August in the garden…

First up - newsflash - these Tromboncino Squashes are looking every bit as rude as we hoped. The plants are now clambering over the top of the arches and there are fruit literally dangling down as you can see - we are basically running a sweepstake on how long before the neighbours start enquiring precisely what it is we’re growing… 😆 

As usual I’m finding significant joy in a lush and flourishing crop of Basil - with batches of home made pesto being made, frozen and transferred to the ice cream box in the freezer on a regular basis. There is something truly excellent about thinking “I might throw some pesto in there” and just being able to take a couple of dollops of it straight  from the freezer - the jar in the cupboard will remain unopened until at least midwinter at this rate! Even better, the basil seeds I’m currently sowing  were free with our garden magazine - it is something they all seem to give away on a regular basis which is most useful! I just sow a new batch every few weeks - with the first sowing being left to go to flower after a single harvest as the bees adore it. 

Talking of bees, the sunflowers remained deeply cheerful through the first part of the month - and trying to capture a photo of them without at least one of the little furry striped pollinators in view was impossible! The giant one outside the front door has been a highlight for half the street I think, we have had SO many comments about it - and a similar number all over again when we had to cut it down mid-month to allow for some work to be done to the front of the house.

First aubergine and cucumber to be harvested this year!

We are finally getting cucumbers (indeed, several turned out to be hiding, stealth fashion, in amongst the leaves) from one plant, the other sadly still seems to be reluctant to produce anything much apart from flowers. Courgettes are appearing at a steady pace which makes a nice change for courgettes - we all know that they are so often prime candidates for gluts don't we! Taking their place though are those squashes at the top of the page - we've had two which have grown to well over 3' in length, and that is a LOT of squash, trust me! 

I think we would both agree that the Aubergines have been a bit of a highlight this year - We tried growing them last year but didn't manage to get a single plant to grow on, this year we have four plants which turns out to be several more than required. Peppers are a little slower off the mark but we still have several fruit forming on our one reasonably substantial plant as you saw in my recent early morning plod around the garden. We know from experience that they take a decent time to ripen to red. Chillies are best not even discussed - we really have had very little luck with them this year, and even the lovely Bishop's Crown variety we grew last year have only netted a single plant from a number of seedlings.  

We - or rather MrEH - have made one notable garden purchase this month in the shape of an irrigation system. We have been having so many problems with the long spells of very hot weather simply keeping things even vaguely damp, and that has lead to a lot of lost fruit particularly on the tomatoes. An online pal recommended the one they use to us, and having taken a good look at the details the decision was taken to go ahead and order. It runs via solar power and using the water from a water butt, which is helpful, and with the addition of an extension kit we're able to keep quite an area moist, indeed, it's been almost too efficient for the tomatoes although they aren't complaining about sitting with their "feet" in water! It is definitely a game changer when it comes to the time spent watering too, although at this stage that is rather offset by the time taken setting it up of course. Not cheap, but so far it seems it will prove its worth. 

We're thoroughly enjoying the fact that the garden is now feeding us rather well as mentioned - as usual we've been mildly rubbish about eating the salad we've grown, but tomatoes are being consumed with almost every meal, and squash several times a week. The cucumbers we are trying to eat as close to when they are picked as possible, as they are at their best that way. The first of the Aubergines was turned into a delicious dip with some roasted tomatoes, and a later harvest has made a batch of pasta sauce based on the same idea - with the addition of plenty of black pepper, sage and some sour cream we had going spare. It was delicious! The freezer is loaded up with tubs of roasted tomatoes, roasted squash, and more of that tomato & aubergine sauce as well. 

We’ve also continued noting the various more unusual insects we come across in the garden too- the little chap above is a Southern Green Stink Bug - although I can assure you that I didn’t notice any lack of hygiene from him! Eye catching through, isn’t he! 

