In 2007 Margaret Bjork Bjornsdttir (Maggie) and her two daughters came to Cairndow for 3 months in the summer. They were a farming family from Iceland.
Maggie had gone to college because her husband had been gored by their bull and he had become disabled. She had realised she had to become the breadwinner of the family, (There was a son who continued to work on the farm) and decided that having had no higher education she would study for a BA in Rural Tourism at Holar University.
There at the end of her studies she won a prize: a three month residency at Here We Are as an interne. The tutor at the college had visited HWA and been so impressed by it that he thought that Maggie would benefit from the experience.
She came with her two daughters, one of who worked in the café at the Tree Shop and Maggie sometimes did tasks for us and sometimes explored what Here We Are had done. The family, being community a-tuned soon made friends around the village.
And when they went back to Iceland, they founded not one but two Here We Are’s – known in Iceland as Átthagastof.
Since then, to our pleasure Maggie and her family have been back to visit us several times.