Regatta Fortnight starts on Monday, July 25th and the village will be busier than usual. As well as our usual visitors, who enjoy strolling along Harbour Street (the “locals” are good at this too - empty pavements and the road littered with people for motorists to negotiate!!), there will be optimistic sailors carrying masts, sails, etc The usual “clumps” of captains and crews will be standing discussing weather forecasts, tides and, worst of all, dissecting in great detail the race that has just been run!
It’s a fun fortnight and Moira, Colin and the four children will be here for the second week. I’ll be delighted to be chief cook and bottle washer - and baby sitter. Regatta Saturday, August 6th, is the Ragamuffin Race, when the children jump in local boats with their homemade sails. They race three times and competition is fierce!! Afterwards there is dancing outside Plockton Hotel, on the main street. Cars are allowed past at times and they can pay a fine into the Lifeboat collection tin - first time visitors arriving that afternoon must wonder where they have landed...
I had Sam and Catriona for a week earlier and Sam was so helpful - we had fresh bread daily, a stack of cardboard boxes was burned, and a beech hedge was lopped. Catriona baked, painted, sewed and introduced our guest John into the art of keeping up with a five-year-old - hide and seek, daisy chains, etc! Thank you, John! We went to the child friendly Craig Highland Farm and were attacked by two geese. Catriona and I had peck marks to proove it. We beat a hastly retreat and visited the local nursery, where we all chose a plant - much safer!!
Yarrow, Sponge and Cheque are all doing their Public Relations bit very well! Many evenings Yarrow is quite exhausted, having shown guests round the village, while Sponge waits for favoured visitors to come down in the morning. Cheque is at last “tearing” round the garden and a tether is very necessary...
The weather has improved in the last few days. Till then, the rest of the country was baking and we had very indifferent days - putting it mildly! At least the midges have not been bad at all! Now, however, the weeds are threatening to beat me - again. But the potatoes and rasps are good, while the rows of lettuce are fairly spectacular! I’m begging neighbours to help themselves and have made some batches of lettuce soup - it’s tasty, but better consumed with eyes closed as it is such a peculiar colour! The little leeks took a battering yesterday, when Cheque “broke loose” and did a dance in amongst them..... The vine has over twenty bunches and I stripped most of the leaves the other day, as the greenhouse was like a jungle. A new compost bin in the down garden is rapidly filling up and, reading the instructions, I should stir the contents soon - that’ll be fun?!
I’ll update you next month on life at Heron’s Flight - August threatens to be busy and I look forward to a visit from two friends - Irene I have known for years, but Dorothy and I go back to Primary school, which, as you all know, was not yesterday!
Best wishes, Ann.