Robyn

The headland…

 

Inevitably we’re never at our regular holiday cottage for long before the lure of a walk round the headland draws us out. It’s one of the best things about the location - plenty of walking options straight from the door meaning we can opt to leave the car behind and just head out on foot. The short walk round the headland is just a mile starting off dropping down to this tiny secluded beach, then heading back uphill round the cliffs until we reach the natural rock arch which took us so long to find when we first stayed here. Once you know where it is it’s so obvious! 

On a clear day there is a view all the way out to St Kilda - stunning! From there we usually head back up the hill and complete the loop back to the cottage for a short stroll - there is a peninsula to be explored at low tide, and a longer return option dropping down to Hoglan Bay and then back via the road, then up the track to the cottage too it all depends how far we want to go - and sometimes how fierce the midges are!

Robyn.

Hunting for treasure…

Spot the Cowrie! 

Cowrie shells, being the particular treasure in question here! They can be found on a few of the beaches up here, with the notable one that most folk know about being the big bay by the Balranald Campsite - the information on that one used to get shared by the warden who took the RSPB guided walk of the Balranald reserve, hence the widespread knowledge among even visitors to the islands! 

Also known as Groatie Buckies, the little shells are said to bring good fortune and safe travels to the finder - maybe being at the mercy of CalMac is why hunting for them is such a popular pastime here? That said, it is fair to say that both MrEH and I have barely a coat without a small collection of them in the pocket, and we’ve had our fair share of ferry issues, so perhaps even they don’t have that much power! 

Spotted Cowrie (right) 

Invariably at the beginning of the holiday I find them easier to find than MrEH - by the end his eyes have  caught up but for the first few days I get to enjoy a bit of one-upmanship on these very specific little treasure hunts. Sweeping my eye over a stretch of beach just filled with shells of all shapes and colours and pouncing on the tiny ridged spotty beauties. Small victories! 

Robyn. 

The journey…

 

Views from the A66

When you holiday in places that take a bit of travelling to get there - not long-haul flight type travel - the sort of thing with a lot of driving, an overnight stop, then a second day of more driving or whatever, you get used to considering the journey itself as part of the Holiday. We’ve been doing this for years with the Hebrides trips, and although the proper “ahhhh” moment of shoulder-dropping relaxation only really hits when we are on board the ferry to Uist, we both certainly feel we’re on holiday from leaving home. 

Callander hostel - highly recommended!

The Hebrides trip takes around 27 hours door to door with somewhere about 12 hours of that being actual driving. We factor in a stop overnight as far up into Scotland as we are confident will work - over the years we’ve stayed at Stirling, Falkirk, and the glorious hostel at Callander pictured above which has everything you could need for a very sensible price indeed. Then the following day it is an early start and a drive up either over the Skye Bridge or to Mallaig for a ferry from there. The route at that stage depends entirely on what timings work in relation to our ferry to Uist - if heading to South Uist with a drive up through Uist from there then that means straight to Mallaig and far more slack time during the day as the boat is later. If doing the shorter hop across to North Uist then that leaves from Uig on Skye and sometimes we can do that via the short crossing from Mallaig to Skye, a drive up through the island and then onto the bigger vessel to reach our final destination port of Lochmaddy.The alternative round the road and past that well known landmark of Eileen’s Doughnut….sorry, Eilean Donan Castle feels a bit more stressful somehow, plus, who wouldn’t want to shoehorn an extra ferry in there where they can? 

M V Coruisk - the Skye ferry

Our first couple of nights on the Island have almost exclusively for years been at the wonderful Moorcroft Holidays campsite at Carinish - just a 20 minute or so drive from Lochmaddy. We’ve been coming here for years, almost from when they opened I think, initially camping, then taking a room in their well appointed bunkhouse, and finally opting for the wonderful little “Hobbit House” glamping pods which are cosy and comfortable. We’ve visited enough times now that Catriona and Iain book us in to our favourite of the three pods, high up and looking out over the loch and across to Benbecula - it is enclosed by a beautiful stone wall and is just a glorious place to sit outside with a book, so long as there’s enough breeze to deter the midges! 

