Mid-September news

Plockton has been, and still is, extremely busy! The three eating places and the little take-away have been struggling to feed all the visitors - and booking is still really essential still, though it is well into September...

Our annual Regatta came and went, with really shocking weather meaning races were cancelled/doubled up. The culmination of the fortnight, the Ragamuffin race where the children decorate their sails and have three races close to shore, for a very much sought after cup, was shortened, brought nearer the beach and still one boat capsized - rescue boats were on red alert and all was well!

So you gather our bad weather continued - till this week. We have the best weather all week and it has transformed us all! Gardens are being spruced up - long overdue. It has, at last, been weather for shorts and T shirts. No matter that the forecast today shows a big depression scurrying north towards us!

 Sam has not been north this summer, as, after his graduation, he had little time before starting his two years hospital work - he is now used to the long hours and has had his first pay cheque ever! Daniel was back and fore, Catriona brought Sean by train and Moira was here at Regatta, again with Daniel. We unearthed the outboard engine, not used for perhaps ten years - and it started first time! Daniel had a ball! I am sorry Colin has not been here yet - I still hope he may come for a day or two, as he can tame the garden in no time.

I welcomed so many friends in the summer - old and new. Dave and Denise have popped up and down, Eric and Laurine travelled from France to be married, Linda stayed and painted, Cathy and Heather came back again, David and Dana for a fourth time, Oliever brought his son Patrick. Just recently Jette and Ulrik travelled from Denmark and at the same time Jan, Ian and Kim, whose home is Denmark Western Australia, added to the fun! Now I have Elizabeth and Uta and Ursula and this is Ursula's first visit as she lives in Bunbury,WA while her sisters only have to travel from Germany! I hope I have not missed out any friends.....

So I have had a lovely time - thank you all.

Alison in Toowoomba soldiers on and we correspond and talk regularly. This weekend is a sad one for us in Scotland. John died five years ago. Moira and I miss him so much.....

I hope that you, wherever you are, keep well, and wend your way to the north west of Scotland to see us - Ruah and me-.....
Ann

After...

My brother Ian died in hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on July 21, 2015, with Alison and Valerie at his bedside.

I was very lucky to have a month in Toowoomba with Alison and Ian, around Christmas, 2014, when Ian's health was fairly good - a time never to be forgotten.

It is only now dawning on me how very much I shall miss Ian - knowing what he and Alison were up to, where they were gallivanting to next, the weekly Face time sessions and most days emails......
He was  a very special big brother..

But Alison and I will march on side by side - 10,500 miles apart!

Ann 

July 20, 2015 - and after

This is an incomplete entry - starting so happily with my grandson's graduation, but ending with worry about my brother's health. I hope you can read it.

Ann.

A PS to the latest news.....
.
Alison's quotes this month are just so apt!  July is fast approaching, so we hope for a big change in weather up here - but the met office has us swathed in cloud while most of Britain is sweltering, with sun beating down.... 
Maybe tomorrow......  July 1st  ...onwards.....

Have a look at the latest picture of Ruah, on her own page - thanks Alison.
You see, all I do with this marvellous site www.heronsflight.org is email thoughts and photos to Australia, write the blog and see to the yearly payment.
 The hard work was and is done by Alison, my Scottish - loving Australian sister-in-law!
Best wishes
Ann

Mid Summer in Plockton

June 22, 2015

The day after the longest day, northern hemisphere, and we in Plockton still wait for summer, though, as I write in the early afternoon, the sun has come out!  But it has been the worst June in 43 years.  The east and south have fared much better, so we hope to catch up with them in the next few months!  I am very relieved that my holidays in Australia with Ian and Alison, then the Canary Islands with Moira, Catriona, Sean and Daniel are to be remembered with great pleasure, for the wonderful company and the glorious warmth!

My guests are ever cheerful and always prepared to get on with the sight-seeing, often having to imagine what the tops of the mountains really look like!  So far, a dry day is a bonus, a gentle breeze wonderful and a glimpse of the sun talked about a great deal in the evening!

 I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all to date and Ruah has loved you!  Thank you Janet and Terry for the recent photo o Ruah attempting to finish your crossword, while relaxing on your bed! And Paula and Frank for introducing me to Delaware Blue Hens!! Bob and Barry, I enjoyed chipping in on occasion to your conversations. Graeme, your marvellous painting of Ruah arrived in today’s post. I was expecting a PC size and now I have a precious 30cm X 20+ cm painting, mounted and framed.  You are all very kind…..

Hopefully I’ll get the entire garden tidied up soon.  The lawns, hedges and pot “plant pot holder” are more or less under control, but there are so many corners that do not seem to know the rule that weeds do not grow in cold weather…..lots of corners……

Moira and the family have an addition to the house animals.  Duncan is an adorable eight week old Shih-Tzu pup – black and white and ridiculously tiny compared to big gentle four year old Ryan, the black lab.  Photos will follow!

