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| On Ben Venue with Simon and Diane |
Grab a
cup of coffee, it's going to be a long one! In the last 10 days, we've walked,
climbed, touristed, painted and lived 'the Good Life'.
We were
sad to leave Stimpy, she knew something was up despite being told that the
whole family would be back tomorrow, this may not have been the right thing to
say as apparently most of the family were initially ignored on their return as
punishment for having abandoned her!
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| Edinburgh Castle |
We set
off for Edinburgh to Simon and Diane, who we met in Vietnam, and since met up
with them in Ledbury, Spain and France. South/Central America are amongst their
favourite places so we'd picked their brains, and their bookshelves before we
went away last year, so it was now time for the debrief! Or lots of chatting
anyway!
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| At the fringe festival |
Living in
Scotland and being keen runners, we were slightly scared about embarrassing
ourselves on a walk but they were gentle with us, so Saturday we set off for
Ben Venue in the Trossachs, good weather, a good walk, and good views, what
more could you want? I puffed a bit but nothing too bad! Sunday was the last
day of the Edinburgh festival, so we spent the day walking Edinburgh, enjoying
the 'buzz' in the sunshine. Lots of people still handing out flyers, and lots
of people ignoring them. Before home for Sunday roast, yum.
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| The Edinburgh Tattoo stadium outside the castle |
Another few miles
walked seemed to do the stretching required to not be stiff from Ben Venue, so
all good. Monday's forecast was not so good, but we had a nice drive to Melrose
for an interesting look round the Abbey and museum. For the final closing of
the festival there was a big fireworks display in a park in central Edinburgh,
rather than go there though, we headed up a nearby hill after dinner to sit
overlooking the city and a great display.
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| One of the side shows at the fringe |
Having been beautifully looked after
we said our farewells to Di, on Monday night, rather than get in the way as she
was heading off to work in the morning. Simon was working from home so that was
ok and waved us off to Tony and Nicky's near Fochabers. We are already in Scotland,
so only another 4 1/2 hours.... big place Scotland, particularly with stopping
for outdoor gear on the way, a ski helmet for me, and some new walking boots
for him. We hope to catch up with them skiing again, or again in Edinburgh next
year if we can't think of a new place, with a new activity in the meantime.
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| At Melrose Abbey |
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| Last night in Edinburgh on the hill ready to watch the fireworks |
We
arrived at T&N's to be welcomed not by them, as they were both out at work,
but by Helen & Ian, late lunch and then straight to work, B helping Ian
with some guttering and tile cleaning in preparation for grouting and bath
fitting for me. An easy start.... Wednesday a beautiful day, and T&N's day
off, so A good work day, but not in the steading, we headed off to Lossiemouth
to paint a lighthouse!
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| Fireworks over the silhouetted castle |
It's not functioning and has been bought by the
community, but sadly not many of them want to get involved in maintenance and
upkeep. When this was mentioned the previous week, I hoped it was a job
exchange and T&N would get some hours they needed from someone else. It
wasn't, it was just voluntary, but we don't mind. It was slightly unusual, and
not the tower, though they are looking for quotes... The yellow highlights on
the lower level buildings and the gates and doors, along with filling in the
black paint in the stone carving above the entrance. Hopefully I read it right
and the build information is still correct! Rounded off by a mile and a half
along the beach, with Monty dog, to the pub for a pint!
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| The Lossiemouth lighthouse |
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| Jackie having painted the yellow is painting back in the lettering in black |
Thursday
H&I and Monty headed back down south and with T&N both at work we
played hooky and headed west, to Cummingston, to do some gentle climbing on the
beach. Thanks to Alex, our Scottish climbing correspondent, for the route
information. It was great rock and an amazing setting, and we both managed a
lead before some specks of rain, and realising that as usual, climbing had
eaten time! We managed to get back and had just finished making chicken pie and
raspberry ripple icecream when Tony got back.
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| The finished article. The lighthouse, originally built in 1844 by Alan Stevenson, relative of the famous Stevenson family |
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| The view from the top |
Cooking at T&N's is an
amazing experience, there are seven freezers, jam packed with bargains from
Tesco, where Nicky works and where she knows the exact time of final markdowns.
You don't mind rummaging in the freezer and cooking up a storm when everything
has a yellow sticker and usually cost under a pound. I say everything, that
doesn't include all the raspberries, currants, peaches, and assorted vegetables
that have either come from the two veg patches or the poly tunnel!
Into the
work clothes and out getting everything ready for our job the following day. We
were going to be working on the garage for the second property. I say garage,
it's 30' high, will take four cars and have a full utility room down the side
with loads of storage. You could live in it! Currently just the steels are up,
but he's hoping the blockwork will get done over the winter, so in preparation
for this all the steels had to be sanded down with a mixture of angle grinders
and drills fitted with wire brushes to get into all the nooks and crannies,
then painted with 'rust converter' a magic substance that when painted on a
rusty surface turns it black and solid. It goes on white, turns turquoise as it
is working (which was slightly unnerving as Tony had described it as peach
coloured, so we did wonder if it was the right stuff. Turns out he's colour
blind!) and then dries black.
