Minke Whales

Well we did get low clouds on Saturday but it stayed dry and we went on our boat trip on the Shearwater. We could see the mountains and islands around us in monochrome beauty as we travelled out to the Summer Isles. We were lucky to see two of the Loch Broom sea eagles at one of the islands, and a company of gannets who were circling around and then suddenly turning themselves into the shape of a spear and diving very fast, vertically into the water to catch a fish.

We slowly approached a pod of about twenty dolphins who were leaping out of the water and diving back in, and they swam alongside the boat, weaving around under the water and then rising up to the surface again. The bonus feature of the trip was that on our way back to Ullapool we saw a couple of minke whales! They were quite far up the loch, near the lighthouse, and they breached the surface to breathe before arching their backs and diving down into the loch again. 

On Sunday the sun came out again and James and Russ climbed Beinn Breac while Jennifer and I strolled around the village and visited Tea by the Sea. We had a tasty dinner at the Arch Inn and then had more drinks and chat back at the cottage. Today it was time to pack up and say our farewells, after one last swim at the estuary. I was so sad to see Jenn and Russ leave, it has been a perfect six days in great company. 

I’m now in bed in Cambuslang with Flora curled up beside me. 

Blue skies at Achnahaird

I hadn’t intended to go swimming in the sea again today, but the water at Achnahaird Beach was so inviting that I couldn’t resist. In the morning Russell went to play golf and James was working in the garden, and Jennifer and I went for a coffee to the Ceilidh Place. After an early lunch we drove to Achnahaird. Jennifer and I had brought our swimming costumes but were planning just to paddle in the shallow water. However we were soon donning our swimming costumes and wading purposefully into the waves. The waves were a little bit more lively than yesterday and there was more of a breeze, perhaps heralding the cloudier weather that is forecast for tomorrow. Today however the sky remained cloudless, the water was turquoise deepening to indigo further out, and the temperature of the sea was refreshing rather than cold. We had a lovely swim.

We continued to Lochinver through stunning scenery; lochans full of lilies, hills covered with heather, mountains in all shades of purple and grey, little green islands on bright blue lochs. We bought the usual pies at the pie shop before our dinner at Peet’s. We were all very hungry but luckily the food was both tasty and plentiful. Another excellent day. 

Swimming at Gairloch

Jennifer and Russell have arrived in Ullapool to spend a few days with us. It’s great to see them. It was also great to see Alison and Hugh who came for lunch yesterday. They arrived in Hugh’s fabulous new Jaguar car. I’m not at all knowledgable about cars but even I could see that this one was very special; the design was so sleek and elegant, in a gorgeous metallic black. While we were looking at the car, the postman came past and complimented Hugh on it, as did one of our neighbours later. It’s a beauty. 

Jennifer and Russell arrived in the afternoon and the six of us had coffee, they have all met before at our party and were soon chatting like old friends.

Today Russ fancied trying out the wee golf course at Gairloch, which had been recommended to him by a friend. So we set off to Gairloch, it was a lovely day for a drive, warm and sunny with not a cloud in the sky. Russ got started on his game of golf while Jenn and I had a coffee sitting outside the club house before heading down to the beach just below the golf course. Wow! It was spectacular! Pale yellow sand leading down to a turquoise sea. We had a lovely swim together and were in the water for ages. Russ phoned us when he was finished his game and treated us to a late lunch back at the club house. Back at the cottage we had ice lollies in the sunshine and I made a warm smoked trout salad for tea, followed by a convivial evening.

It was a fantastic day. 

Sparkling Water

Today has been a beautiful day. It started off with the cloud low over Loch Broom in the morning, but it rose until there were just wisps of cloud around the top of the mountains. The blue sky came through and it got warmer and warmer. I went for a swim in the leisure centre in the morning and sat outside on the bench for most of the afternoon while James cut down another gorse bush; they’re nearly all gone now and the garden looks so much better, more open to the view. The rowan trees are covered with bright red berries and the grass looked very green in the sunshine, with the blue loch sparkling beyond. Beautiful. 