I am looking forward to having a flying visit to Edinburgh soon.  Sam passed his exams and   immediately flew off to Portugal with other happy classmates.  He graduates at the beginning of next month and hopefully will come north before beginning his first year of hospital work. We are all delighted that, at age twenty two, Sam is Doctor MacKenzie.

After my brief visit to Edinburgh, I hope to have some of the rest of the family here, off and on.  I shall also welcome guests who have booked to visit and maybe you, if you are passing? 

Best wishes

 Ann

From wind swept Plockton.....

May 12, 2015

  Photo taken last month when the big palm lost its largest branch - wind speed that night 71mph and gusting.....

At last I’ve settled back into “Plockton mode”, having had a wonderful Christmas visit to Toowoomba, enough time at home to do a bit of tidying up, then a lovely week cruising round the Canary Islands and over to North Africa, with Moira, Catriona, Sean and Daniel.

The cruise surpassed my expectations……   We travelled by night except on the way over to Africa.  So we were able to visit the islands, take a few tours, etc.  The weather was wonderful and the boys were thrilled with the little swimming pools and Jacuzzis (is that what they are called?) on board – and Daniel enjoyed the children’s activities too……  Moira slowed down and thoroughly enjoyed everything, as did the rest of us!

The eating places were excellent and the waiters made everyone’s day(s) when they sang – a lovely male voice choir.  Catriona was fifteen that week and the choir sang to her, when they brought a lovely cake to the table.

You’ll gather that it was all very good!

I have been home now for over three weeks – and my guests have been coming and going since then.  Angela and Richard Hough came first – it was a great pleasure to have them at Heron’s Flight again!  I learned from Angela to put a penny in the water with tulips and they do not fall about!  And mine lasted a full fortnight!  Thanks you, Angela and Richard!

We have had rather poor weather, to put it mildly!  Today is very windy but at least drier than the last few!  Ruari Campbell, who lives at the top of my lane, has a marvellous flowering cherry tree and each year we wait for it to get battered – as it is being today.  We have had a week to enjoy the beautiful blooms, though.

A friend Brian and companion Graeme arrived to paint the exterior of the house – well, the bad weather just got worse, so we agreed that it was useless for them to hang around.  Back they trailed to Lincoln!!!  Thank you for the effort and lovely flowers, Brian.

Exterior painting in this area is difficult, but I have two more local chaps coming to give estimates and so it will be done this summer.  That will be a relief!

At present Matt and Jenny Ralston, from Glen Isla in Perthshire, are here again for a few days – I do enjoy their company, hearing about their farm and family. And very soon Moira and Brian Lillington are coming to stay – their first visit back to Plockton since a move to western central Scotland.  I always hope for good weather for my guests  - knowing how much Moira and Brian love the not so easy hikes around, my fingers are crossed for that visit!

The family in Edinburgh is well.  Moira now has almost weekly work in London – NO, she is not an MSP!! – so is on the move regularly.  Colin holds the fort admirably.  Sam is working for finals, Catriona is nearly at the end of year S3, while Sean moves to High School in August, leaving Daniel the only one in Primary school…..

Ian, Alison and a friend from Canada fly home tomorrow, in very different directions, from Tasmania, where they have enjoyed a touring two weeks.  We, Valerie, David and I, have had brief reports.  Wifi was not always easy. 

We, this week, got an internet connection in the holiday home, 35, Harbour Street, Plockton.   Down here, we have a good signal, usually.

I hope all is well with you and that you may visit Heron’s Flight, or 35, one day….   It would be lovely to meet you.

Ann

Spring is here!

April 5th, 2015
It is over a month since I wrote - where does the time go to?
The new oil tank is in place and it all happened very smoothly. I am now getting that bit of the garden planted again – some soil and pots dotted around, till I decide what will go where. 

Moira, Catriona, Sean and Daniel are spending the school holiday abroad! They go to Tenerife at the end of the week, then board a cruise ship and visit various islands and the north coast of Morocco for seven days. All concerned are looking forward to it very much…..

My first guests arrive towards the end of April and I am really looking forward to seeing Angela and Richard Hough.

More local news before I sign off. Our little drama club won the area finals and so progress, at the end of this month, to the Scottish finals, in Orkney! Quite a few from the village have booked to go too.
I have finally sold the Grey Fergie tractor to friends in Drumbuie, just four miles from here. I am very pleased, as she will be used and looked after and I’ll see her some days, when I drive to Kyle.
There is no sign of my joiner friend, who will put up new fascia boards and down pipes where necessary…. But my painter friend is scheduled to arrive the last week of this month – to tackle the outside of Heron’s Flight. I’ll tell you about this in a later piece of news!
The village is very busy this weekend and the visitors are enjoying a lovely sunny Easter Sunday. I hope you may come to Plockton one day and say hello.
Ann

PS I was busy over the winter re-covering an old chair, a family heirloom, and have just finished it. If I say so myself, I'm really pleased at how good it now looks!