M.V.Hebrides departing Uig

The ferry crossings themselves are very much a highlight of the trip - indeed we have been known to book on a ferry crossing purely to enjoy being on the water and spotting the birds, marine wildlife etc. Even the short crossing to Skye might net sightings of gannets and Kittiwakes, and once on the bigger boat across to Uist the sea is alive with Guillemots, masses more Gannets, and depending on the time of year sometimes puffins. Skuas are a strong possibility, with the Great Skua seeming to make a bit of a recovery from the devastation Bird Flu wreaked on their population. A glimpse of a fin breaching the water sends up a cry of “Dolphins” from the first spotters- although it may just as well be porpoise or even one of the whale family.

Arrival at Lochmaddy on a calm day

The mindset of enjoying the journey is a bit hackneyed, but once you switch into it travel definitely becomes more enjoyable! 

Robyn

Small pleasures.

If you read my monthly reading post then you will be aware that I do like a book exchange - the small pleasure of rifling through a selection of books to find something new to read is very real - and that it is free is the icing on the cake. We remember to return books to them as well where we can - sometimes a book I have finished during lunchtime might find its way to one near work, and the telephone box housing a veritable mini library in a village not far from home also benefits. 

Sometimes rather than being an organised exchange it is just a little collection of discarded books on a wall of course - and it was one of those which prior to our Hebrides trip last year gave us a nostalgic little delight in the shape of an I-Spy book - I bet we all remember those don’t we! There we several there - I took one (the Cars one) which I felt would be suitable for our trip and left the others for someone else - and we thoroughly enjoyed it to the extent that we have now purchased a couple more - the On A Car Journey one above, and Wildflowers. Not expensive, and just the thing to add a bit of fun to a long trip! 

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown...

 

Without question, one absolute highlight of almost any trip to the Hebrides is the stunning sunsets you so often get to see. I'm reliably informed that you get similarly stunning colours at the other end of the day too, but unsurprisingly I'm rarely up to see that! 

I've been a bit lax over the last few years on taking photos with the big camera - phone cameras are so good these days that I have tended to revert to that for standard landscape stuff. The downside of this though is no longer getting around to saving shots back to specific albums online for that year's trip, or remembering to label them so I know where they were taken. The two here were both from one of our stays at Balranald Cottage though - and I recall the evening the top one was taken clearly as we spent some time watching a White Tailed Eagle flying over the small loch next to the cottage as the light gradually dropped. 

This years mission is to make sure I make better use of the kit that costs the sort of money I need to get value from it, and also to ensure that I upload things so I can find them again! 

Robyn

Hebrides Countdown...

...or "when two worlds collide"! This was something completely different and unexpected for me during last year's trip. We were walking on the beach in Benbecula, and suddenly heard a rather familiar noise which set my aviation antenna twitching. Sure enough, next thing, an RAF A400M joined the circuit for Benbecula airport! Having circuited a couple of times it appeared to vanish, leaving us wondering where it had disappeared to - it was no longer on the tracking apps but could simply have gone out of range of the nearest relay. A lovely and helpful pal with access to more detail on such things than I have was able to tell me that it had indeed landed at Benbecula though, so having finished out walk, we decided we might as well just pop along there and see if it was visible...

Happily, not only was it, but the same pal was also able to give me a rough timeframe for its expected departure, so we settled in happily (well, in my case, MrEH may not have been so chuffed) on the dunes overlooking the end of the runway. I won't lie, it was chilly, and at times damp, but thankfully shortly before my feet went completely numb, we saw movement and she taxied out along the runway! I was able to get a nice little sequence of shots including the one above which really feels as though it nicely sums up the remoteness of the location! Oddly enough, later on during the same trip we were also overflown low and VERY fast by a couple of RAF Typhoon jets - no pictures of those though, they were simply way too quick! 

Robyn