Wind and gutters

It’s blowing a hoolie outside the cottage here in Ullapool but it’s nice and snug inside! We have been enjoying our enforced time indoors, spending time with the kitties, reading, chatting and going for short walks when the weather allows. 

Today James decided that he wanted to clear the gutters at the back of the house because they were full of leaves. I suspect that a large part of his enthusiasm for this task was because he has just taken delivery of a new super duper folding ladder, so he wanted to test it out. So out we went into the wind and I held the bottom of the ladder while James climbed up and scooped out the leaves into a bucket. It was raining, but it was so windy that the rain was blown away most of the time and hardly fell on us. We moved the ladder along the back of the house until the gutter was all clear; when we reached the living room window Tom was very surprised to see us and the ladder outside! 

Flora refuses to leave the house at all now, but Tom is very happy to slope off into the wind, especially in the evening. He doesn’t venture too far, but does leave the garden and goes down the path a bit, which is quite brave. Hopefully Flora will be more interested in going outside when the weather is less wild, for the moment there’s no point in trying to persuade her because she just runs back into the house and I don’t want to put her off going outside completely!