Unexpected breakfast guest

You couldn't pay for entertainment like this.... this wee chap turned up this week and performed impressive acrobatics during breakfast time outside the dining room window. There was a time when the squirrels were more wary of the abundant seeds and nuts provided too close to the house but they are visiting more often now.
We are busy painting and preparing for the start of the new season...Easter is only a whisper away now and with the weather this good there should be plenty of folk tempted by lovely Inveraray. The next couple of days are going to be busy for Freya with multiple music competitions including Brass and The Bard...in Ayr of course! Rosie will be riding and preparing for a season working at the stables so no help with the ironing from the girls this weekend! Garret and Toby have their sights set on the ski slopes but they never help with the ironing anyway!!

Mother's Day

A little visitor for mothers day on the seed bags...

After we had seen this chap we headed off to Glasgow to roust the son and heir out of his lair and spent a couple of hours watching the blood, gore and decapitations galore that was Hansel and Gretel. Much enjoyed by all which is saying something, not easy to accommodate the many different film tastes that exists for the five of us although Freya did watch the worst of the horror through splayed fingers. A trip down memory lane with lunch/tea in TGI Friday's where we bored our offspring with our last trip there (Toby in a highchair...). Rosie was so pleased with herself getting a Les Mis soundtrack CD which was lovely, chocolates from Toby and wee viola plants from Freya. Lucky Mummy! And we bought Toby home with us for a couple of days.

Local Beer Festival...

A great local event just along the road at Fyne Ales....

Walking the dogs and enjoying the day.

A walk up Dun Na Cuiche today to check out the route for our annual run up the hill and back on May 12th...Gorgeous day and the dogs were VERY happy, especially when they found some deer remains to roll in.  We met several folk doing the same trip and a very friendly hungarian dog-loving girl at the top whom Nancy and Holly immediately adopted. The rest of the day was spent in silent battle with the various sites I have paid good money to in an attempt to get them to cough up a copy of the GPS maps I have at one time or another, including today recorded that I can copy to a file but sadly the mean old sites won and I had to give it up and go cook soufflé to calm down. The weather has been so wonderful recently that I have decided this is the way it is going to stay... A friend and I had a lovely drive to Loch Lomond-side yesterday to a Spa for a mud treatment. Despite having to stifle many giggles during the explanation of the (self) mud application, subsequent steam infusion and rain shower (warm shower) we had a great time pretending to be rich and idle....

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......