Well, Spring has finally made an appearance in Kintyre but despite a few sunny days without too much rain, everything in the garden is still sodden and will be for a while yet. It seems to have been a long winter with very little sunshine and far too much wind. We’ve hardly generated any electricity on the p.v. panels but otherwise things generally seem to have survived the deluges. More drainage work is needed especially in the “woodland”. At least, however, we seem to have avoided the 4 feet of snow that we had this time last year.
February now sees us celebrating two birthdays. Johnny, who was three on 22nd February and Caitlin who was one on the same day. We couldn’t go to Johnny’s bbq in Melbourne but did manage to attend Caitlin’s party in Stonehouse. Although everybody had a good time on the day, a village wide, tummy bug laid Emily and Richard low and it was just as well that we were there to help out.
We’d combined the birthday trip with a flight to southern Spain where we’d booked a walking holiday in the hills north east of Malaga. Despite Suse taking the Stonehouse bug with her, we had great time with plenty of exercise and some decent weather. We stayed on in Malaga for a few days before the return flight to Glasgow and were pleasantly surprised by the city. I even managed to find a pub showing the League Cup Final from Wembley. Sunderland couldn’t manage a victory despite scoring first and putting on a decent performance. They now seem to struggling to win in the league and are running out of games. Fingers crossed.
We landed back in Scotland to find torrential rain falling and managed to swim through the Rest & Be Thankful just before it was closed by yet another land slide. Unfortunately, the A83 was also closed for repairs at Corranbuie just 4 miles from home and we sat for an hour early in the morning waiting for our turn to be convoyed through. We thought about just pulling over and kipping in the van but we had brought a new a sofa and matching armchair back with us from Glasgow so that put paid to that idea! The Rest stayed closed for several days but the recently opened, low level, emergency road seemed to cope but not at night.
The planning application for Merryvale Avenue had been lodged before we left for Spain and is now trundling through the system. The Planners have asked for minor changes but nothing major. The submission was entirely on-line and once again the Coon surname caused havoc with the East Renfrewshire Council’s politically correct email filters. It never fails!
Karen’s 70th, 1940’s birthday party happened soon after we got back and I think the photograph’s speak for themselves. I took the opportunity to fill potholes on the Glenreasdale House driveway and some kind soul did the main farm road soon after. Feeling inspired, I decided to spread the beach gravel which had sulked its way through the winter. I think we’ll be picking out the larger stones for several months but it looks fine.
A trip up to Taynuilt for orienteeering at Creag Mhic was combined with a visit to the nearby tree nursery and we now have lots and lots of water loving, bare root stock plants to fill out the garden. In addition, we also became the new owners of Roderick, The Posh Rhododendron, who, by the look of him, may have Desert Island aspirations.
Looking back at the calendar, we’ve been doing quite a bit more orienteering than of late thanks mainly to ECKO’s local series and to the car needing an MOT in Glasgow. Suse missed out on the last trip to Devilla because she attended kayaking sessions in the pool in Lochgilphead. Needless to say, our two planned kayaking outings have been scuppered by the weather. One of these days……..
The latest offerings from the lathe factory include a very useful set of wooden egg cups and stand with a matching egg timer. The nice bowl with lid from last month has recently engaged its warp drive and may soon lose its chapeau! Richard was given a spalted beech bowl for his birthday, poor chap. He was polite enough to ask if it would be possible to have a pestle to go with it?