End of the Summer is beckoning but life is still gooooood

Well...autumn is approaching in Argyll but it is nonetheless still beautiful with the leaves starting to change and the air a little cooler. The garden produce is coming to an end and I am frantically searching for every beetroot recipe every invented. This also involves disguising the fact that there is actually beetroot in said food as 3/5th of the Corner incumbents are not took keen on the red rooted vegetable.

Below are last nights guests just leaving...they came in some style all the way from Yorkshire. We had to confine the dogs to quarters as they left being unsure about the wisdom of motor bike herding.

The training is still on go-ahead mode with a rash attempt being made to combine sprint triathlon training (September 29th) with 1/2 marathon training (6th October) which meant a lot of hard work with pretty coloured pens a couple of months ago and some not inconsiderable combining of Brick sessions ( Bike-Run (Triathlon)) with Interval sessions (fast/ recovery running (1/2)). I could get very confused if I wanted to! Luckily jogscotland are very accommodating at going along with my crazy schemes for out and about training...I was so excited to find these steps hidden away.

Happy guests... Happy dogs

An Italian family this weekend kept the dogs fully exercised and entertained. Nancy was a little shy at first but was soon bribed with a small squeaky plastic beef burger into joining in the never ending game of fetch. This was a really delightful family and should anyone encounter them on their long trip round Scotland give them a wave and a " chow" from me

Pietro Argyll and Arianna Skye Roche

The joys of B and B can come in unexpected ways and these two young guests were certainly a delight. The wonderfully named Pietro Argyll Roche and his sister Arianna Skye Roche were visiting last night from Milan. Their great grandfather was a blacksmith who shoed horses for the Duke and their Granny Ann has told them all about playing in the gardens of the " Argyll Castle". They were travelling with their Italian Grandparents and mother and British father as a 80th birthday grift to their grandfather. I hope they all have a wonderful holiday and how fantastic to have brushed lives with them all.

Past and Present

This is a photo of Claonairigh that we acquired a few years ago, we are not too sure of the date although we think one of the girls is a lady still living in Inveraray today placing it in the 1930's or 40's. This would be when the house was the home of Agnes and Duchy McColl who farmed the land for much of the early to mid 1900's.

After the McColls passed on the house was mainly uninhabited with only the loggers who were planting the former arable land with pine and larch staying in the house. They lived in the slowly deteriorating house and there is still some evidence of their occupation such as marks around a long gone dart board on one of our sitting room doors....maybe some local whisky affected their aim. A few years ago when one the men who had slept here visited with his Australian wife, he was convinced that the house would be a ruin and delighted us with tales of a grey lady ghost he had seen (maybe that whisky again) but sadly we have never seen so much as a wisp of her.

Above is how Claonairigh looked when we saw it in 1992 and fell in love....we really did and then the hard work began. A year later we were ready to start B and B and our young family started to arrive. 

This is Claonairigh today, we have had a very happy twenty one years here and look forward to many more.

Facebook

So now we are finally on Facebook and so there will be lots of updates etc and hopefully you can get onto it via the link to the right. Please do 'LIKE' the page and comment, request information, post photos and generally stay in touch! In setting up the page I have been going over old photos and finding interesting bit and bobs and do you know what? We live in a pretty special place!

Life for the Corners is trundling on towards the summer holidays, Freya is off to Norway on Saturday. We have know about this for ages but the departure day  seems to have have suddenly pounced and so frantic packing, and for some reason cookie baking is going on. The weather has been sublime most of the time recently and so the poly tunnel is rapidly escaping from any kind of order. The dogs are full of high spirits with the better days and a Rosie who is free from exams to play with. Toby is home and working at the George thereby combining earning a crust with socialising...perfect!!

Barnluasgan-Tayvaliich-Keills

A glorious day here on the West coast today..Freya and I just had to get out and about on the bikes. We drove to Barnlusgan and cycled the few miles to the gorgeous Tayvallich and then onwards to Keills right out of the westernmost point. Twenty one miles on a beautiful day with just enough breeze to keep cool and blow us back faster then the outward journey. The photos say it all really.

Running with the dogs and without.

An up to date picture of my running buddies requested by some guests at the weekend, a delightful conjoined German/ Australian family who were missing their own border collie half a world away. Holly is to the left in firm possession of the stick and Nancy is behind. They run with me frequently both on and off the lead...I really miss them if they can't come. The weekend was hectic, stressful and immensely enjoyable with the race I arrange each year up the Watch Tower Hill (Dun Na Cuiche) in Inveraray. 236m of climb (no dogs to pull me up!), some good banter and great competition at all levels of the race. This year we had a children's run too which was really rewarding. All the pictures can be seen here.