The week that was

This week has seen the finishing off of East Cottage bathroom, and the tidying up of loose ends in other cottages followed by the departure of the builders! The last job they did was to try and sort out a terrible leak in the sitting room of our own house, where the wall bubbles with damp patches and no one has been at all sure what the cause was.  Fingers crossed it has worked.

East bedroom looks lovely with its new (recycled) wooden floors and feel much cosier with the added insulation in the bathroom.   Nearly all the cottages have had something done to make them a little more cosy or homely and comfortable.  Oh, and I did a World Host Ambassador Training too! 

The Unicorn in Salen Bay on a misty afternoon.

Walter found a mouse.

ND from Dervaig has been working away on the little things that need doing, like servicing the windows, checking the mastic on the outsides of the windows, all around the kitchen sinks - a seemingly endless list of things that need looking after.

Last Sunday at this time I was madly dancing around the garden trying to capture the Northern Lights through the clouds.   I did get to Croig one night and the lights from the house lit the shed beautifully with an arc of Aurora over Rum.

Tonight we are under cloud and keeping fingers crossed for the combination of aurora activity and clear skies later in the week.

The Housekeeping team has had an additional pair of hands helping this week doing the spring cleaning - trying to fit it in between bookings, as March seems to have been so busy!  

Farmer has been to market this week.  He took our surplus ewe lambs and some old ewes that were not in lamb.    It was not a big sale, and he was disappointed when an old Zwartble ewe only reached half the value of an equally aged and similar sized Cheviot ewe.  For some reason the buyers never pay a fair price for a brown fleeced animal.

We went to look for the frogspawn just through the gate on the way to the Point this afternoon.  We found the first Primrose too.  Tiny solitary Primroses..

The weather was glorious earlier in the week but Friday and Saturday were horrendous.

Aurora's on Mother's Day

A lovely end to Mother's Day...couldn't have wished for more!

Through gaps in the cloud. I didn't dare go to Croig in case I missed it.

 

Mad March days

Work continued at East and Middle this week, nearly at a conclusion. Roof repairs complete and some guttering sorted.  Work continued on the track between Treshnish and the road end too, whatever the weather.   The surface of the road has been dug up and re-laid, and ironed out with the roller.  We have to keep repairing the road, but the ironic thing is that when the surface is newly repaired all it seems to mean is that everyone drives far too fast - which leads to even more potholes!   

Of course the water would go off down at Haunn when Farmer was away on a course.  Thankfully though help was at hand, and thankfully we had a spare pump in stock and thankfully D, who happened to be feeding the sheep, was able to put it all together again, and by the time West's guests had come home from their day out, there was water, water everywhere again, and all was well. 

Several trips to Tobermory this week.  One was to do a Fuel Efficient Driver Training arranged by the Mull and Iona Sustainable Transport project and carried out by the Energy Savings Trust.  40 minutes is all it takes!  First you do a circuit, it was about 6 miles, as you normally would drive.  Except that you are driving a car you have never driven before!  Then you return to the start, and the instructor explains how you can improve.  Watching the Rev counter and changing gear accordingly, using the revs rather than the pedal when you can.  Then you do the circuit again, adopting this new way of driving.  It took 16 minutes this time, compared to 14 minutes the first time.  And I averaged 50mph the second time, compared to 45mph the first time.  

Another trip to Tobermory, this time for a meeting, yesterday morning meant a takeaway Latte (quite a treat if you live at Treshnish) and some beautiful blue skies.  

The blue skies stayed with us all day.

And gave us a glorious late afternoon rose light.

Farmer is taking surplus ewe hoggs to market on Tuesday as well as some eild (barren) ewes.  Some of them don't have the EID tags (electronic ID tags) so he needed to take the old tags out, and put the new ones in.  Each old tag number has to be recorded along with the replacement tag number, and this information kept in our sheep records.  Walter was keen to give a hand, but in the end Farmer got me to do the writing.

Finally, a brave Hare keeps coming into the garden which is lovely.   We are not seeing as many as previous years, and hope that it is only because they are being frightened off by the presence of Coco, that wild brown Labrodoodle, who now frequents the garden.  

So instead of a Mad March Hare here is a Mad March Farmer.  

Sunday morning feeding