March 2, 2015

I am more than a little bamboozled and just slightly fed up!

This afternoon I spent a good bit of time writing you and the whole thing has vanished.Now I have wasted another hour trying to restore it – no success.So, I am biting the bullet and beginning again, to tell you about February and forthcoming dates about which I am excited……

There were quite a few sunny days last month and it was really good to get out in the garden, to potter around! Uta and Elizabeth, the tulips which bloomed so well last year are again inches tall, despite a lot of pretty cold weather. I have them in pots in the old boat, outside the kitchen window. At last too I got the big branch of the tall palm in the front garden, hanging loosely after the bad storm of December, removed and left to be cut up for firewood. The four arm washing line near that palm, absolutely destroyed in the same storm, when winds reached 100mph, I bundled in the car, with back seats down, and took to our nearest dump – on the Isle of Skye, outside Portree - a trip of over sixty miles…..

The Edinburgh schools had their mid-term holiday in the middle of February and Moira, Sean and Daniel came for a few days.Despite pretty dreadful weather, the boys took Ruah walks, collected the newspapers and were generally very helpful.Moira and I got through a lot of sorting out and, if she comes several times more we may even get the attic cleared!!The local drama festival took place and Moira was able to meet a lot of friends there.We were all pleased when the Plockton play was judged first and so goes on to the area finals in Wick, in the north east of Scotland – quite a journey for everyone concerned and all the props!On their last day, in horizontal rain, the boys each sawed away at the palm branch and the fire that night was stoked with palm logs – lovely!

My oil tank, in the back garden, was very full when the gentleman who maintains the Rayburn and boiler noticed some cracks at the top of the tank.So I have had the heating on at full blast to almost empty the tank, so that it can be moved.This will happen very soon now and it has to be co-ordinated carefully, so the oil supply to the Rayburn is only off for a minimal time.The 1400l tank will be delivered a day or two before the tank is emptied of the remaining inch or two or oil, lifted off the concrete plinth on which it sits, the new tank manoeuvred into place, the little oil put into the new tank – at which point the Rayburn and central heating can be re-started - the old tank taken away and the oil tanker, from Portree, organised to come and supply 1200L of oil – job done!The new double skin tank should last for many a long year……

David, the local joiner, has promised to renew the fascia boards and guttering before the end of the month – not too big a task and it will not require maintenance.At the end of next month I am having exterior painting done.I shall be very pleased when this is underway, as Dolan made all the windows and dormers and they badly need painted…..

I am also going to do something radical about the five water tanks and copper piping in Heron’s Flight and am getting ideas as to how to tackle this. We had a solar tank burst and the water met us at the foot of the stairs. That was messy! Then a copper pipe leaked upstairs and I knew nothing about it till a kitchen drawer was full of water and the wall between the kitchen and sitting room disintegrated. This repair, in 2009/2010, went on for months. I should despair if anything similar happened again…. I think there are several good options, so will hopefully get the best started after the summer.

We are now pretty up to date! I shall write again, with progress reports. But, till then –

If you are passing the road end, please pop down and perhaps stay a couple of nights (from April 22 on) or get in touchannheronsflight@btinternet.com and have a look at www.heronsflight.org.

Ruah and I should like very much to meet you! Ann

It is now late January, 2015

January 26^th, 2015

I came home, from Toowoomba, Queensland,  on January 16^th, stayed a couple of nights with Moira in Edinburgh and limped home through snow drifts and snow blower at one point on Tuesday.

 Ian, my brother had become very unwell and had a worrying spell in hospital in Brisbane – about one and a half hours from Toowoomba.  So I decided to pop over and do a bit of baking for him!  I would have gone without the baking bit!

I was there for five weeks and was delighted to leave for home, knowing that Ian is feeling/ looking/just is better, though he has some eating to do to put on a bit more weight……

Five weeks in Toowoomba is not hard to fill!  Christmas was the first excitement, when Sam, from Edinburgh, finished a placement at Westmead Hospital in Sydney and arrived for a few days – not knowing that I was there!  We had fun!  And Christmas Day was special for us, being with Alison and Ian.  The temperature was in the mid-high 20’s, a bit different to home, where there was  snow, wild weather and  damage in Plockton thanks to 100mph gusts from the south west and no power for over 48 hours too.

And there were we, languishing in the sub- tropical climate, where storms can be seen coming, happening and going in little time.  I think the weather predictions are so accurate and amazing……

Sam flew home on January 3 and began Uni. on Jan 5 – his last half year of university, hopefully.  He loved Sydney, the placement, the people and I shall be surprised if he does not return!

