Nae Trippera Scottish Highland journal

about the journal

Hullo — we're Jon & Maggie.

A Yorkshireman, his wife, a Highland riverside lodge, and three cats with opinions.

Hullo — we're Jon and Maggie Adlum. Jon's originally from Yorkshire, and these days the two of us live in a riverside lodge in Highland Scotland alongside our three cats.

After years between us working in technology, consulting and building businesses, we reached a point where we wanted something different. Less noise, less rushing around, and more connection to where we live and the people around us.

Like a lot of people, we had this picture in our heads of what moving to Scotland would be like. Some of it turned out to be true, some of it absolutely didn't, and most of the reality sits somewhere in the middle. That's really what this site is about.

We're not immigration experts, financial advisers or polished influencers trying to sell a fantasy version of Highland life. We're just people who made a big life change and want to share the honest version of what that actually looks like — the good bits, the difficult bits, the surprises, the costs, the mistakes and the things we genuinely wish we'd known earlier.

Life here now is a mixture of technology work, local community life, Highland weather, endless cups of tea, market stall ideas, trying to stay healthier, and occasionally stopping to appreciate just how lucky we are to wake up where we do. Like most people, we've also had our share of loss and change along the way, and that has a way of making you appreciate the quieter parts of life even more.

If our experiences help somebody else make a better decision, avoid a few mistakes, or finally take the leap they've been thinking about for years, then that feels worthwhile to us.

Keep in touch

The best way to follow along is by subscribing on the home page. A new entry lands whenever there's something honest worth saying — never more than that.

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