Driveway no more

My Dad’s cousin Janet will be ninety years old on 7th November. We will be in New Zealand at the time, so I took Janet out for lunch today to the Homegrown Garden Centre in Gartcosh as a very early celebration. I like her very much; she is an amazing lady and I love listening to her stories about the Russell family in the old days in Coatbridge. She talks about the present as well; she is very well read and intelligent, has a great sense of humour, and has an active social life with friends and family. \

On the way home I visited my Mum and Dad’s memorial bench and then walked past our old house in Grenville Drive. Every time I have walked past over many years, I have paused to admire the concrete slab across the bottom of the driveway, mixed and laid down so neatly by my Dad sixty years ago. It was still there in the spring, but today it was gone; a new driveway has been laid right down to the street and my Dad’s work is no more. I felt a bit sad, but I suppose that it was always inevitable that it would be replaced one day, and it lasted for a long time. 

Goodbye to Maggie and Margaret

Back in good old Scotland, it has been mostly sunny but noticeably cooler than France was last week. It is most definitely autumn now, which is not surprising since we are nearly at the end of September. We have been enjoying being around the house in the company of the kitties. Suzy came round for coffee on Wednesday and I had lunch with Philippa on Thursday. I'm excited that she will be moving back to Scotland next year, as will Margaret D. On Friday Lesley and Chris came round for lunch. I made a Greek lunch in an effort to recapture the summer! Lots of tzatziki, pitta breads, Greek salad and lamb kebabs, followed by baklava. We had a nice chat; they are expecting grandchild number five next March.

In the news, Israel has been bombing Hezbollah in Beirut, after knocking out their communications last week by making their pagers and walkie-talkies literally explode by remote control. Dame Maggie Smith died yesterday, a tremendous actress. I never saw her on stage but she was always excellent in the many films and television series in which she acted. And sadly I just heard this afternoon that another Margaret has died; Margaret Eadie, Grandma's cousin Bobby Eadie's wife. She was a lovely lady, always kind to Grandma, who had been suffering from dementia for a long time. 

Saint-Émilion

Another warm, sunny day in Lot-et-Garonne and we started with breakfast in the garden overlooking the stunning view of sloping fields and trees. Then Russ and James successfully connected the electronics on the pool heater, so Rob will be able to come back and connect the pipes and screw it down. It should all work although Russ and James think that an electrician will be required to finish the job neatly. Meanwhile Jenn and I relaxed by the pool and chatted. 
Jenn and Russ suggested that we all visit Saint-Émilion on our way to Bordeaux Airport. It’s about an hour west of their house. We drove through lots of wine countryside on the way, vineyards everywhere! James noticed that we would be passing very close to La Clarière, the vineyard belonging to Laithwaites wine distributors. It has self-catering accommodation which is often advertised by Laithwaites, and it looks beautiful in their brochures. Jenn and Russ obligingly drove us there and it turned out to be an excellent experience for all of us. We were given an exclusive tour (because there was nobody else there!) by the charming and knowledgeable Brigitte. She showed us the vineyards and let us taste the different types of grapes, which were hanging heavy on the vines because they are going to start harvesting them on Monday. Tony Laithwaite himself will be arriving on Monday to supervise! Brigitte then showed us the different types of barrels and containers used to ferment the wine, explained the process, and we had a tasting session of four types of wine. Brigitte was great fun and we all enjoyed ourselves. 
We were only 7 km from Saint-Émilion so we drove there for a very late lunch in one of the many wine-tasting restaurants. Saint-Émilion is absolutely stunning. It’s a medieval city surrounded by vineyards, 35 km east of Bordeaux. Saint-Émilion is one of the principal red wine areas of Bordeaux, and has lots of cafés, restaurants, wine shops and beautiful Romanesque churches with cloisters, all along its steep and narrow streets. We walked all around the tiny city, taking in the quaint and picturesque views, and later had coffee and crêpes sitting in a gorgeous square beside a cathedral which was partly built right into the stone of the hill. 
Russ and Jenn then very kindly drove us right to the airport, where we said our farewells. What a fantastic holiday it has been. 

Château de Duras

Jennifer was working this morning so Russ, James and I went to Duras. It was market day, although a much smaller market than that at Issigeac yesterday. We had a wander round the stalls and then went into the castle, just across from the market place, which is absolutely fascinating and very cute. It was first built during the 12th century and has been extensively rebuilt since then, with a precarious history of arranging alliances with successive English and French kingdoms during the Hundred Years War. It was ransacked during the French Revolution and fell into increasing disrepair until it was bought by the people of Duras in 1969 and has been being restored ever since. We had such a pleasant and interesting visit, it was very quiet and in many rooms there were traditional children’s games which we tried enthusiastically. Back in the town square the market was finished and we had lunch in a wee café before heading back to meet Jennifer at the house. In the afternoon I had a swim in the pool and we had a relaxing time. It was very warm in the sunshine. It came on to rain while I was in the pool but that bothered me not a jot because I was wet already! 
We had dinner in nearby Seyches in a very traditional French restaurant called Le Vieux Porche. The meal starts with an old-fashioned tureen of hearty potage placed on the table, followed by a limited choice of starters, mains, then cheese or desserts. The food is absolutely delicious and very filling! It is also extremely reasonably priced; 17 euros per person for a four course meal including a carafe of red wine. I already want to go back there! 

