After Helen

Helen got friendly with the strimmer.

This was before they met

  and this, two days after they teamed up. The transformation is amazing.

The wild wood is still on the other side of the fence - to be tackled later, 

but now we have short weeds!

Helen went home yesterday - probably for a lie down and a rest! She did loads while she was here,  including many jobs on the painting and decorating front, and it was a pleasure to have her company and her encouragement that we will indeed finish this 'project' one day!

A walk on the wild side

I've walked in this area before, but never ever tire of the amazing backdrop of mountains, and lochs.

My poor family walk with their fingers in their ears so they no longer have to listen to my droning on and on and on about the views and the colours and the breathtaking beauty of it all!

But it is isn't it.  It's beautiful and on our doorstep. We started the walk late in to the afternoon when the sun was already low in the sky

Our guest loved it too. Dear Helen we've bought her a strimmer so she can tackle the garden. She's keen to do some grouting too! But in the meantime she soaked up the glorious surroundings

They go on and on - a bit like me really. By this time the light was fading fast and the colours draining from the mountains.

I could hear a sniffing (it wasn't Niels)

it was this chap - you can barely see him! A seal that followed our little walking party, sniffing and looking vaguely interested. Unfortunately I had the wrong lens on the camera - this happens all of the time - and this was the closest close up I could manage.

And at the very end

beautifully camouflaged, this young stag, very curious about us. There was so little light left and I didn't want to use a flash, and in my rush to get a picture of him I pushed a few wrong buttons! The rutting season is almost at an end. The stags can be heard in the hills roaring at one another and strutting their stuff. We saw plenty of them on the drive home. They look so majestic and proud.

All change

  I wanted warm white, but couldn't bear it when I got it.

it made me more miserable by the minute. I drove back to Inverness and replaced the peachy white

  with misty white, definitely not warm, erring on the cool side, a darker shade of white, the colour of skimmed milk, of cornflour mixed with water, but it cheered me up, suited the room and blended perfectly with the misty, moistly, damp conditions outside!

We ordered the flue for the wood burner and the wood flooring 

We have a large round oak table. It has stood in store for eighteen months and taken quite a battering. It's been rolled down the drive dragged down the stairs, had any number of drinks spilt on it but it's incredible how it always perks up after a good sanding down 

and a pummeling and beating with bees wax. It takes on a wonderfully rich and mellow  sheen. 

Jo flew up on Tuesday then back down to London on Thursday. We walked, talked drank and ate too much and it was a real joy to have her company. Daughters aren't bad!

Tomorrow we have an unexpected visit from a friend who is coming to help with painting, gardening and all the many things that still need doing in and around the house - we must  be very slow - there still seems masses to do, but time and money limit what we can achieve.

All white

I'm looking for a paint that isn't white but is. Or maybe is, but isn't. With a thousand variations on almost but not quite white it shouldn't be difficult but, it is  - unbelievably so!

Farrow and Ball have a murky, beige greyish paint on their colour chart they call 

'Elephant's Breath'. I'd love to be on the team that chooses the names for these colours. I imagine it to be completely random!

The first sprinkling of snow has appeared on Ben Dearg. At first glance it looks snow white, but then again it could be great white, off white, house white, vanilla white, Cotton white, shaded white, new white, or perhaps in time even old white.

Leaving a trail

'Do not go where the path may lead,

go instead where there is no path and leave a trail'

Ralph Waldo Emerson

so we did!

I dug out the Estate Agent's brochure showing (top picture) the land

before we got our hands on it

And this

less than two years later

 And this trail is heaven to drive on, it makes such a difference

finished just one week ago