The loch shows an infinite variety of faces as the light hits it on different days.

Lucky used to be a stray girl but has now found her new identity as a Donich Lodge boy (the vet discovered he was male when we took “her” to be spayed). He would ask you to respect his new pronouns.

The high mountain pass over the Rest and be Thankful is the main route out of the village. Here it is in winter.

Spring sky over the mountain tops.

Sunset from our front door step.

A misty moon over the mountains as darkness falls.

View over towards the loch from near the summit of Cnoc Coinnich.

A rainbow appears in a clear interval between showers.

Lochgoilhead in the distance on a clear spring morning.

As the year turns, the mountains are white on most days.

Looking across the loch from the village, clouds form a band across the hills.

Tora and Schrodi our snow Bengal brothers used to live here. RIP both of you

A dragonfly pauses for a rest by the side of our pond.

The weather here can be appalling. Here gales and torrential rain have blocked one of the village’s few roads.

The colours on the mountains fade to muted browns as autumn approaches.

The Donich Water in one of its kinder moods as it runs through our garden.

One of a myriad insects pollinating our heather.

A group of wild haggis have made a den down by the river.

Our new Highland Tiger Saphy prowling her territory. She is a demon for the wildlife with her specialized prey item being shrews. She is not adverse to mice, voles or birds however.

This is Amber aka as Bramble. She is big, black, rather podgy and a bit of a scaredy cat. We had her cloned shortly after she arrived.

Although we don’t get much snow at loch level, the higher mountains are covered for five months or so of the year

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Sep 16th, 2015

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Bute

We went to Bute today and I loved it. Rothsay is pretty, quiet and very Victorian. We had a traditional ice cream ‘pokie hat’ from ‘Zaveronis’ (there were at least three Zaveronis selling fish and chips and/or ice cream), then went to see the castle and (of course) the sensational Victorian loos. R refused to […]

Sep 16th, 2015

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Some picnic cooking

I did some baking the other night of various things to take with us on picnics. First I made some ‘Cornish’ pasties – these were definitely not authentic (I know there is a lot of controversy about carrot v. swede v. potato), so perhaps I should call them ‘Argyll’ pasties. I made a basic pastry […]

Sep 15th, 2015

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Strachur to Lochgoilhead on the Cowal Way

Today we took the lunchtime Dunoon bus to Strachur, and walked back along the Cowal way. We’ve been wanting to do this one since we moved in, but it is a bit awkward because it is really too far (9 miles each way) to easily walk out and back, and because the buses don’t run […]

Sep 14th, 2015

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Kintyre and Campbeltown

Day three of the home holiday, and unfortunately R’s dodgy knee has started playing up after our epic (1167m) ascent on Sunday. So we decided to have a rest from climbing and go out to the Kintyre peninsula. We went out on the ferry from Portavadie to Tarbert. Looks as though the new marina, restaurant […]

Sep 14th, 2015

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The Brack and Cnoc Coinnich

Day two of our ‘staycation’ and the weather dawned quite a bit better. We set out to climb The Brack (a Corbett) and Cnoc Coinnich (1m off being a Corbett – so a very big Graham). My full account of the trip is here – http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=56212 but basically we had a very hard but good […]

Sep 12th, 2015

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Beinn Vorlich in the rain

Today was the first day of our ‘staycation’ and of course after a lovely week when we were both hard at work, today the weather was filthy… It wasn’t tooooo bad when we got up at 6:30 – just a bit cloudy and dreich with a little drizzle and no wind. So we decided to […]

Sep 10th, 2015

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Cookery Challenge

Last night my sister-in-law V and her partner A came to dinner. This was a real challenge for me because V is a vegan and A is intolerant of carbohydrate and doesn’t eat sugar. Wow – what to make? I racked my brains a bit and came up with this…. Everything was home made (well […]

Sep 10th, 2015

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Fright in the Night

I was just going to sleep about 11pm yesterday when all of a sudden I heard a faint noise that sounded a bit like a cat fight. For a moment I thought it was my imagination, and then I noticed that Tora, who was sleeping on my pillow had pricked his ears up. Then it […]

Sep 7th, 2015

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Cowal Way Blues…

And further to my last post I can’t resist commenting on the woeful condition of the Cowal Way. I’m not expecting it to be a manicured path with steps and railings (in fact I would hate it to be like that), but at the moment it is hardly a path at all, and the guide […]

Sep 7th, 2015

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At last Beinn Bheula

R and I seemed fated never to make it up the mountain that dominates our skyline (Bheula to the front, Donich to the back). Last spring we set off to do it and made it to the bottom of the first assent before realizing that it was way too cold to have worn shorts. Then […]