After Christmas

I hope you had a lovely happy and peaceful Christmas. We did here.  Now we are leaving the tree, that finally got decorated, and travelling south once again for another wedding.
A Happy New Year to you all

Almost ready!

All is calm all is white

Looking in, it's warm and inviting

and although it's in  a bit of a muddle (just at the minute) it's nothing compared to how it was exactly two years ago. This is our third Christmas here and each year feels just a little bit more like home.

They're back!

The boys are here! They both got to Inverness. It was a signal failure on the line that necessitated a journey by coach from Perth to Inverness.

And now they're back doing what they love

They have to stop for Christmas. I've told them they have to help. There is the tree to put up - still!

But it's worth while just for the view. It's a wonderful bit of coastline and quite remote.

and the sunset was oh so very beautiful. The snow is disruptive and I know it makes people fed up when they can't travel. We still have got to get Jo here. She is flying up on Christmas eve.We're not out of the woods yet. But this is so beautiful it's hard to be cross with it!

Decisions decisions

Driving into Inverness yesterday morning was very white.

This morning it's very beautiful but icy icy, cold and shiny. The car ended up in a ditch earlier but a helpful passing land rover towed it back on to the lane - no damage done. The train from Kings Cross carrying the boys today will terminate at Perth one hundred and seventy miles from here. what to do?  Drive to Perth and pick them up or hope they can get on a coach?

Through the window

Having breakfast this morning and looking out of the window

I could see the snow falling in the middle of the loch

and I know I've taken this picture a dozen times before, and droned on and on about the wonderful big weather picture

but it is rather beautiful and it's what I miss when I'm away from here.  This is from the sitting room window, the snow turns a corner and disappears further up the loch. It meets the sun which is now so low in the sky it can't get over the mountain tops.
Apologies for such a familiar sort of post!
Next time I'll 'do'  the bathroom. It's now finished - at last. I can't understand why it took so long. Too much looking out of the window I expect!

The Bone Caves

Yesterday we walked up to the Bone Caves near Inchnadamph, in Assynt. The snow has nearly gone - for the moment at least

We left our walk until late, the sun begins to set now at around 3.30 in the afternoon but, I think in doing so we saw the caves at their very best

Standing in the mouth of the mountain looking out at the setting sun throwing the hillside opposite into such  contrasting colours of light and shade  

I could maybe get just the tiniest feel of how early man might have felt as he looked out at his world governed by night and day, dark and light, the sun the moon and the stars. To stand here and gaze up at the stars would truly be amazing.

The days are very short now, and the nights as black as black. I noticed again when we were down in the south  how the sky at night  (in Surrey at any rate) is never completely dark, the sky at night has a grey glow. In some ways it makes star gazing easier. Here the night sky is so full of stars it can be hard to itentify them

 We hurry back down to the car. I'm happy to be a cave woman during the day, but at night time it somehow feels less fun - a warm house and a comfy bed seems more the order of the day!

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

The car that got us from one end of the country to the other sits and rests at the top of the drive.  We arrived home at the weekend, and although the roads were snowy in places, especially around Stirling and Perth we missed the recent heavy falls  that shut the main roads south of us

The wedding was near Petworth in Sussex and very pretty, though very chilly.The photographer kept photographs to a minimum to prevent frost bite and red noses, and sorry, but not one photo of me in my posh frock, I was probably back inside the  church leaning on a radiator.

 Since our return to deepest darkest Letters, the snow has been relentless. This morning on our walk we watched the next fall of snow make its way silently up the loch towards us.

 We tried to head it off at the pass as they say! But it beat us. We were less than half a mile from the house when it tipped its load down our necks and in the tops of our boots

Life in the slow lane isn't without its hazards! Police advise drivers to stay in their vehicles!

I know there are all sorts of reasons not to like the snow, but I do love it. I love the muffled silence, its incredible beauty and how it changes the light.

Two of our children are due to arrive next week.  I've no idea how the weather will be by then. They intend to travel up from Kings Cross by train. The plumber is due this Friday. He's coming from Gairloch, a little south from us, where the snow has also been  heavy. His arrival, or not, will determine whether we have, or don't have underfloor heating in the shower room by Christmas.

While we wait the house is warm and very cosy even though we have one or two underfloor heating issues - but that can wait till another blog!

Posh frocks

Never mind the weather!

we're off to a posh wedding. The morning suit is hired and the hat is bought. Yes, me a hat! It's never been known - apart from my school panama hat.

I love my posh frock. It's just a little bit whacky

I love the colour, the silky alpaca shawl, the linen buttons.
Normal service will be resumed on return. The wedding is in Sussex. Is it snowing there too I wonder? I do hope I shan't be expected to get out and push the car!

Waiting for the snow

There is talk of snow, but this morning there was blue sky and the sun shone.

I went into Ullapool and on the way home, stopped to take this. A picture of our loch, Lochbroom. It was about midday. Each day the sun sinks a little lower in the sky. Soon it won't get over the mountain tops. It casts long shadows along the length of the loch.
We are due to drive south for a wedding in a few days time. Guaranteed, that will be when the snow comes!

Let them eat cake

We did it! Or rather Jo did it. I did the dots and a bit of baking and masses of washing up and putting the kettle on.

 But Jo, who has never done more than make an occasional cake, produced a masterpiece. Jo, who offered (over a bottle of wine I expect!) to make her girlfriend's wedding cake. That special cake, that cake that goes on display for all to see!

She went on a course. Her instructor said there was always one who turned up never having made a cake before but nevertheless gaily rising to the challenge of making their friends wedding cake. Jo admitted, she was that person.

Painstakingly petal by petal she moulded roses

 "They need to be thinner" she wailed, "more fragile"

But I think it's beautiful, and the bride and groom and their guests loved it too. I'm allowed that extremely proud mother moment. I'm amazed, honestly, that she did it  (we met the deadline, finishing at 4.30am on Friday morning (the wedding was that afternoon). It cost her a fortune in time, effort, cake making courses, cake tins, cake cutters, boards, rollers, brushes, boxes, non slip mats (important when driving at breakneck speed through London!)   cake ingredients, including the trial runs, the cakes that failed, the wrong colour icing, She could have paid for their honeymoon (especially if you include my airfare in the cost!)
But what couldn't be bought is that time spent with a daughter, the tears and laughter, the cups of tea, the achievement and the relief,  the sharing of a project, working together. That's priceless.
Well done Jo, and to Matt the long suffering boyfriend, who ate his way through several 'gone wrong' cakes, and  who took the final pictures of the cake on the day. I was travelling back to Inverness by then - an exhausted old lady slumped on the plane. I dreamt later that night I fell asleep on a mattress made of smooth white icing!