Estuary Swim and Barbecue

This has been a smashing day. We’re back in Ullapool and the weather is very balmy with beautiful blue skies and a strangely warm wind. I washed the kitchen floor in the morning and did a bit of dusting, hung out a washing, then booked The Moonwalkers show (about the moon landings, not Michael Jackson’s dance!) at the Lightroom at King’s Cross for our London trip later this month. James cut the grass and the repair company arrived to replace the garage door, which was buckled by one of the storms in January. It looks brand new now, not surprisingly. Then we had a delightful stroll into the village and had lunch sitting outside Tea by the Sea. James pointed out to me that the hills around the loch are greening up from their verdant lower slopes towards their still pale brown tops. You can see it very clearly. Very few of the mountains still have patches of snow on them. By the time we got back to the cottage l was rather overheated, so I put on my swimming costume and five minutes later I was swimming in the estuary. Oh boy, the water felt cold compared to the warm air! But once I was in, it felt absolutely wonderful and I swam about for twenty-five minutes while James sat in his deckchair on the shore and read his book on his Kindle. This was my first open water swim of 2024! Back at the cottage James constructed the barbecue and we had our first outdoors cooking of the year. Beef burgers for James (bought from the butcher who visits the village hall on a Thursday) and halloumi burgers for me, with baked potatoes and coleslaw, yummy! Both cats joined us and Tom actually sat between us in the bench for a while! We continued to sit outdoors after dinner until the evening started to cool, and then went indoors for a cup of tea.