Well, we're still in lock down so not much has changed although it has been easier to get a click and collect order from Tesco, only from Inverness though. There haven't been any available slots at Dundonnell. This makes it a long day out but we're only doing a shop once every 3 weeks so it's not so bad. It also gives us chance to buy compost for the polytunnel. All this has made us determined to try and grow more. It would be great in winter not to have to go out shopping.
It's so light here at this time of year, sunrise is 4.20 am and sunset is 10.20 pm. It's hard to remember what it feels like in winter when it starts getting dark halfway through the afternoon. The weather is very changeable at the moment, we've had some gloriously sunny days but have also had some cloudy rainy ones. The midges have made a comeback as have the ticks. Rich managed to get one in his leg a few days ago. We bought one of the cards for removing them but Rich got impatient and only got half of it out. I tried with a pair of tweezers but still didn't manage to get all of it. They're very difficult to remove once they've got a tight grip on you.
My sunflowers are planted out in the garden, all 17 of them. Although one fell over and I don't think it's going to recover. The garden is in full bloom, the lupins, geums, daisies, marigolds and forget-me-nots are all in flower. The field at the side of the house looks beautiful, Rich has just mown a path through it to walk on as we love it as a wild flower meadow. It's full of buttercups, yellow rattle, vetch, clover, plantain, nettle, sorrel, hawkweed and wild orchids.
We've both been reading a book called Elegant simplicity. It's all about simplifying your life. It's made quite an impact on us so we decided to have a good sort out. I cleared the kitchen cupboards and drawers out, got rid of some stuff and tried to make the items we use often more accessible. It is difficult storage wise living in one room. We've only 2 kitchen cupboards, one for food and the other for everything else. The area just outside our room which is a bit of a dumping ground has been completely reorganised. We went through everything, a lot of it was here when we arrived. We got rid of what we're not going to use and found a place for everything else. We're just waiting for a couple of metal shelf units which we'll pick up from Inverness. I also found the electric kettle which I bought not long after moving here. It's a camping one so is low wattage but still proved too much for our electrics. However we've fitted the solar panels since then so have much more power coming in. It's really good to be able to use electricity instead of bottled gas.
We're still getting regular visits from the female blackbird. I'd left the door slightly open and she came in. She then panicked and knocked everything over on the windowsill, that disturbed Tabby who was asleep on the bed. I made sure Tabby stayed where she was and Rich managed to get hold of Mrs Blackbird and put her outside. She's another nest in the middle of a gorse bush in the croft. We saw her fly in there a couple of evenings ago. As she flew in we could see 3 eager chicks waiting to be fed. So life goes on even in these strange times.
Yesterday we headed off to Inverness for our shopping trip. I don't know if its because we're getting older but it seems to get more tiring. We got up early to catch the tide, the boat is so much easier the nearer it is to high tide. We took our rubbish, recycling etc. Because we've had a sort out there was more than usual. It was a calmish crossing, we had to pull the boat up a bit on the other side as high tide was a few hours away. We unloaded the boat, got rid of our rubbish and recycling apart from glass and fabrics, we stopped at Dundonnell for those. Then off to Inverness, a few DIY places are starting to open so Rich took full advantage of our trip out. Firstly we went to B&Q for 2 x 25 kg of compost and a couple of bags of sand and cement then to Wykes for 40 bricks which we tried to distribute evenly around the vehicle. Next stop was Toolstation for clips and expandable foam followed by Screwfix for the metal shelf units then finally Tesco and Highland wholefoods followed by a quick respite while we ate our packed lunch and had a cup of tea from the flask I brought with us. We did find a nice place to stop though.
Then back to the jetty to unload everything from the car, get it into the boat and then out the boat onto the jetty over the other side ready to load into the trailer once we'd pulled the boat up. We are much better at that now though and haven't had to resort to the winch for ages. If we both sit well back on the quad it manages to pull the boat up beautifully. As we arrived back on the quad, Tabby came running down the track to meet us and the female blackbird was waiting for us. We'd been gone a while and I think they were both hungry.
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