Being closed for bed and breakfasts our time is our own? We can holiday, sit back look at the view, play guitar, bird-watch, paint pictures, do some knitting, write some songs, go for walks without rushing back? – not yet……

We have however,

On the croft – started to build a dry walkway through the bog at the top of the croft, pulled a little ragwort, cut some of the dangerously broken trodden down trip hazard stock fencing.

In the garden – weeded the herb garden, cut the grass around the patches of Orchids, clover and buttercup, built a seat bench, cut some wood.

In the house – re-painted the handrails down the stairs, the skirting boards, doorframes, some doors, 2 walls, the fire place in the front room, touched up some grubby hallways, put up a few hooks, re-organized most storage areas and even been shopping.

We have now also welcomed our first family holiday guests, which include some surprise guests for our first guests (which had been kept secret for a few months with great difficulty). There has been a celebratory drink or 2, some of which seems to have sparked off a less than desirable start to the holiday festivities and a painful and prolonged recovery.

All seems to be settling now though and hopefully today will be the first of many wonderful, memorable (for all the right reasons) family holiday jollineess, with merriment abound.

The first of our good and greatly missed friends arrive tomorrow and the weather seems to be playing ball at last. Hopefully the climate will allow for the spill of people into the garden to spread the area of accommodation and dog throwing! (for want of better literacy and grammer) saves me writing ball, frisby, rope toy, rubber duck etc…. or not!

We have scheduled in our first Highland BBQ’s for this break and look forward to a warm, insect free, slightly breezy evening, all running smoothly, with a few guitars, the B’s and maybe a few neighbouring locals popping in to join us, with seals on the sandbanks, Golden Eagles flying overhead, a few Red deer on the horizon, and a fantastic sunset to top it all off, …. We will write about how it actually went down in our next installment.