J and I dug out the old raised garden. This was set up in remembrance of Schrodi. J did the digging and I did the planting. After a miserable failure in planting out herbs from seed, I ordered some grown seedlings and they seem to be doing ok so far. We have a nice variety […]

This was our solar production in April. It was looking really good until the last week when it dropped for a while because the weather was exceptionally dreich. May is so far looking even better – we have used no grid electricity in the last few days. It is unfortunate that there is no getting […]

I added a new made-up meal to my repertoire today. I call this an Italian meatball bake. Take two left over quarter pounder beef burgers (or start from scratch with mince). If they are burgers, cut each into four and roll it into balls. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place a small amount […]

R and I went up what we call “The Zig Zags” this morning. This path goes from the main road up to a forestry road which runs along towards the waterfalls and ultimately joins the main path there. It was a bit cloudy but there were still brilliant views over the loch. All the wild […]

According to the BBC “excitement is building up across the UK” over this stupid, ill-advised and unnecessary phone alert test they have been having. In 56 years I have never needed to be alerted about any kind of danger. The day I let the government send alerts to my phone will be a cold one […]

Very gorgeous weather here for the last few days. The cats and I have been sitting out on the patio with Amber even venturing out on the drive on her own. Saphy is in the picture too but hiding behind a plant pot. The solar is doing amazingly. We are basically not using the grid […]

The weather has turned cold again and we have snow on the mountains today at about 400m – unusually for mid April. The solar is doing ok again though as it is reasonably bright. Over the last few days we have been almost completely grid independent and are managing to get the battery fully recharged.

Today was Easter Sunday and my father’s ninety-third birthday. He has seen the reigns of five monarchs – George V, Edward VIII, George VI, Elizabeth II and Charles III We had a nice buffet, two quizzes (both of which my brother won), and painted some Easter eggs. From left to right – J’s owl bear, […]

R and I were walking down the coach road this morning when we heard a loud honking from above. R managed to snap them although it is not a great photo as they were too high. These are probably pink-footed geese and from the direction they were heading my guess is that they were on […]

As the days lengthen, the solar is producing more and more. We are now starting to produce from around 7am (very small amounts) pushing up to either full production of about 12.5KW if it is sunny, to around 8KW if overcast during peak hours of around 11am to 5pm. Production then continues until about 6:30pm […]