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Much has happened in the 25 months I have been away. Both to me personally and to Jura. And though I was really looking forward to coming home, I guess there was some apprehension there. After all my travels and all the changes would Jura still feel like home?

There are new houses and new people. New businesses and new initiatives. Which is, of course, fantatstic. It shows that the place is thriving. But I guess I was a little scared that I would have been left behind.

It didn't help that, in my long absence, some old friends had passed away. I had spent many an afternoon shift in the bar (and quite a few evenings too) in the company of Paddy and Duncan and it seemed incomprehensible that they wouldn't be sitting there on their allotted bar stools with a dry comment and a twinkling eye when I walked back in the door.

So the familar road home was filled with mixed feelings. Loss, hope for the future, excitement, apprehension. The kind of emotions that let you know this is something important for you. But really, I neededn't have worried.

Of course, I got the inevitable question 'what's it like being back?' from the dozens of folk with smiles on their faces who welcomed me home. And I answered truthfully 'It's just like being on Jura for Fell Race weekend'. Because, for all the changes, Jura is still Jura and I am still me.

There have been adjustments to make, of course. But it helps to be with people who share your memories. Who delight in telling and hearing stories about people and parties long gone. Duncan and Paddy, and the rest, remain alive in spirit in the Jura pub anyhow. We miss them dearly, but their pictures still line the walls and they are nowhere near forgotten. And it's great that those same people share my hope and excitement for the future, and a pride in calling Jura home.

It's like I said to Paddy and Duncan and my Grandad when I went up to the cemetary to share a wee dram with them. The sadness of losing them is hard to deal with, but it comforts me to see life carry on. To watch the next generation place their peg in the ground and to think that those who went before would continue to be proud to call Jura home.