We went downstairs this morning and had breakfast. Peter and Carina had already left for work / school so it was just Ed and us. Ed said he had some stuff to be getting on with this morning so we should go and explore the village and work this afternoon instead.
He pointed us in the right direction to walk past the castle (just a ruin now) and down into the village. It is incredibly pretty, very much a tourist hotspot and apparently rather deliberately trying to look like Tobermory which is where Balamory is filmed. There are loads of gift shops, cafes, restuarants and shops, a very cool outdoor exercise area type playpark and the gorgeous quayside, the ferry area and loads of wildlife – we saw all sorts of gulls, gannets, herons and buzzards flying overhead – no golden eagles yet though!
We had a good wander round, took some photos, had a look in the shops and sat for a while just looking out over the loch and watching the ferries come in and go out.
We went back for lunch, which was soup and we helped cook it. My heart sank at the thought of soup but actually it was delicious (very large chunks of carrots, potatoes, onions and spinach cooked in chicken stock from yesterday. Everyone, including the kids had seconds and would have had more I think. We finished with oatcakes and cheese :).
It was about 3pm by then and we’d still not actually done anything other than eat our third meal here but finally work kicked in. First we carried some wood up the hill. A neighbour is cutting down some rhoddedendron trees and had given the bigger branches to Ed and Carina for fire wood. I loaded Ady, Davies and Scarlett up and they walked it up the hill and put it in a pile. Next we were to chop it up but Ed realised his ear defenders are at their new house (they are about to move out of this house into a new build 20 miles along the coast, which is where most of our actual WWOOFing work will happen) so he cycled off to collect some from a friend the other side of the village and left us to mow the lawn. We had use of a mower which actually started, cut grass and did the job which was a real change from the norm! We’d finished that when Ed arrived back and I spent time feeding him the lengths of wood as he chainsawed them up and Ady lopped off stray branches. I had a go with the splitting maul to split some of the larger logs and Ady helped the neighbour a bit too. We stopped for a teabreak, had loads of time just chatting to Ed and were still finished not long after 6pm – so far from hard work!
Davies and Scarlett had gone off to play with Peter when he arrived back from school. We had time for a quick shower before dinner (which we were ushered away from when we tried to offer to help with ‘no, you should be resting!’) and then ate – salad mostly from their garden, cold chicken from last night, potatoes from their garden and some courgettes, mushrooms and onions fried up which looked nice but I didn’t try due to the whole mushroom element to it. Again we had a glass of wine each with dinner and there was leftover crumble from yesterday or apples from the garden for dessert.
Ed went out to choir practise after dinner, the three kids made biscuits and we sat chatting with Carina. It was all very nice and even better everyone heads off to bed at 10pm which lets me sit in bed and catch up online :).
Can’t quite believe we’ve only been here one day. Davies and Scarlett are loving it, the scenery and location is just stunning and the hosts seem really very lovely indeed, the work is easy and with the exception of the house being very cold (old stone house) I can’t think of anything to complain about 🙂
Seems fantastic. You have definitely got my feet itching.
Comment by Michelle — 31 August 2011 @ 7:56 am