A true friend.

I arrived at Newbold five years ago. A bit of a punt for me to show up in scotland for the first time knowing nobody and wandering into Newbold House.

A little unsure maybe, I took a walk around the garden where I met kristy only minutes into my arrival. Her beaming smile and poised presence eased any of my concerns about my new environment and after shaking hands with her companion I went to introduce myself to Kristy only to fall into a big ol hug together. I did then and throughout our friendship always felt like our connection was effortless and that though we may not have been in and out of eachothers days over the last five years, we were within this community together and she was one of my lighthouses; a transcendent connection that knew itself to be more than this. That sums up for me the grace and tenderising ability Kristy had to bring perspective, exist beyond the veil, remind me that its ok because bigger shit exists.... to catch with eye contact the moment being shared and relish it as the only real reality.

It was also her sheer humanity that that gave her this quality. the few ways I learnt to know when Kristy was struggling and the grace with which she held herself when she was. For me as a young man she was most certainly a teacher in these ways.

She was my fist friend in Scotland and into the Art Of Mentoring community..... she mentored me before my first national gathering and listened to my stories on my return.

She was so integral to a cross generational nature connected local community and its goings ons yet also seemed to me so sublimely content with her own company and her sense of herself as an individual. That was infectious and she has inspired my own journey with myself massively. I maybe told her before but How I am telling her that now.....

After a few years away from Newbold I returned to tred in her footsteps as head gardener for a couple of years.... she advised me here and there and would appear spontanesouly out of a bush or hanging from an apple tree at the right time of year.

Somebody else here shared she was a bastion for ritual and ceremony at a time when it was not being made a priority and for me that made my experience at Newbold and ultimaetly kept me in the area long enough to settle and now call it home all these years on..... oh the many 'if not for kristys'' I could say.......

Such a good one in the truest sense. It is our tender loss. she however is all the more of that gourgeous essence we were blessed to experience.......