Dordogne road trip

The weather was predicted to be mixed today, so Jenn and Russ suggested that we go for a run in the car and visit some more of the area. Our first stop was Issigeac, a beautiful bastide village with a market which extends through several squares. A bastide village is a medieval village built for commerce, with a grid layout of streets and a central marketplace. Fortifications in the form of walls were usually added later. We had breakfast in a café in a wee interior design shop that Jenn and Russ know; coffee and pastries. After a browse around the market we continued on to our next stop, the gorgeous Limeuil, which is built on a steep little hill and has a small castle at the top with gardens overlooking the countryside around. Excitingly (for me and Jennifer) the well in the gardens was the scene of a murder in one of Martin Walker’s Bruno detective books which are set in the Dordogne! We had drinks in the café at the foot of the hill, which overlooks the confluence of the Dordogne and Vézère Rivers. Such a beautiful place. 
In our way to Bergerac Russ stopped the car near Tremolat at a viewpoint which overlooked a huge curve in the River Dordogne. Gorgeous. Our last stop was the pretty town of Bergerac. One of the first things we saw as we walked into the historic centre was a statue of a man with a very large nose - yes it was famous local boy Cyrano de Bergerac! We had arrived just at the point in the afternoon when all the restaurants were shut, but as we wandered around looking at the medieval buildings and the river, Jennifer noticed a wine tasting place in an old convent, which served platters of local charcuterie and cheeses served with wee toasts. So in we went and looked at the wines and had a couple of platters of food. It was a beautiful setting and we had a great chat. 
Back at the house, Jenn and I went for a swim in the pool and Jenn rescued a frog which was trying to climb out. After a tasty dinner made by Jenn and Russ we sat outside and looked at the stars. 

An afternoon by the pool

I had such a good sleep and woke refreshed in the morning to another sunny day. There was a tractor ploughing the field next to the house, followed by a host of white egrets. After breakfast en plein air, Rob and his wife Lisa arrived round to install a heater for the swimming pool. It doesn’t really need heated just now but this will extend the use of the pool into October and November. This took a while, and Russ and James were willing apprentices and helped to get it all set up. The next step is to get an electrician to finish connecting it to the electricity supply. Meanwhile Jenn and I went for a swim in the pool which was extremely pleasant. Jenn and Russ have an automatic pool cleaning device which trundles around the bottom and sides of the pool very efficiently to clean up any debris; the make is Dolphin so they call it Dolph! At one point I was standing in the shallow end and Dolph approached me and nibbled on my foot!

Jenn and Russ’s attractive traditional house is very near the tiny village of Puysserampion which is in the Lot-et-Garonne department near the border with Dordogne. They are also near lots of other villages such as Seyches, Duras and Miramont-de-Guyenne. They are also near Eymet in Dordogne. Their large grassy garden has lots of trees including walnut trees and fig trees. It is idyllic and it was lovely to be able to swim outdoors and then dry off beside the pool in late September.

On the way for dinner Jenn and Russ took us to a quaint and tiny wee hamlet called Monteton which overlooks the River Dropt, a tributary of the Garonne. There were only about twenty houses and a large church; like many villages in the area it was originally medieval and had a covered marketplace. The views over the verdant valley were gorgeous. Then on we went to the larger and also beautiful village of Duras where we had drinks outside a café. James and Russell had bright pink raspberry flavoured beer which was being promoted as the “beer of the moment.” They thought that perhaps the café were trying to get rid of it! After a lovely dinner in a tiny restaurant we returned to the house for more drinks and chat. 

La Maison de Jenn et Russ

We had breakfast sitting outside a wee café beside Bordeaux train station, and caught our half past ten train for the fifty minute journey to Marmande in Lot-et-Garonne. Jennifer collected us by car and soon we arrived at her beautiful house in the countryside. It is absolutely fantastic, a dream house with a swimming pool, surrounded by fields. So rural and yet near lots of gorgeous villages. They bought it at the end of last year and they got the keys in the spring. We were greeted by Russ and we all had lunch sitting outside the house before settling into our bedroom which even has an en suite bathroom. Inside the house has flagstones in the hall and wooden floors in all the rooms and it is cool and airy. In the afternoon Jenn and Russ took us for a run in the car to the absolutely stunning medieval village of Villeréal where we strolled about and had coffee. I went into a pharmacy and bought some cold remedy for the slight but annoying cold that I have developed. Then we drove the short distance to Lac Lougratte which is a swimming lake; Jenn, Russ and I had a swim while James walked around the lake twice to stretch his legs. The water seemed a little chilly at first but actually it was perfect and much warmer than the sea! The setting was idyllic with a little swimming platform that we could climb up on. And in the evening we went to another delightful village, Eymet, where we had a delicious dinner in the Restaurant Italien des Arcades. The food really was first class. Back at the house we relaxed beside the wood burning stove before heading to bed exhausted but happy. 

