When travel restrictions were lifted in July, we had Emily, Richard and the girls for two whole weeks. Richard was able to take over my office and I think it was a nice change for them, a place with beaches and walks, a garden with a three storey cafe and tree house, places for den bulding and owls.
Yes, the barn owls returned for the first time in three years and we arranged for Neil from the Kintyre Barn Owl Trust to come and ring them while the children were here. I don’t think they realised how special an opportunity this was. We also rigged up a trail camera (thanks Emily) and obtained some gruesome footage of overnight feeding routines as well as some prettier pictures of the fledglings.
The Kintyre Way Ultra was postponed from May and we were fortunate to have been able to reschedule it for the end of August which turned out to be the perfect window before things stopped again. We found ourselves making up the guidelines alongside Scottish Athletics but the main changes were the hour and a half long timed start, which was no bother for us and the timing team, being orienteers, but a mystery to our fellow organiser Rob, and keeping people socially distanced at the Start. Not having access to Village Halls for checkpoints turned out to be less of a problem than it might have been as we were once again blessed with good weather. Phew!
The Fynesiders, not being allowed to sing, are meeting on Zoom for a blether and a quiz and it’s great how these sorts of activities have forced us into accepting alternative ways of keeping in touch. My book group also meets on Zoom, the beauty of this being that I don’t have to drive into Tarbert and can therefore have a glass of something. Other than that I’ve made a point of phoning people we can’t visit, though we are able to meet local folks in the ventilated poly tunnel.