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| The view from the top of the caravan park and Lossimouth RAF base |
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| Jackie, Nicky, Tony, Helen and Ian on the beach to the pub at Lossie |
It is obviously top secret as there was no
contents or information at all on the 1litre carton which cost £100. Don't
spill it! Once that had dried, we then covered it with a coat of red iron oxide
paint. Despite the work they have done on the house, Tony really doesn't like
heights, so we were doing the high level joints. We had a scaffolding tower
each, one on the inside, one on the outside and away we went, for the next
three days. About 9 hours a day and we've done seven of the eleven and do we
ache? I can't tell you, bending, stretching, climbing, painting and power tools
out at arms length. A full body workout!
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| The first climb at Cummingston |
We did
have a couple of hours off on Saturday, we were taken to meet Frank, the farmer
from up the road who was combining and had a very interesting time in the cab
with him as it steered itself down the field under satellite control, only
requiring intervention from him to turn at the edge of the field. H&I had
been out as he was using a borrowed demonstration model, 30' wide and £300,000
to buy. We were in the one he currently has, 25' wide and five years old! We
then came home via the seal colony at Port Gordon. Always a pleasure looking at
seals, but I was champing at the bit to get back - we had work to do!
It was
lovely finishing last night, Nicky had got the dinner in (and gone bargain
hunting in Tesco) we scrubbed each other with white spirit to remove the paint
that had come through gloves and clothes, I'd looked at my trousers and
realised I probably had paint all over my bottom, and sure enough... showered,
twice, before the water ran anything like clear, and then up to the newly
installed bath in 'our' bathroom with a glass of wine. Lovely. We knew we had
time for all this as dinner is never an early event, and this was one of the
latest, I think we sat down to eat just after 21.30! Not a problem for us as we
only have the 6 1/2 hour drive to Blackpool today!
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| Jackie abseiling off the sea stack |
The other
side to being on the steading is the 'Good Life', not only is there the poly
tunnel, the veg patches and the fruit bushes so potatoes come out of the
ground, as do carrots and beetroot, tomatoes and courgettes come from the poly
tunnel and rhubarb from the ditch, there are the animals. Helen grew up with
chickens so she does the birds when she is there and had given us a run through
of the morning tasks. Open the goose house, and herd the three geese through
the big fence into their holding pen, let the four guinea fowl and their
chicken friends out, the two feather footed chickens and their friends and the
six ducks and their chicken friends (no one seems to know quite how many
chickens there should be!) Once out they all need feeding and watering and
their houses checking for eggs. It's like an Easter egg hunt, every day, there
is something lovely about sliding your hand under a warm feathery chicken and
bringing out two or three warm eggs. Then open the poly tunnel, and check on
Smokie, 20 year old little grey cat, in the cat pen where she would really
rather not be but where at least she is safe from being run over as she is now
deaf. By this time the two Doberman dogs, Duke and Maya know they are next, so
get their food and into their pen to be greeted like long lost friends bringing
their first meal in a week! Is that it? Just about, except for the rest of the
cats, Cookie, the three legged cat (Tony and Nicky met at the vets, each with a
three legged cat) who only came back into the house for the first time last
night since the departure of Monty dog.
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| Ghengis cat with Jackies teddy |
Then there is Dougal dog cat, who was
in the pen while Monty was in residence but is now contained in the kitchen,
utility and bathroom where he mostly resides under the kitchen units being a
very fraidy cat. The 'normal' cats are then Ghengis who they rescued from a
village where he was going to be put down for terrorising the local kids who is
the softest thing. Tufty, who walks like a supermodel was feral for about six
months, shredding anyone who stroked him more than twice, who turned soft
overnight and finally Gummy who they had from a rescue centre, because he
wasn't an attractive cat, with his one tooth sticking out, the only one left
after he'd had a good kicking. He has been vying with Ghengis for space on our
bed and has probably won overall for night time sleeping though Ghengis has
claimed it for his own during the day.
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| Gummy cat |
All in
all it's a great experience, Tony and Nicky are the friendliest, kindest
people, the animals are a joy and the work is hard, but rewarded with lots of
home cooked food (often by me, but as each trip to the freezer is like being a
kid in a sweet shop it's fine) and free flowing wine.
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| Tony and Nickys lovely house. The huge double garage and L shaped house is almost finished, the house on the right without a roof is work in progress |
We are
now heading to Blackpool in hideous weather, a horrible drive, but the first
real rain we have seen in our 10 days in Scotland! Timing or what?
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| The other house yet to be done |
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| And the other garage we were working on. We ground down, rust proofed and primed seven of the ten upright and roof truss beams. It may not look much but there's three full, hard days work there! |
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| Jackie with power tools cleaning away |
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| Jackie with their two doberman dogs, Duke and Maya |
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| Helen and Jackie attending to the chickens |
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| The three geese in the garden |
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| Brian carrying back the escaped goose |
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| The combine harvester we had a ride in |
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| Combine owner Frank |
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| Tony and Nickies lovely lounge |
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| Tufty cat |
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| The upstairs bedroom we had during our stay |
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| Seals on the beach at Portgordon |
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| End of threedays hard painting. These brushes are ready for the bin! |
