Impressions mean at times a blurred mix of people and places as well as experience... and there are so many...

I saw Coll for the first time in August 1966 when I came up to judge at the Flower Show as a result of an invitation from the Show Committee.

It was the scooter era and I came up to Oban the night before and stayed overnight with Baxter Nisbet... it being the middle of the Hebridean Bulb experimentation. And, yes, like everyone else, I wondered what exactly I was walking or sailing into when I saw the low landscape from the boat.

And I did not realise that I would have to clamber down the ladder into the wee boat to take us to the pier.

It was a great Show, and the swinging pipes at the dance were very much a first for me. I met so very many people at that first show who I have come to know well over the years.

We came back to judge again in 1970 when our daughter Julie was 6 weeks old and she just seemed to sleep all the time in her carrycot... no wonder she has had such a soft spot for the place.

So what about people.

As an Auchincruive staff member over many years I had heard all about Robert Sturgeon and it was great meeting the reality.

And the Stewarts at Acha. They never changed even if they are in the Borders these days. We got a lovely dog from them called Rubha, named after the foreland up the coast in Coll. And of course my first black and white Border Collie had to be called Coll.

Always that early morning look out of the window at Acha to see if the boat was coming round the south of the island before we started tearing down to the pier.

Picnics and midges en route seemed to have a certain appeal.

We have tried all the variations of getting to Oban. Drive up the evening before and bed and breakfast in Oban or early to bed and get up at one thirty and drive straight up... We have even slept on the boat... but most of the time we have gone for the straightforward drive up to Oban through the night...

We have experienced such a variation of accommodation. We started with Mrs Hinkson's caravan at the Garden House which seems years ago... and is, if you work it all out. The donkeys ran races round and round the caravan at night... just like a rodeo. And the invitation baths... it was so very kind of her. Her famous parties for island and holiday children.

The flat above the shop in the village. Then there was the early Spring February visit that Margaret and I paid to Pat Barr's cottage in the village. Great time we had with the books. But it seemed so dark outside in the evening compared to our mainland village in Ayrshire

Then there was Stronvar... and more Stronvar. That is a place. You never really seemed to have started your holiday 'til you got to Finch's Gate and wondered which would be the safe route to this house that year.

And the island machair with all the wild geraniums in the turf.

A walk along the road to see Morag at Uig. Somehow we always seemed to associate her with carrots...

Latterly we went out `The Other Side' at Mairi's. And what an education received on Scottish history past and present from all those books. And nice to see The Bridal Path and I Know Where I'm Going on video.

I never realised that so much of The Bridal Path had been filmed on Coll.

Great out there at Crossapol. The ducks and the geese and the cats... and Jan and John and Joseph along the way.

And that nice walk along the beach to the car to get to the village.

Sylvia and Ivor Hume weaving in and out of the Coll saga. Then the Frasers at the Garden House, followed by the Grahams.

Pat Barr, when she was at Hyne, introduced us to Chinese Alice and the boat of the same name. And will we ever forget the sail from Stronvar to Arinagour in the Alice?

And many visits out to Soay motor as well as oar as well as the first time we had so many mackerel on the line we just did not know what had hit us... but there is a limit to what you can do with the fish. Frank just laughed. He had heard it all before.

We were sorry that we missed the Prince Charles visit but of course we heard all about it from Catriona and Allan at Ballard.

We always promised to pack one or two garden plants for Alistair to plant in the hotel garden and some for Janet Stewart at Acha... And all the garden problems seemed to get saved up 'til we arrived. Or that was the way it seemed.

And Margaret and Netta Smith way back had their annual ritual of dropping down to the Hotel to see the tennis finals. A really liquid occasion.

Nice to see Kevin and Julie doing so well there.

And all the variations on Coll food. Frank's lobsters, the hotel food. The Bistro with Fiona Stewart et al, and then the Bistro with Janet and Lee. And then of course, all the picnics over the years on the beaches.

And it is nice to see the RSPB with Charlie there to explain it all.

Way back we had Ian and Cathie at the shop. And of course their son John with whom, for some funny reason, I always associate our Old English Sheep dog that we had called Moggie for some queer reason. No he had never been frightened by a cat... In fact he was great on Coll as he was completely frightened by cattle and rare breeds sheep. In fact, all sheep.

It is very nice to have Cathie holding forth at the Post Office ... if she will forgive the expression.

The village hall has been the base for so many good evenings. Dances lectures etc. Remember Fiona and Tom's Island Wedding Party... the evening dresses, the kilts and the jeans?

But nothing stands still and Martin is based these days where Margaret Glendyke used to be. She so much in control of the laundry and so much else.

With Jimmy always ready to pull you out of the mud if you went the wrong way on the way back from a party evening!

And Willie who is at Hansel these days. It is always nice to see him and be greeted like a long lost friend when I am over there, it is only fif teen miles from home.

And all the variations on the craft shop themes over the years. And fine to see Angus Kennedy back on the island. And Hamish in control at the pier.

And last but not least, the twenty minute weather changes. And all the people I have omitted. Please forgive me. The summer swallows and the people who are on the island permanently. The island lives on.