September 2017

Welcome blog viewers

One of the most fun days this month 

has been the Elphin Chicken Day,

in Elphin village, a little north of Ullapool

Cosy  air-conditioned travelling crates

Everything to do with chickens,

from egg and spoon races for the under 4's,

no spoons involved

just pure concentration !

Egg and spoon race for the over 4's,

this lad was a sure winner right from the start

Egg and spoon race for the adults

who didn't want to be left out !

The highlight of the afternoon was the chicken race !

with great hilarity and cheering

Only one chicken knew what was going on 
and went straight for the finishing line,
an outright winner !

others needed help

to get the idea of what it meant to be in a race

Dancing to the Birdie song,

for all ages

Some fabulous chicken artwork from the local children

The organising committee

took health and safety issues very seriously,

especially with the vast number of people attending

Peter with the winning catch, thrown by his wife,

for the egg-throwing competition,

spot the egg

Great refreshments, great raffle, great afternoon

and proceeds for their delightful village hall,

seen in this photo.

Well done Elphin !

See you again next year

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The Sunday morning wild swimmers
have increased in number over the past few weeks
and several of them don't even wear wetsuits !

Water temperature these days is around 13 degrees

and now starting to go down

A new member came to join us, a senior amongst us,

(in her 80's I believe)

a hardy soul, she left her white stick on the sand

and stayed in the water for over half an hour,

notice no wetsuit !

When asked how she enjoyed her swim

she just beamed and answered

"bliss! "

Storm stands in anxious wait

for Janette to return from swimming

while Wilma contemplates the next place to dig a hole

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Visitors to the croft this month

Roy and Zara
who have been travelling around in their fun
orange campervan

great to see you both after 15 years !

and well done Roy for swimming in the loch,

we love it when our visitors join in with our activities

and

Giovani and Tricia (being photo-bombed by Wilma)

great to see you looking relaxed and vibrant

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On and around the croft

The round wood pile is now seasoned

and ready for Malcolm to restack it all nearer to the house

ready for the winter

Some of Malcolm's lovely onions, drying

ready to be strung up French-style

Harvesting, weeding and mulching the potager

This year's young starlings still coming back

to the bird table for lunch

This heron knows the best places to find the fish

Our young cockerel taking a break

Pure bliss ! me and my little ol' pony on a deserted beach 

Wilma posing for the photo and all the  while ....

thinking up ways of getting filthy

glorious September colour

Zara's field shelter has come in handy for the

pony pedicures on a rainy day

Just chilling out

Evening colours over Loch Ewe

Walking over hill towards Slaggan Bay beach

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Book of the Month

One of Malcolm's favourite little reads

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Quote of the Month

"If you focus on the hurt you will continue to suffer.
If you focus on the lesson you will continue to grow ."

Buddhist Vision


☯





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We are frequently asked the question
"what do you do up there in the Highlands?"

It is possible that I give the impression on the blog

that we drink a lot of tea and eat a lot of cake whilst staring out to sea 

(indeed, we do do that !)

and people think that we have retired from working.

For those of you who ask this question the following list is for you,

for those of you who don't, please skip to the end of the blog.

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We do of course do all the usual daily living tasks that everyone has to do

but our style of living on a croft in the Highlands (which some would call remote)

also includes:

maintaining 12 acres of land and fences

growing our own food and trying to be self-sufficient

~~~

feeding, cleaning and looking after 24 hens and 3 geese
 routine daily care for Zara the pony, arranging farrier, dentistry, worming etc
poo-picking (around half a ton a month)
~~~
looking after Malcolm's Mum, with shopping, doctor/hospital appointments etc
director of and volunteer at the Gale Centre
setting up a local community food-growing group
various projects in the barn

~~~

There are so many things to do, learn, be, go to or join up here

that many people, in fact, are never at home !

~~~

On our current "to do" list is :

25 ton of wood to be sawn, split and stacked

a polytunnel to be rebuilt

an old stone byre (barn) to be cleared and rebuilt

a second old stone byre to be cleared

and rebuilt

a stack yard to be rebuilt

and a 5 acre woodland and hedges to be planted

Hopefully this goes some way to answering the question,
"what exactly do you do in the Highlands?"

I could go on but you are probably getting bored by now
and anyway we're just about to have another pot of tea, eat cake and have a chat.

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To everyone who remembers their school days at
Dame Alice Owen's School,
in Islington, north London,
"Happy School Birthday" for 29th September,
hope you had cake and wore a Michaelmas daisy buttonhole.

To Sheena and Gill especially,
in true school tradition, "Lift your hearts and lift your voices ....."

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Until next month,
enjoy the colours of the coming of autumn

June and Malcolm

xxxxxxx