Editor’s Note: Michael Winter posted the following in the Findhorn Friends Facebook Group on 31st January 2026. We republish it here with his permission.
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About 42 years ago I, Michael Winter from Birmingham first met Josephine Wootton from Lower Hutt, NZ, at Cluny Hill. For some time, we jointly looked after the Dining Room, and eventually moved to Erraid in the winter of 1985-86.
We took the plunge, and were married 40 years ago today in the Michael Chapel, Iona Abbey – thanks to the good offices of the then Warden. Our Honeymoon cruise was on the MacBrayne ferry to Mull, where we stayed at a B&B for the night.
Eventually, after working for a time in London at Neals Yard Apothecary, Jo took Michael back to NZ as a souvenir to meet her parents. We went the long way, via India, Nepal, Thailand, Bali and Oz. I was a little nervous about meeting Jo’s family – so much so that when we attended an audience with the Dalai Lama in New Delhi, while waiting for His Holiness to arrive and listening to the monks chanting in their deep bass tones, all I could hear was “Mother in Law, Mother in Law, Mother in Law…”
Much of the time we have lived in Aotearoa and we have been in Otatahi (Christchurch). Thanks to good friends who own a traditional forester’s cottage in Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula, we have had an idyllic day (lovely sunshine, beautiful meal, bubbly wine). No better way of celebrating a Ruby Wedding Anniversary.
We are just wanting to record our gratitude to the Findhorn Foundation for its vision and hope, to Erraid for being an awesome place to spend a Scottish winter (sic) and to the Iona Abbey Community. Thanks, thanks, thanks…
Guest Authors are contributors who are not COIF members (for various reasons).
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