63. Glad to be home

I've just returned from a trip down to the Midlands visiting family, it was lovely but exhausting. It felt so good to get back, the longer I live here I seem to find it more difficult to adapt to life elsewhere. Everywhere seems so busy and noisy, I find it exhausting. My sister and I returned on the postboat, we had lots of luggage. We'd organised a wholesale order from Suma which we called in for on the way back up. We both had a couple of 25kg sacks of  flour each so lifting that out of the car and on and off the boat was good fun. We had various other bits plus a click and collect from tesco so we were pretty loaded up. We managed to get it all across the Loch apart from the 3 big bags of compost which we'll have to collect another day. It was wonderful to see Rich waiting on the jetty on our return.

Rich had worked hard whilst I was away, he's very nearly finished the bathroom in the cabin which is rather exciting.

Autumn has arrived, we've had quite hefty winds and heavy rain and hail. It's gone colder, I've lit the fire the last couple of mornings. 

Today I cut our first sweetmeat squash, the one which we grew in the compost heap. It was over 7 lbs in weight which seems quite impressive. Just got to decide what to do with it now. I've read that as long as they're stored correctly they can last up to 6 months. I'll probably cut the kuri squashes in the polytunnel down, they're the only ones still in there. Once the last tomatoes have ripened and the courgettes have finished I'll clean it out ready for next year.

I also dug the rest of our early potatoes up, I should have done it ages ago but we don't seem to be eating as many. I got a big bucket full and there's still 2 more beds withs different varieties which will need harvesting soon. So although we haven't moved on much with the house this year we have grown a lot more veg. Fingers crossed we make amazing progress next year.