I pottered around; I gardened and watered and watched plants, bushes and lawns grow as I stood there; Ian took me to the shopping centre of the city and dropped me;  I got “home” by taxi and bus, the latter much more fun, as one can get dropped off at one’s house – what a smiley service that is; Ian and I watched tennis and cricket, so now I know quite a bit about the latter!

Alison all this time was out to work……  She has a long day, which will finally end when she retires at the end of March.  I know her position in the library in the University of Southern Queensland will be difficult to fill.

Ian had long since brushed me aside and was making the evening meals, which I never really got my head round – a lot of steaming goes on!– Ian does weekdays, Alison weekends – and I did as asked, which sometimes was not a lot!  Alison, how I shall miss the yoghurts!  and avocados!!  and Mangos!!!  I hope you think back with affection on the “fish cake” evenings!

I am back with seeds and bits of plants and bucket loads of hope!  When the light and weather improve I shall plant them all and hope that some at least will germinate…… Thank you also Mal and Ros at no 3 for providing seeds and names too!  Give Stella and Tilly a lot of pats from me, please…..

Then I flew home from Brisbane, Ian now feeling well enough to drive the one plus hour trip to the airport.  I was happy leaving, though I did appear so! as big brother is so much  more himself again………   

The journey was tiresome – to Dubai, London and Edinburgh, with two hour stops between flights.   I was very glad to see Moira!  So I had another celebration with family there and headed north last Tuesday.  I have spent most of the time in bed, as some bug knocked me down – very unusual.   But all is well again and tomorrow will see me busy – checking 35, listing spring cleaning jobs, hoping the plumber WILL come to sort a leaking overflow pipe, storing cases and rucksacks, etc.

Thank you Ian and Alison for having Sam and me…..  Thank you, Moira, for ferrying me when necessary.  Thank you Karen for staying in Heron’s Flight at times, especially when the real gales blew; and Mairi, thank you and your Mum for sharing Ruah all the time I was away.

This may not be my last adventure – OK, everyone?

Slightly early – Happy Birthday on the 27^th, Ian!

Slightly late – Happy New Year to everyone.  Please do visit me!

Ann

Happy New Year

Greetings to all, from Alison Hunter, Ann's sister-in-law, who looks after her website. Ann is currently staying with Ian and me in Toowoomba Australia. Enjoying the warm weather!
I expect that she'll write her normal post when she gets back to Plockton.
Alison

Ann and grandson Sam, on Christmas Eve in Toowoomba Australia

Happy Christmas!

December 8th.

At the rate 2014 has hurtled past so far, I feel I must write this year’s news now!

I have been very lucky to have many visits from my four grandchildren in school holiday and when Sam could come. He’s now in year 5 medicine in Edinburgh and just at present in Sydney, In Westmead Hospital.  He’ll be home at the beginning of the year.  Sean and Daniel came and sailed – and sailed!  They love it!  Catriona will row and canoe – and enjoys that too.  Moira only managed a week up, but we had great fun.  Colin had even less time, but he blitzed many bits of the garden – wonderful!

In February I went to Tenerife with Moira and the three younger children – that was lovely.  I came home ready to get the house prepared for the summer visitors, who came from April till late October.

Amber had gradually become blind and that was not a big problem, as she knew every corner of the downstairs and around the house.  However, her kidneys suddenly failed and we lost her quite suddenly.  Ruah (she is seven now and a very good companion – still greedy!),  searched and searched for her……..  Sean especially was very sad, as Amber had been “on loan” from him.  But he saw her a month before she died and she was well then. 

All summer I had visits from old friends and made many new ones – I really enjoyed it.  Thank you so much everyone, for coming!

In September the Referendum vote went comfortably to Scotland staying in the United Kingdom.  I wonder if the Nationalists will calm down……  I often doubt it.

Moira and I waved Sam off to Australia on September 20.  I hurried back as Elizabeth Arlsan was arriving – my last visitor.   It was fun, Elizabeth – bring Uta next year?!

October vanished as did many months this year!  Well, Ruah was clipped and looked reproachfully at me for days!  And I did do some “spring” cleaning!

The weather has, on the whole, been marvellous this year!  We did have a wet week earlier this month, but it has been generally dry and mild, though there is a nip in the air today. – I got the lawns cut ten days ago – ridiculous in mid-November! 

Finally, my brother Ian in Toowoomba and sister-in-law Alice in Nuneaton have both had spells in hospital recently   - Ian is home and progressing very well, while Alice will be home very soon I hope.   I wish, as I often do actually, that I were nearer Queensland……..  And I shall be soon!  Yes, I’m going!

I hope you have had a good year that did not speed past quite as fast as the Plockton year!  May your Christmas and New Year be special.

Best wishes, Ann