and work plans in the world will achieve nothing if they don’t all add up to something bigger. The Solo is the first step to making it all add up, but what if the distractions won’t leave me alone? What if they insist of sneaking up on me like stealth peacocks? What if all I can think of is stealth peacocks………….