Wednesday was meetingtastic. First Fliss & I met Manager Mike to chat about the community polytunnel being put up in the field near the castle. An excellent idea as it will be nice and central for everyone to use. Mike agreed although he later came back and said that there would need to be planning permission which sort of takes the whole thing back to where it all started 3 years ago when it ended up being put on Croft 3. Ah well, not our issue any more…
Ady picked me up on his way passed and we went to the ferry. We had various stuff coming off – we are repainting and repairing the little red footbridge in the castle grounds for the Friends of Kinloch Castle Association so had ordered all the paint, chicken wire and stuff for that which all came off. Ady came back to the croft while I walked back to the village with Steve The Man, our local councillor and IRCT Chair Allan and some visiting folk from Marine Harvest Fish Farms. I walked for a bit with Allan chatting to him, and then got chatting to two of the fish farm people who we’d met when we visited the Muck fish farm earlier in the year. They remembered we’d been about to be filmed by the TV crew so were asking about that.
Then it was Full Board meeting of IRCT – usually we are more speedy as Allan is due off on the ferry but this time he was getting a lift back with Marine Harvest so there was no rush and the meeting dragged on rather. Lots to talk about I guess. There was a split then as some people went down to Jinty’s new barbecue hut for the official opening / hut warming and MH had supplied some salmon. Others went into the hall to have tea and cake with Debs as it was her birthday. To be honest I think we’d have rather gone to the hut but felt obliged to go to Debs so did that. We then couldn’t go along to the hut as we needed to feed the animals and come back down for the official MH presentation at 630pm.
That done pretty much everyone else went along to the hut but I got caught with Claire and Steve to chat about various stuff from the board meeting which I was a bit pissed off about doing on my own really. Sigh. By then we decided that everyone at the hut would have been many, many drinks ahead of us and it was already about 8pm and we were hungry so we came home.
Thursday was a nice day, probably the best this week. And Sheerwater boat trip day. Sadly although the weather was lovely the only thing we saw was a sea eagle. I know, I know, *only* but where are the dolphins?!? Fliss came along with her friend who had been staying all week and her 2 children – 12 year old Scarlet (one T) and 9 year old Logan who Davies and Scarlett got chatting to and really made friends with. To the degree that they hung out with them for the whole of the rest of the day and then met up with again on Friday before they left to go home. Shame they only met at the end of their week here.
Ady and Big Dave did some stuff on the Jeep while I meant to get dinner prepped and organise the storage under the sofa where we keep food. Just as I had weighed out a batch of bread dough and left the yeast to activate and strewn sofa cushions all over the floor so Bonnie started barking and Doug and his wife and son appeared. So I shoved everything away and in they came for tea and chats. Doug was a ghillie here two years running and then got the Estate Workers post but his wife and two sons still live down near Bristol. The boys have a year of A levels left so won’t be moving until at least after that and I wonder about whether Ursula is remotely interested in moving here anyway, it’s her first ever trip here in all that time. She seemed nice and we chatted easily. Ady came home and we all went over to feed the pigs as Doug was keen to show his son them and then we went down to put in veg orders and have a beer.
Friday – it rained and rained and rained all day. Poor Manon decided to leave rather than brave out a day of rain as I’d already said she did not need to work in such weather. So she packed up, I did some baking and some reading. Manon came in for lunch. The kids went off in waterproofs to find their mates for a last hang out before they left and then BD and Faye came over with pig feed from their stay and we all went down to the ferry. We waved off Dave, Faye, Manon, Fliss’ friends, Jinty’s dad and sister, Doug and family… a busy boat for goodbyes!
We called at the shop to collect some bits and Ady spotted the black and white cat down in the middle of the village. We chased it but it legged it. This morning I spoke to a few people and it has been spotted several times this week around the village so I have now come clean and said it seems lost down there and to let us know if it’s spotted so we can try and get it back up to the croft. Hmmm, hopeful I guess.
Back home for pizza and Doctor Who and enjoying just being us for a few days.
Today – work for both Ady and me. It tipped with rain most of the morning, was sunny for bits of this afternoon but still mostly showers. Can’t believe it’s August. This afternoon Ady did a big hoover of the lounge (he bought a hoover recently that runs off the genny and is wet and dry so good for sucking up when the roof has leaked, which currently it seems to not be doing so badly after Ady’s latest fix). I mostly did stuff online and we caught up on Dragons Den.
We’re all really knackered and hoping to have a day all to ourselves tomorrow.