Paddling in the sea

The weather turned really quite nice on the Sunday afternoon. We were so lucky. Wee bit windy but very sunny. When we arrived on Saturday, it was a bit dull but thankfully it just got brighter as the weekend progressed. We had an hour to kill and went up to the beach, left our shoes on the grass in a sand dune and went paddling in the sea! It was lovely. Not too cold, unless you were in it for too long and then you kind of got a cramp in your feet. You had to keep moving. Hilary liked to push her legs in until they got stuck.

After this, we had a lovely lie down in the grass out of the reach of the wind and then it was time to go and get the ferry back to the mainland.

Another fantastic trip. And the only thing that remained constant was that it was brilliantly different once again!

A visit to the hidden community vegetable garden

We weren't going home until Sunday afternoon so we went for a visit to the hidden vegetable gardens. I WISH my camera was working for this but it wasn't. The garden was magnificent. It was in a large walled area and when you go through the door, you are standing at the top of rows of millions of vegetables. Well, thousands.

This isn't the best picture of it because it's from the side, kind of. The vegetables can be found at the back there, where the brown field bits are. I think this picture from the internet was taken in winter. It was chock-full of veg and fruit when we were there. We all snapped up some veg. Mary and Rebecca Rose got a bagful each. Jess got herself some quick vitamins in the form of tomatoes picked half an hour earlier and proceeded to munch them there and then. I got Jason a squash and some lovely onions. It was a great way to deal with a hangover.

The garden is tended by the locals who devote their spare time to it. There is an honour system in place if no-one is there. You weigh your veg and leave your money in the box. Only on Islay.

Tinker on the case. OR Tibbs on the case.

Look at this lovely wee cat having a lie-down on my suitcase. I'm not going to try and guess which cat it is. I can only tell when they are both together. Sorry Hilary. I do love your cats. I'm just rubbish at telling them apart....

Hilary enjoys her present

I brought Hilary a wee present - a draft excluder - and she loved it as you can see.

Jess and the farm dogs

Check these lovely collies. They were so affectionate. As soon as you started petting them, they sat to attention and wagged their tail. So lovely. I can't remember their names. I think they were related and one of them lives in France now.

Mary through the Looking Glass

Ardbeg prize fund

There was a raffle at the ceildih with some excellent prizes and some normal raffle type prizes. Mary Macdee won this brolly which I swapped for a minature of whisky (that the ladies gave me and Jess for helping them with the raffle draw) and a free sewing lesson (yet to be redeemed). Most of the prizes were from Ardbeg, a distillery. We tasted it, and it was really peaty. Quite mediciney, know what I mean. Still, I love the brolly.

The Killers on Accordian. Yip, you read correctly.

This needs little introduction because Jess provides it in the video. A little bit of background is required though. We were in the local hall, at a ceilidh, sitting near the front of the hall by the band. Take it away, Jess.

Bees for sale

Healthy bees, no less. The funny thing was that Hilary knew this guy; Mr Millar. We passed him the next day and Hilary waved at him. I wonder if anyone bought his bees?

Cabaret? Caelidh.

Hey hey hey! We went up the street to the local hall for a cabaret.....it so wasn't. It was a full on ceilidh. They kept mixing the music though so that there was ceilidh music and pop music, although the pop music was played by the band..... It was bizarre. But the ceilidh part was a great laugh. We had a blast and despite only remembering the most basic of steps, we had a shot at all the dances. Here we are doing one, can't remember off-hand which one. Poor Jess. She had NO clue, but held up extremely well. Mary provided the best laugh for just loving the 'birling' part. Great fun. We snuck red wine in and got nicely sozzled as the evening progressed. Lovely stuff.

Wine, pizza, back pain and some relief

After the farm, we went down to Hil's lovely cottage for some relaxation, pizza, wine, cider, ale....and a nice back massage for my poor back. Thanks Jess, that was awesome.
Then it was on to the village hall for a cabaret night...or that's what it was advertised as.

