Thursday, June 26, 2008

It's the end of June......


The longest day was five days ago – incredible..... The weather recently has been very mixed, with strong winds most days. We have not had clear enough skies to read our newspapers at 11.00pm, without artificial light but we may yet. But now the days begin to shorten, which to me is not a pleasant prospect….

However,it is still very much summer and the Scottish schools begin to holiday this weekend. So I’m looking forward to Catriona coming on July 7th. Very good friends are coming then, leaving from Edinburgh and staying the week – Catriona may stay longer, hopefully. Sam will be here soon too, but he will make his own way to Plockton.

Sailing has got under way with a race, sometimes two, weekly. Regatta fortnight begins in just over a month and then I hope Moira, Colin, Sean and Daniel will be here too for some days.

The garden has been taking up quite a bit of my time, with lawns and hedges growing just a bit too quickly! The veges are coming along nicely and I tried the potatoes when Jenny and Geoff Duce from Townsville visited. They were still very small but should be properly ready very soon. It was lovely to see the Duces again – Dolan, his sisters Janet and Alice and I ate crocodile, sixteen years ago at a BBQ with the Duce family! Being typical Scots, we all enjoyed the meat, till it was revealed that what we thought was chicken was not…..We are a fairly conservative nation I think. I hope Jenny and Geoff enjoyed the haggis and venison I served!

Ruah and I have started dog classes! Malinky and Teresa next door come too. Malinky has more excuses to offer than Ruah as he’s only 4 months old – though being a labradoodle, he’s already twice her size! Last night was the first class and Teresa and I were regretting signing the forms, as we crossed the Skye Bridge to Kyleakin village hall!

There were seven puppies, four of which were extremely vocal….. Malinky is quite nervous and happily peeped out at the mêlée from a safe corner for a while! Ruah was quite bamboozled by the noise which seemed to her to be being accepted by the humans and I was ready to yank her wee lead (or at least give her a real school teacher glare) if she attempted a howl, bark or squeak! In the end, Malinky did join in very graciously and I am pleased to report that he and Ruah did really well, amid the, at times, complete chaos!! Roll on next week, when we are expected to have our dogs walking to heel, sitting, lying down and coming immediately to our “excited” call – all on the lead, if necessary!

As usual, there have been such charming guests here and I’ve been very lucky to meet them. Ruah too thoroughly enjoys their company and benefits regularly by joining new friends on a walk! Thank you all for coming!

Ann