Before coming to Coll from America I had only seen four of my husband, Andrew's hazy snapshots of the island - a castle, three windswept youths and a volkswagen without a door, a rigorous football scene and a few sheep. The rest of what lay ahead was left to my imagination.. tartans, bagpipes, caber-tossing, sun on the heather... you name it! As the Sound of Mull opened out on the bumpy sea I was feeling rather nervous, for whatever lay ahead, we would be on the island for at least two years with everything we owned in the world jam-packed into a two-ton van and car. A long, flat and forbidding grey rock appeared on the horizon. Andrew hugged me excitedly, pointing at the grey thing, "That's Coll!" he exclaimed, as if it were Shangri La. To say that my heart sank is a severe understatement. Now, a year and a half later, I can say, 'Och aye ... It's been grand.'....

My heart re-surfaced once I'd met a few people. Nearly all the romantic images vanished in a few hours in Hill Cottage and never came back! I followed the seasons and have seen two or even three different "Colls", the first one found in adapting to my new home. Hill Cottage is an unfortunately visible place to make first mistakes - such as morning jogging in a "Berkeley, California" sweatshirt (now I knit for exercise) and hanging out all our pink underclothes and shirts to dry - believe me, they began the day as white! Once we moved to Totamore I felt my domestic blunders were a bit less conspicuous until I began receiving public up-dates on exactly when my chimney did, or did not, start smoking.

I've really enjoyed becoming involved in various winter activities, such as the women's guild and the knitting bee, where I quickly became known as the one who "knits funny." I can't help it, I was born that way, but it did make it tricky to teach me new stitches - many thanks to those who did! I led a rather sheltered life in California, as I realised when, at one bee, I was looking at the assortment of family photos on the hostess's cabinet. Quietly I nudged my neighbour and asked in a whisper whether the largest photo was of our hostess, taken a few years ago perhaps? Even her shocked eyes and dropped jaw didn't brace me for the force of my boo-boo. "That's the Queen!" she replied ...Ooops! Anyway, I'm sharing the story now because I feel I've learned a lot since then, certainly about the Royal Family as I read and then crumple old copies of the Daily Record for my firelighting ritual.

If the winter pace and social events were a second "Coll", then the third was to be found in the summer ambience of the place. I planted my first garden - learning how not to plant a whole packet of radishes at the same time - and met a whole new community of summer-home owners and visiting families. I really love the dances, whist-drives, the Show, trout-fishing expeditions and the experience of working with my women friends at Coll Herbals, though I fear the vocal boo-boos I made there are not for mixed company!

This American is now feeling very happy and comfortable on Coll. The coin is turning though and I have to watch it whenever I go back to the States to visit my family. On the last excursion I left the keys in the ignition of my parents' car on a busy San Fransisco street for a whole hour!