Afterbirth, caesarians and an udder full of milk

It was a real eye opener up at the farm. Us city girls had never seen the likes. There was afterbirth and blood lying in the cowshed and the biggest udders you've ever seen on a cow. Ginormous!

There had also been an emergency caesarian been carried out on one of the younger cows (she was technically too young to have children but was eh, "hijacked", shall we say, by the bull) and you can her poor scars in the photo above.

A visit to the farm

As soon as we arrived on Islay, Hilary drove us up to the farm as there was a chance that we would get to see a calf being born. I know. We were all giddy considering it and couldn't wait to get up there. It was also really nice to see Hilary's mum and dad as they were over visiting from France and staying up at the farm. Unfortunately, there wasn't any cow-in-labour action but we did see some fresh day old calves. Awwww. And some REALLY full udders. Also, Hilary said that the calves really like to suck on your finger but I think she enjoyed it more than them to be honest.....

Picnics and barbies

It was a bit windy, but we still managed to have a picnic in the sun after the horse riding. It wasn't the warmest though, so after our lovely lunch it was back in to finish our skirts.

Burgers and sweetcorn on the barbie for dinner was the business. Sunny days are the best. If only we knew in advance when they would be.

Can you feel the heat?

Around about the time that Tinker was out catching prey, I took a video of the roaring fire. Yeah, okay I had had some wine by this stage but I wanted to remember how fantastic the fire was. I can totally feel the heat when I watch this.

Making Skirts - Part II

It started to become clear that the bubble skirt was in danger of being too puffy. Erm. Crap. I went first on the 'bubbling'. Yeah, it was too puffy. It looked like a costume! I had to resize it, trim it, press the bejesus out of it and now it kind of has the semblance of a normal skirt about it. Kind of. I'm not sure if it will ever see daylight.

Hilary, wise woman that she is, decided to watch me make mine first, saw how ridiculous it looked and decided to restyle at the last minute. She chose a sensible, cute A-line number and ended up with a piece that she wore next day. Hmm, lucky her. BTW, mine has a patch at the bottom because I managed to rip it too.

My skirt may not have turned out the way I wanted, but we did have fun making them. The material and the elastic were really nice to work with.

Out chasin' burds

On Monday night, Hilary and I were sitting having some wine, enjoying the coal fire when Tinker (I think) trots in from the back garden with a present.... We think he ate it. Except this leg which we found the next day. Nice.

Is this the worst toilet in Scotland?

Seriously, I couldn't even bear to take a photo of the inside. I'd rather have went to the toilet in Trainspotting.

Cantering along the beach

Thanks to boisterous Baxter, I had kinda lost my confidence when it came to riding. I just believed that all horses were there to take the mickey out of me. Along came Fiona.

A lovely Highland pony, Fiona went a long way to restoring my confidence in horse riding. I won't hesitate to ride her again. Gemma, our lead rider, was also a great help. She reassured me through the ride, I managed to get a picture of her, despite her protestations!

Hilary took up the rear on Rhu, Fiona's son in fact.

The ride wasn't the most exhilirating I've ever had, mostly walking, but the two canters were great. The first was a great flat run on the beach and the second was a bit more terrifying, on the grass and a blind summit; I had to rely on Fiona knowing when to stop and doing so on time. The champion girl that she is, she brought it back to a walk at the right time.

Back at the farm, Hilary was reunited with her old pony, Amy, who is now in retirement. It was nice to know that she was happy with her pals and that she had been a good lead horse in her day.

We had to walk up a wee path to get to the farm and the ponies were just strolling around. We were going to stop for a picnic after the ride, but while it was sunny, it was well windy so we just headed back to the house for a garden picnic instead.

Making Skirts - Part I

I had brought my overlocker and sewing machine, some material, some 2" rainbow elastic and a vague idea that we could make cute bubble skirts for summer. Hmm. You can see the final results later, but suffice to say, we had good intentions while we were measuring, cutting and overlocking our pieces. We left the house around 1pm to go to the horses.

Our skirts would have to wait for now.