Jamie has now finished his job in Dunedin, with his new job in Wellington to start at the end of the month. He decided to go for a four day walk by himself on a wilderness trail near the Routeburn trail, and then planned to meet up with friends to go skiing near Queenstown. However when he arrived back at his car after his hike he found that someone had left a note on his windscreen to tell him that New Zealand had gone into National Lockdown! This is because there have been some new cases of Covid. So instead of going on his ski holiday, he had to drive to Picton via Christchurch and take the ferry to Wellington, where he is now. New Zealand has very much isolated itself for the last 18 months, which has been very successful, but their vaccination programme is not very far on, so when occasional cases of Covid do get through (this time it was from someone who developed it after their quarantine period) the government tends to panic. But the trouble is, their expectations are to have almost no deaths from Covid - I think they have only had 27 deaths in the last 18 months - but if they stop isolating the country from the rest of the world, there will be more cases of Covid and therefore some deaths, and I think that the New Zealanders are not psychologically prepared for that. So how are they going to move forward? It seems that there is no ideal solution to dealing with Covid. 

The Fence is Painted!

We have finally finished painting the fence around our garden in Ullapool. This is a triumph because we have been working on it since May during our trips north, when the weather has permitted. It is a surprisingly long fence and we have given it two coats on both sides. James has done much more of the painting than me because he is much faster, and Alasdair also did a huge amount in July. So yesterday afternoon and this morning we tackled the last couple of sections and it is done!

It was a lovely morning so after we finished the painting we went to Ardmair Beach where I went in for a lovely swim while James read his book. I decided to swim to some interesting rocks at the end of the bay and didn’t realise how far I had gone until James appeared striding along the beach at speed and shouting that I should come out of the water before I got hypothermia! It turned out that I was quite far out from the shore and very hard to see against the background of the rocks and James had been a bit worried. In fact I was fine and felt exhilarated by my swim. 

In sad news, Jennifer’s wee Westie Angus has died at the age of nearly sixteen. He was such a good dog, very sweet-natured and part of their family for a long time. 

Cinema and a wee Covid Update

It has been a productive Saturday; James finished painting the fence and I got up to date on admin and did some writing - I love my new wee laptop. 

After being around the house all day we decided to go to the cinema in the evening. We were at the GFT last week for the Sparks documentary so it wasn’t quite our first trip to the cinema since the advent of Covid, but it still felt like a novelty as we settled into our recliner seats at the Odeon in East Kilbride with drinks and popcorn. Our film was called Free Guy, which we chose because it seemed the most interesting of the films currently on offer. And indeed it was a winner! It stars Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer (from Killing Eve - the first time she has appeared in a Hollywood leading role). It’s about a guy who finds out that he is a background character in a computer game; not one of the heroes, just one of the civilians who tend to get blown up or shot as collateral damage. And so he wants to change his life - there’s a good deal more to it than that but I don’t want to give too much away. Taiko Waititi is in it too and there are some very amusing cameos by some well known actors. It owes much to The Truman Show, Groundhog Day, and The Matrix among others, and it is great fun. We both enjoyed it very much.

A wee Covid update; the vaccinations seem to be working because, even though people are still getting Covid due to new variants, the number of deaths remains low. A while ago, we booked a holiday to Italy during the second half of September, realising that it might be cancelled, but hoping that with dropping numbers of Covid cases it might go ahead. It’s still not clear whether we will be able to go, and we are being philosophical about it. Our flights from and back to Glasgow were cancelled last week but we were offered the chance to book flights from Manchester instead, which we did. Currently the ever changing rules indicate that we would need to quarantine for five days upon arrival in Italy, but not on our return to the UK. Presumably if that’s the case we would have to pay to go to an Italian quarantine hotel for nearly the first half of our holiday, in which case we might decide to cancel or postpone. However the holiday is still more than a month away so the rules may change in the mean time - for better or for worse! We shall see. And as for what Covid does next, who knows? I did expect the second wave last winter in the UK but I didn’t think that it would last so long or that so many more people would die. Now there are breakouts around the world, with New Zealand still locked down for at least the rest of 2021. It means that we won’t see Jamie until next year, and it will probably end up being more than two years since James, Ally, Davie or I last saw him, which makes me very sad. At least we know that he’s safe and we phone him or video call him frequently, but it’s not the same as seeing him in person. 

The government says that Covid will not go away completely in the foreseeable future, but I do hope that it can be controlled like flu through vaccinations. Over 60s (and perhaps over 50s?) in the UK are going to get booster vaccinations in the autumn. I hope that we can continue to get back to this newly restored normality of being able to visit people in their homes or go to the cinema, which we used to take for granted but which now feels so precious. 

Monsoon Season

It has continued to rain on and off this last week, really heavy rain at times. As I have already mentioned, last Saturday we had a lovely lunch with Davie in Newport (on the Tay) sitting outside a restaurant in sultry weather that was almost too hot - but by the time we arrived back in Cambuslang the rain was coming down like stair rods (as my Dad used to say.)

