Liosach's Lines

With a houseful of recuperating invalids, we didn't make it off to church today, but we did manage to get out and about in Lismore, with the highlight for dogs and children being a trip to the shore at Point...I think it's safe to say the adults quite enjoyed it too!

Much excitement as two new iphones arrived!!

A busy day!

It started as a normal day, but Wednesday soon became a rather challenging one, as the broadband on the entire island went off at 10 in the morning.  There was much consternation all round - hard to run an internet business without being able to access any orders; hard to submit assignments to the Open University without internet access; hard to find out if there are bookings for your holiday cottage when all bookings are made online...the list goes on.  And that's not even touching on the fact that there were countless families on the island forced to actually hold real, live, face to face conversations with each other!  Disappearing engineers and not very helpful call centres meant a lot of rather disgruntled BT customers on Lismore today!  Still, the passing Glensanda boats were oblivious to the issues of the Liosaich, as they got on with their own business nearby.  

The first old friend to feature today was the good old Kia...I honestly think we were all a lot more upset by it's impending demise than that of the newer cars.  However, the old girl had other ideas...a few tweaks here and there and Colin managed to get her going...Herbie rides again! There's so much I would like to say about another old friend, but all I'm going to say here is how lovely it was to spend the evening talking with my dear friend Rhoda and how much I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of her in the not too distant future.  I hope Lismore is ready for this...there's a Muileach coming to town!

So, we dealt with school as usual, work as usual, some garage tidying as usual, Mod practice as usual...and yet another car break down as usual.  This time it's the poor wee reliable Kia that's given up the ghost...something tells me it's time to get a horse instead!

It was Communion weekend in our Church, which was a lovely time for all.  Slightly spoiled for Colin as his pager went off in the middle of the service though - not a lot he could do from Oban though.  Much excitement for the boys, as we went home on the "Captain's Boat", i.e. the car ferry.

It's not often we greet a rainy Saturday with unadulterated joy, but today was the exception.  Happy plants, full water tank...happy people!  It also meant we actually achieved some stuff inside the house, rather than disappearing out to the garden at the first opportunity.  And I finally got round to making bread again...it's been a while!

I think it's safe to say one of the most exciting things about today was that Colin started work on building my new greenhouse.  He decided it would be better to design and build one from scratch himself, after the disastrous experience we had with the kit one we bought a few months back.  He's almost completed the four sides of the frame in just one afternoon, so looking promising.  Other excitement today included me setting up and trying out my new flame gun...amazing but scary!  Definitely something to,use when there are no children/ dogs/ hens around!  Oh, and we have baby beetroot and parsnips!!

Today's exploits after work included making lots more spice mixes and wild garlic pesto, with a view to finding some new stuff to sell at this year's plant and produce sale.  I even started back to crocheting a few wee things, and I've been thinking through some new photography ideas.  Anything to make my stall a bit more interesting, eye-catching and therefore saleable...we shall see!

After such a hectic day yesterday, today as much quieter.  Work as usual, then back home in time to shepherd the parents off on the boat with Ealasaid and the Kia. Made some wild garlic soup with some of the results of my foraging yesterday.

After work today, I headed up to Achuaran to assist in the garden makeover underway there.  Before long, I had attacked some fuchsia (as usual) and had started a bonfire/ inferno...as usual!  Even with only one day of work, the garden is looking much better already, with the hedge licked back into shape, the grass given a first cut, various bushes tamed and lots of garden debris and other rubbish burned.  Even managed to photograph so e wildlife and pick lots of wild garlic in some spare moments.

Back to work as usual, this sunny but windy Monday.  It's getting busier at Seahorse, so there were plenty of orders to get out.  Still managed to get home at lunchtime though, which meant I could burn the last of the garden rubbish from our clear up last week.  It took a few attempts due to the windy, but my pyromaniac skills won through in the end, so we now have a rubbish free garden. It was a day of cars as well...the new discovery made its way to the garage to try to find out what's wrong with it.  The Kia came over to the island to be the second island car again to make life a bit easier.  The terrano had some work done on it by Colin and is now operational again...which I suppose technically means the poor wee Kia didn't have to come over. And, most importantly of all, the front of the van was cleared out for the boys (and miss Ealasaid as well, it has to be said!) to play around in.  There was much delight at this and various Dukes of Hazard style moves going on.  

We headed off to church this morning as usual despite rather strong winds.  Made it there safely, followed by a lovely lunch with Grandma and Seanair, then back home again in even windier conditions.  We even had to forego our usual trampolining session as it was too windy to be safe.  Still managed to sit outside in beautiful sunshine having some chilled family time in the only sheltered spot in the garden.  Ended the day with an extremely windy walk down towards Salen...I was definitely sporting he windswept and interesting look when I came back!

We started today with a trip over to the fèis in Appin. A good time was had by all, thoug the boys could hardly keep their eyes open at one point.  I then headed off back to the ferry, when car disaster struck...the new car started making a horrible, grinding noise, then ground to a full halt.  We won't know anything more till Monday though, so we'll be crossing everything till then.   Photography club came next, with  lovely day photographing the oyster farm at Laggan, followed by lots of experiments with water pouring on to an umbrella.  

Well, having been in the garden for over 12 hours today, I think we can finally say operations are complete for the moment at least.  A few millions seeds have been planted, grass cut, bushes and trees pruned, raised beds built, the fence fixed, a new path built...and we even managed to get the new gas barbecue going as well!

It was work as usual to start with today, with lots of orders going out and lots of work getting done in the kitchen.  Then we headed off to the polling station...ie the Hall...to vote in the local elections.  Duty done, we thought we'd get a bit more done in the garden, including having a barbecue, but the rather windy conditions put paid to that idea.  Managed to plant some more seeds, but gave up pretty quickly.  We did plan out a few more raised beds though.

A glorious morning made the walk to work even more special than usual.  Some of the lambs I met en route even deigned to pose for photos...or was it maybe just that it was so hot they couldn't be bothered moving?!  I also took portraits of some of the fences I met...no, I'm not mad, just trying to meet the photography club's latest challenge!  Lots more outdoor fun when we got home...grass is now cut, more seeds planted, including 3 different varieties of carrot, a new raised bed built and more crazy trampolining fun completed with kiddiwinks.  A relatively full day! 

The good news was we woke up to a dull, cloudy day, so going back to work and school wasn't so depressing as it could have been.  Mum and Dad came over mid-morning, so Colin was able to come down to Port Castle with me.  Nicky and I got on with Seahorse stuff, while Colin and Simon worked on the kitchen floor.  The old floor is now just about all lifted, so they're hoping to get on with laying the new one soon.   Back home, and we got a bit more done in the garden...some more flowers planted in the new flower bed Ruairidh and Colin built yesterday and some rubbish burnt up, despite it being a tad too windy for such things.  And of course there was time for some more trampolining fun...it'll either get me fit or kill me!  

We couldn't have hoped for better weather for today's holiday from school.  I had the day off work too, which was a lovely surprise.  French leeks have now been planted, as well as the second tier of my gutter garden - lots more lettuces.  I've put a few lettuces in in the polytunnel too, so it'll be interesting to see if there's any difference in their growth.  Colin managed to do his ladies and still clear the garage out...there's a bit more to be done in it, but it's getting there.  He also built our new gas barbecue, though the gas canister we got didn't fit, so we ended up barbecuing tonight's dinner on a bog standard disposable barbecue - not quite what we had in mind!  After dinner activities included Colin building a walled planting area in front of the garage, a game of football with a visiting local dog, while she waited for her owner to come pick her up and nearly an hour of trampolining fun...there were four of us on it at one point, whi