otter

saw an otter on wreck beach today.. no camera handy.. imagine it

Tania's first Munro

.........and probably last, after having undergone the Hill House Initiation Ceremony last Sunday under Carrie's direction. For those who are not familiar with this ritual, it involves being taken on what might at first appear to be an innocent outdoor expedition to climb a hill. However, there is a secret code that must be translated in order for the initiate to understand what's about to happen to them. Certain words and phrases in Carrie-speak are not quite a true reflection of events, as follows:
a wee scramble = near-vertical slope covered in large rocks and scree
damp underfoot = raging torrent crossed either by hopping perilously from one slimy rock to another or crawling commando-style across a wobbly log
a good path = narrow sheep track through boingy heather and tussocks of grass with treacherous rabbit holes and the odd concealed rock
not far = another five miles
bit of a walk = another ten miles
interesting = dangerous
gentle climb = lung-bursting ascent with your nose level with the person in front's boots
challenging descent = knee-destroying precipitous downward slither over unstable rocks and mud
soft ground = huge quivering boot-sucking bog

Carrie has made several previous attempts to kill me but this was undoubtedly the most elaborate, and having to wade the river in pitch darkness and scramble down that wet slippy rocky path past the sign telling us how many people had fallen off it and died was a nice touch. However it did not succeed, hahaaaaaaaaaa! Tania also proved to be made of extremely stern stuff, bagging not just one but two Munros!

windows arriving

Today has been a day of anticlimax.. well not unentirely, but we got the windows up to Hill House with lots of effort sweat and heaving by Colin, Andrew, John and Dave from Nordan delivery..... they look great. The weather was wonderful and nothing was dropped or broken. I am filled with gratitude and relief!

Hill House veggies!

I'm ready for my close-up, Mr DeMille...........................

Velvet swimming crab

Hill House sunsets

Rare sea creature......................

A very rare species found in Loch Linnhe, Fryingpanus tefalensis, or possibly Omelettepanus jamieoliveroides, difficult to tell in such poor visibility, but it takes a bit of culinary skill to fry seaweed underwater............also saw lovely sea cucumber called Psolus phantapus, page 191 in "Great British Marine Animals", sounds like a cat that's had too much orange fizzy drink.................

Hill House views

Red squirrel

This morning a red squirrel ran in front of the kitchen window from underneath the trampoline, and disappeared into the bracken before I had time to reach for my camera!

Live action!.....................

I like to be, under the sea.....................

Beasties seen on dive to 12 metres depth on road to Kingairloch 1 mile after Kilmalieu...........long-clawed squat lobster, common starfish, spider crab. Yes, some of these are edible.

Beautiful brassicas

Oh rapture, we are self-sufficient in kale..........well, it is very nice in a stir-fry. deciding what to do with the cabbage does become a bit more problematic after a while though.........if we were cabbage white caterpillars this would be our idea of heaven, but we're not so it isn't. the salad has also done extremely well, we flung in a handful of Italian salad mix and rocket and it's all come up - now bolting a bit so we'll pull it up before we leave and put in some more. meantime it's wonderful to go out and gather fresh leaves every evening for dinner........runner beans progressing well up their poles and beginning to flower so beans should follow soon, and we have already eaten the first pea. leeks also doing well despite valiant attempts of cats to dig them up, and chard in beside them. rhubarb in process of being made into juice along with elderflowers from bottom of the hill.
Flower beds dug over, weeded, and spread with home-made compost. No point in any permanent planting until the windows are done so a few packets of cheap annuals thrown in to hopefully provide some temporary colour. the Great Sunflower Race is on by the side wall, several varieties so at least a few should come up if the mice don't eat all the seeds. Something called "mixed annuals", could be anything, and some dark love-in-a-mist, and something called Sweet Sultan which we've never grown before and indeed, may not be about to grow this time. depends, as always, on the weather..................

Wildflowers on Beinn na Gucaig

Bog asphodel, heath milkwort.........no idea what the Christmassy one is though, the red bits are seed pods. We found some blaeberries ready to eat, and a super owl pellet (?little owl) containing lots of iridescent beetle shells and a tiny femur from some digested rodent.............

Katisha enjoying Hill House..................

Most strenuous activity of the day is to heave a deep sigh and turn over........however she did catch a shrew and bring it in dripping blood all over the carpet, just to show that she is not a city cat after all........

Amabel's grave

Amabel's grave is very bleak. It seemed just the right place to put the daffodils from Hill House that we have evicted from the veg garden.

Rhodie display

...........and beauty.........

Wildflowers on the hill

But also growth................

Rocket and potatoes starting to come up in the veggie beds..............

Change and decay in all around I see....................

Pieris at its best, and didn't know daffodils were a vegetable............time to move out and make way for the seeds...........potatoes (pink fir apple) now planted in the furthest bad, daffs relocated, applemint and black peppermint dug out and put in pots to restrain their enthusiasm...........

gorgeous double daffs...........

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH where's the cotoneaster??...............HH getting ready for its facelift................