Home

It's nice to be home. The lochside grows more lush by the day. Dog roses  flower on the hills and as we walk along the lane  we can hear the loud buzzing of busy bees.The garden grows too, especially the grassy bits, of which there are many! The late evening sun bathes the hills on the opposite shore in pink.

Today first thing the sun hasn't shone. Ullapool is just a little cloudy though warm enough to welcome the Queen's Baton. It was a happy occasion and we all enjoyed getting up close and personal with this well travelled symbol of the Commonwealth Games due to start in Glasgow on 23rd July  - apart maybe from one small chap who wasn't quite sure!

A bit of a break

Lindisfarne Castle. A wonderful home made by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1901 for Edward Hudson

The Farne Islands. Home to thousands and thousands of sea birds. The Arctic Terns protect their nests and eggs from marauding sightseers (us) by using their sharp beaks with accurate precision on top of our heads - I kept my hat on and a bit of me felt guilty for being there and causing them such angst.

We'd gone to Northumberland to meet friends and have a few days holiday exploring this empty part of the country.We didn't expect to meet Em and Dan! They live in Yorkshire. By sheer coincidence we bumped into them on this tiny island in the north sea. Time for a quick hug before they sped off to catch their departing boat. Come and visit us soon...!

If the Angel of the North had looked down he would have noticed two small boys playing on his feet. The two small boys didn't look up and notice the Angel of the North they were too busy playing on the climbing frame and didn't have time to consider the bigger picture..

From the North we drove to Cromford in Derbyshire to visit Ollie and then to Manchester to visit Robin. We passed Lyme Hall on the way. Some of Pride and Prejudice was filmed here - I think. The house was closed but the garden was delightful and very green

Back over the Boarder we did a detour to The Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel. I haven't included everywhere we went. We seemed to do a lot in a very short  time. But it felt like a good long holiday and it was lovely to spend time with some very good and old friends.

Rescue Remedy

There she is! Just where we left her. Unable to turn her against the strong current and wind to paddle home. See previous post.

A grumpy toad. Unhappy at being shifted out of his cosy upturned canoe house.

In this wilderness we met another pair of canoeists. "Just use a line" they said "like they do with narrow boats on canals" "Ok" we said

 They didn't tell us what to do when the line got tangled up in trees

 So Jo (who came up for a few days 'Holiday') and her Dad paddled the canoe

out of the straight and into the loch. We had borrowed a boat with an outboard motor, so we could tow the canoe back.

But first

as silly as ever we decided we should climb Suilven

 It's not that it's the highest mountain, but it has very steep sides!

 We reached the saddle. Bizarrely there is a wall that runs over it. I cannot imagine how they managed to hold on to the edge and build a wall at the same time or why they would even want to

Jo, looking as if she is out for an afternoon stroll

We had meant to walk up there and onto the summit  Caisteal Liath 

But, I felt uneasy. It was already late and a long walk back to the canoe. The cloud was moving in below us. We decided to come back down and call it a day

Back out to civilisation!

And yes, I've noticed we are not wearing buoyancy aids. We were halfway back up the loch when we realised. They were in the bottom of the dry sack in the bottom of the boat. And I'm afraid we left them there. We were cold and tired. The loch was very calm and we sat very still. We do normally wear them when out in the canoe so please don't follow this bad example. Suilven looked so beautiful in the setting sun. We must go back and reach the summit. We'll take a tent next time and do it in easier stages!