Liosach's Lines

Woke up to shouts of delight from two small boys, who looked out of their window to discover the first snow of the year.  Not a heavy snow fall by any means, but enough to give a magical smattering of white to the world.   It was a strange day, with beauty mingled with deep sadness, as we approached a village in mourning.  We gathered in Appin to say goodbye to a wonderful, beautiful lady, who meant the world to so many and touched so many lives.  There will always be something missing from Appin without Mary in our midst, but memories of her beaming smile and her love and devotion to all of her family and friends will stay with all of us, from the youngest to the oldest.  Gus am bris an latha, a charaid.  Bidh sinn gad ionndrainn xx

Well, didn't think this post was going to happen tonight.  The power went off in Lismore at about 3am, in the midst of major storms.  Our newly constructed hen enclosure was the first casualty, closely followed by our electricity supply.  It was suddenly all too clear why Colin signed up as the local SSE operative.  Off he went in the middle of the night to source the problem...his absence in bed was obviously an open invitation for Alasdair and Ruairidh to take his place, so the rest of my night was spent with an extremely chatty 4 and 5 year old snuggled in beside me.  The rest of Colin's night was spent tramping over hills in howling gales looking for the fault that had struck our wee island.  He did eventually find it and managed to reconnect about half of the island, but the other half, including our own house, had to wait till just a few hours ago.  Huge thanks to the efforts and hard work of all the SSE team - no matter how long it takes, we al...

Came home from work today to discover a long, white, special delivery envelope waiting for me. Delighted to discover a £100 voucher for www.printerpix.co.uk inside, courtesy of Falcondale Life Blog, where I entered a competition a few days ago.  Being just a little bit obsessed with photography, it's the perfect prize to win.  Can't wait to investigate the website and decide what to buy.  Huge thanks to  http://falcondalelife.com  and to Printerpix themselves for this wonderful prize.  

Not the most significant day for most of us...just another Monday.  Yet for some...oh my goodness...can you feel the pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This was the torturous experience know as Back To School Day!" Sooo...probably time to confess that the stress levels were approximately zero, as she designed some canine artwork just for the fun of it.  Seanair and I did our best to torture her with some academic nonsense, but she just ignored us...life's not fair!! 

Car logistics meant we couldn't make our usual trip to church in Oban today, but we did make it over for a quick shopping trip.  Met up with Mum and Dad briefly too, to the kids' delight (and ours too, of course!)  Not the most scenic of boat trips, as it's still pretty misty, but we did manage to spot the lifeboat and the Clansman heading home.

A very misty start to to the day had me worrying we might not get off the island this morning, but everything turned out just fine.  Off we all headed into Oban, where we would be meeting up with Mum and Dad, to have a family lunch to celebrate Mum's birthday.   A lovely lunch at Piazza on Oban's North Pier was thoroughly enjoyed by all seven of us.  Still stunned by the size of the pizza Ealasaid managed to demolish, the huge plate of ice cream that disappeared courtesy of Ruairidh and the fact that Mum and Dad both managed one and a half Knickerbocker glories when Ealasaid and I had to admit defeat! Think one of the best bits for the boys was the Loch Striven being berthed just outside the window - they're boat mad!  Another highlight was Grandma buying them cups with sharks in sunglasses on them...!  They would be put to good use later on for the boys' bedtime hot chocolate. Back outside, and it was still a tad misty...managed to make the b...

With a day off from work, I thought I'd spend a nice, quiet, relaxing day.  Well...it was nice...but much more productive than I would have imagined. Lots of left over vegetables meant that today turned into a bit of a cook-a-thon.  Ruairidh was most impatient waiting for my first effort to cook.  Alasdair was still engaged in stealing the raw tomatoes to chew on while Ruairidh was demanding to know when his tomato soup would be ready.  There's just no pleasing some people! Tomato soup made and (partially) consumed, it was the turn of the root veg...lots of peeling and slicing later and a creamy carrot, parsnip and potato gratin had appeared... Daddy was the impatient one this time, but he'll have to wait till tomorrow night, as I'd other plans for tonight's dinner. I didn't manage to use up all the parsnips though, so spicy parsnip soup was next...roasted in the oven with lots of garlic and onion, then blitzed with some stock,...