Then on Monday I was having brunch with Hilary at the Bramble Café (which has now moved to Shawlands opposite Queens Park). When we arrived the weather was a bit drizzly, however when we were sitting all cosy and I was munching my French toast with bananas and caramel, the heavens opened and the rain was bouncing off the street. It was spectacular and Hilary compared it to a monsoon, although she also pointed out that a real monsoon continues like that for days or weeks whereas our downpour only lasted about twenty minutes. 

And James and I had a spa afternoon on Wednesday at David Lloyd and there was a heavy downpour while we were in the outdoor jacuzzi. It was lovely to be in the very warm water with the rain splashing onto our heads! 

A rainy day in August

It has been a rainy, and at times thundery, day. However despite that it has been a good wee day. I went for a swim in the morning so it didn’t matter that it was raining, in fact I rather enjoy swimming in the rain with the raindrops splashing into the pool. Back at home we had lunch then watched the final two episodes of Deutschland 89; it felt strange but pleasant to watch television in the afternoon as the rain battered down outside. We have really enjoyed the three Deutschland series (83, 86 and 89) and although I felt that the last series was a bit chaotic, it all came together for a satisfying ending. We watched quite a lot of episodes in the evenings in Cirencester in July so I associate watching the programme with heat rather than rain! 

However Tom and Flora were not impressed with the weather and they stared sadly out of the window at the rain, occasionally going out for a short time and then coming back in with wet fur. After a loud clap of thunder Flora came running indoors and jumped up onto my lap where she curled up and purred loudly. 

The Baby Whisperer

I met a beautiful baby yesterday; Carolyn’s baby Harris. What a gorgeous wee boy he is, only five weeks old and very sweet. I was holding him and he started to cry a little bit and all my baby skills came back to me and I rocked him gently and talked to him and he fell asleep; the restaurant manager at the Three Craws called me “The Baby Whisperer” which pleased me mightily!

We have been having a nice summery time; I have been at the David Lloyd Centre nearly every day. The weather is quite changeable so sometimes at the poolside it’s like being in the south of France, and then five minutes later it starts to rain and everyone on the sun loungers runs for cover! 

On Wednesday evening James, Ally and I went to the GFT to see the Sparks Brothers Documentary. It was thoroughly socially distanced, with only every second row populated and large gaps between family groups, so it was a noticeably different experience from pre Covid days. However it was really great to be back at a cinema after eighteen months, I have missed our cinema outings.

Today James and I went through to Dundee to return Davie’s bike (borrowed by Ally), and the three of us went for lunch to a restaurant in Newport called the Boat Brae, which is across the Tay Bridge from Dundee. When we arrived the weather was a bit grey and it looked like rain, but then the sun came out and it got very warm. We sat outside on the terrace in the sunshine, overlooking the water with views across to Dundee, and had a very tasty lunch, went for a walk along to the pier, and then back to the restaurant for another drink. It was an absolutely lovely afternoon. By the time we got back to Cambuslang the forecast thunderstorm had arrived complete with torrential rain - such a contrast to the warm sunshine earlier. 

Raasay Distillery Tour

After Ally’s last Munro on Skye Cornel went home and the rest of us had a pleasant and relaxing week. Cat had arranged a distillery tour on Raasay, so that we could see the boys’ joint present from us (for their 30th birthdays) of a barrel of whisky, peat smoked in a Rye barrel. It was James' idea and the boys are all thrilled. The tour was very impressive as was the distillery; very clean and new with its tasting room in a gazebo so that it meets Covid restrictions. We went to the warehouses to see the Anderson barrel but it was still up high on top of a stack of barrels, it hadn’t been brought down for us. This actually didn’t bother us at all - we could see it fine and anyway we are planning another tour of the distillery when Jamie is finally allowed to visit Scotland again. However the tour guide, whose job title is in fact “ambassador” was so dismayed by the mistake that he gave us not one but two bottles of whisky as an apology! Plus we were given our tasting glasses to take home an a couple of small sample bottles of a whisky similar to ours. Raasay itself is a very attractive, quiet island just twenty minutes from Skye by a small ferry; I would like to visit it again and maybe take our bikes to go cycling there. 

We then travelled to Ullapool for the next few days, where I swam in the estuary with David and Chanel. It was the first time this year that I have swum there, although I have swum outdoors in several other locations in 2021; Ardmair, Achnahaird, the River Windrush, the River Thames, and of course the Fairy Pools on Skye. I’m not sure if the outdoor pool at the David Lloyd Centre counts! As it happens that’s where I am now, blogging after my 1 km swim.