I went to see Mum and Dad in Helensburgh today. My Mum gave me a lovely glass ornament to take away. Apparently one of her friends had given it to her when her cat Heidi (who was a boy by the way) died, as they had a tradition of doing this in their family when […]

The night before last I unfortunately scared off a huge pine marten when refilling the seeds for the birds. This morning, the baby marten was back on the bird table. I stood and watched it for about ten minutes and it was stuffing the nuts down as quick as it could. They must have been […]

The wildflowers are coming out around the pond at the moment and in the water the water lilies are just coming out. Unfortunately we are having a major wasp problem in our tractor shed where we keep our lawn mower. Today I had to destroy five new nests and spray the remaining wasps with Raid. […]

This morning R noticed activity on the bird table. A young pine marten was busily munching on the nuts. As we watched him, suddenly a squirrel jumped onto the seeds below, and didn’t seem to notice the presence of the marten. The marten saw the squirrel alright though and tried to pounce on him. Both […]

We have a clematis which has woven itself through a bush near the back door. Every year it has flowers on it the size of plates. Our strawberry flowers are out now, although I don’t think I got a single berry last year as the squirrels ate them all. It is looking more promising for […]

Schrodi’s little garden of remembrance got a new addition when my Mum bought a wee Robin for it. I am sure Schrodi in life would have liked this, although I don’t think the Robin would really have appreciated him! The plants in the new garden are also coming on well – my Mum also got […]

Well Argyll is in full bloom now. This is one of the most beautiful times of the year, and as yet (touch wood) no sign of midges although it is normally around this time that they turn up. The weather is still quite fresh though which tends to keep them off a bit. I know […]

Due to the mad policy of Argyll and Bute Council for refuse collection where we only get one general bin every three weeks – our bin always weighs a ton, even though I perforce burn most of our refuse. We also have to drag the bin ourselves about quarter of a mile to where the […]

Went to Helensburgh yesterday to get my hair cut and have lunch with my Mum. The weather was idyllic and I sat out in the square for a while. Last year when I was there, two ducks had taken up residence, and news of the area had obviously spread as there are now six there. […]

Very sadly our beloved cat Schrodi has passed away. He very suddenly started to be under the weather just as I was leaving for the Camino, and while I was away he was diagnosed with liver cancer. We hoped that with drugs he might get another six months of quality life, but he was just […]