Spring Painting

The weather has been glorious here recently..wall to wall blue skies and a nip of frost at night, maybe just maybe spring is on its way. At long last I have managed to get the kitchen painted..the joys of having been broken on the ski slopes resulting in no running and so more time available. Torn knee ligaments and running are not compatible in any way.....apart from the two beginners groups I have recently started. I can just about hobble along at a walk jog pace. It is wonderful to see folk out and about at the beginning of their running journey.
A several years long search may be over this afternoon as Garret has gone off with his trailer to get a scrap tractor...this is to retrieve the gears to use as some kind of means (here my technical know how starts to struggle) of hydro power...long term plan but it would be great for powering the Mill. Garret's fleet of works vehicles is growing with the latest inclusion of a rather shabby but hard working dumper truck. It has already moved the ash pile to a more hidden position. Well....off to garden, well once the Archers Omnibus has finished.....

The carrot or the stick?

Spring must be around the corner as the paint brushes are out and Poppy the goat is getting frisky... She has taken to jumping out of the field ( taunting the pigs) to wander around having a wee nibble here and there.The dogs are severely affronted at such outrageously bold behaviour and bark furiously just out of reach of the horns. Today she sent them into a frenzy when I wasn't responding to the alarm call ( wielding the aforementioned paint brushes) and was too long with the carrot used to tempt her back to goat base. Holly and Nancy were not at all comfortable with Poppy coming in to get her own carrot...probably as they prefer the stick.

Spring??

Whilst other parts of the country are languishing under blankets of snow or sudden sheets of flood water Argyll remains resolutely green despite the desperate yearnings of many,many schoolchildren who see luckier comrade having snow days galore. The nights are still long and dark but not as long and dark, the rain is still splattering down ( but then again when isn't it?) but the brave little snowdrop pops its head up anyway. At present the rain is more than splattering as I sit in my car waiting for Rosie who is at a friends house in Lochgilphead. The iPad is the waiting parents friend providing much entertainment but much frustration when it refuses to communicate with the world beyond the car through the available Vodafone signal. However as a time to catch up on things left undone it is invaluable....radio, iPad... If only I could get a takeaway coffee at twenty past six on a Sunday night......

five k challenge day one

A little challenge flung down by a fellow inveraray jogscotland member to show support for a friend of hers undertaking to do 7 ultra marathons in seven days commencing with the ice marathon yesterday which...he won!! To coin a phrase far too young for me but so fitting...Awesome! So we in our modest way are going to do 5k a day for 7 days starting today...and mine is done despite one runaway dog, several massive puddles and a man apparently photographing his own feet in the woods...off for lunch now!




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Rites of Passage

The milestone markers are whizzing past now with Toby achieving his long awaited ambition of being able to legally buy alcohol...never mind that nonsense about being able to vote etc...We are settling into winter life here with less B and Bers and more time but somehow the latter still streams away from me in an orderly but accelerating fashion. Garret is working in Aberdeen at present which is odd after being together most of the time for that last twenty or so years but the thought of some money coming in does help to level the balance of negative versus positive...Another weekend at Centre parcs in Cumbria has helped to create some more good memories of badminton, the dreaded flumes, squash and Kir Royales. Back home the battle of the broadband is still on with a switch to BT making no difference whatsoever and an inability to access anything on the old system is my addresses as I was too stupid to realise that the two accounts wouldn't overlap. Time out yesterday from all things electronic to ride the beloved Lewis along a beautiful Loch Fyne..good for the sole and the back muscles.

Life and sweet sixteen.

Busy times recently despite the slow grinding to a halt of the B and B season. Life reinserts itself into the gap left by the lack of bed making and bacon cooking. Rosie has reached her landmark of sixteen with many cakes, many designs and much love. Bonfires and cakes... Traditional way to celebrate a rite of passage. This was all done during the small slice of time allowed away from applying her nose to the grindstone of Higher Course work.
I am gradually getting used to being a university mum. This seems to consist of constantly being on the alert at the end of a texting device through long periods of inactivity just in case and then adjusting to the return of the prodigal for the weekend occasionally to rest his liver. The quietness erupts and the dynamics rock at his return in a typical family teenage way. There are nuggets of delight and, lets be honest, slight conflict as siblings readjust. Memories will be treasured of a country walk with Toby on Sunday. He, Holly and I and the great Argyll countryside... Until we got stuck mid- tree fall. Holly and I went round ( most of) it.

Portavadie cycle

I love my B and Bs, I really do but in compensation days like this are fabulous. A loose Facebook plan hatched by a fellow Mid Argyll Triathlon club member last night looked grim this morning at 7:30am as I hauled two bikes from the hut in torrential rain, the resulting foot soaking stayed with me all day, and racked them on the car. A hasty breakfast for Freya and I,then more bike hauling when the skies cleared and Mr Fair-weather cycle decided to come along. Down to Lochgilphead and then Tarbert to meet with friends and catch the ferry to Portavadie for a 20 mile cycle through lovely scenery peppered with convenient coffee shops. Happy day!