Cité de Vin

We had breakfast this morning at a café in the same wee square where we had dinner last night; deux formules petit déjeuner which included orange juice, a baguette with butter and jam, and a large coffee. Energised, we walked into the centre of town and spontaneously decided to go on the tourist bus tour. This turned out to be an excellent decision; we sat on the open air top deck and the tour took us past many of the landmarks that we already knew and also plenty of new ones, with an interesting commentary via headphones. I particularly liked the Mascarons below the upper storey windows on the blond stone buildings, wee carved stone faces, all individual. These used to be meant to ward off evil but later became purely decorative. Lovely. 
The bus also ran up one side of the river from the Pont de Pierre, crossed the modern Pont Jacques Chaban Delmas and came back down the other side of the river, so we saw some of the further out places, including the Cité de Vin, of which more shortly.
We had a light lunch back in the centre of town before strolling to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, a lovely Art Gallery with a few gems. A portrait of a young man, L'Homme à la main sur le cœur, 1632, by Frans Hals stood out for me; his face was so expressive and lifelike. La Danse des Noces by Jan Brueghel de Velours in about 1600 was fascinating; there was so much going on at that wedding! Another one I liked was Ophelia by Jules-Elie Delaunay painted in 1882, she has such a beautiful face. And there were lots more; we both enjoyed our visit and then sat outside in the gorgeous gardens which had an autumnal feel with quite a few crispy golden leaves on the ground. But it was still very hot and there were lots of clusters of pale blue Cape Leadwort flowers on large bushes around the park. 
Our next destination was the Cité de Vin, a large modern museum of wine beside the river. We expertly jumped on a tram to get there. James had some doubts about whether it would be any good or just a tourist trap, but in fact it was fantastic. First we were sent to the extremely comprehensive museum of wine on the second floor, equipped with our audio headphones. It covered absolutely everything about wine, from the locations where the grapes are grown, to the types of grape, the wine-making process, how to quaff one’s wine correctly, and an impressive virtual display about the colours of wine. Then it was time for the real wine tasting on the top floor, where you could take your wine out to a balcony overlooking the city. Our tickets entitled us to a glass of wine each; needless to say this meant that James could choose two! 
Back in the centre of town we had dinner sitting outside at a very busy but friendly restaurant called L’Ombrière, in another pretty square. The only disadvantage was that at some points we were surrounded by smokers! As it got dark the waiters switched on the outside lights and it was all rather beautiful. We passed the big clock tower again in our way back to the hotel, and noticed its sign, translated from the Latin;
J'appelle aux armes
J'annonce les jours
Je donne les heures
Je chasse l'orage
Je sonne les fêtes
Je crie a l’incendie
This particular bell was not the first on the site, it was erected in 1775, and like its predecessors it was the bearer of all good and bad tidings to the people of Bordeaux. 

Bonjour Bordeaux

We got up very early today, at 4.30 a.m. in order to drive through to Edinburgh and catch the 7.20 a.m. flight to Bordeaux. We went to bed fairly early and I got about seven hours sleep so I felt quite perky. All went smoothly and we caught a tram all the way into the centre of Bordeaux and after a bit of footering we successfully caught another tram which stopped just outside our wee hotel near the station. Soon we sallied forth into the very warm streets of the town and we liked what we saw; remnants of the city walls, narrow old streets, lots of cafés and restaurants. We walked to the Cathédrale de Saint André and had lunch sitting outside the delightful Café de France just across the square beside it: the personable waiter very much reminded me of Ragnar from the television series Vikings. With our coffees we were given two little Canelés de Bordeaux which are caramelised fluted cakes with a custard centre - yummy! Then we went in to the cathedral to see the stained glass and statues and paintings, we also looked at the flying buttresses, carvings and gargoyles on the outside - all very impressive although quite a lot has needed to be restored over the centuries so there are older parts and newer parts. In the original cathedral here, my favourite Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, married Louise VII of France when she was only thirteen years old. Off we went again through the hot afternoon to the Musée de Bordeaux which is about the history of the city and its surrounding area. It’s a good museum and we moved chronologically from pre-historic times and cave paintings, through the Roman era to the Medieval city and beyond. There was more to see but we felt sated by history so we headed back to the hotel, purchasing some wine for Jenn and Russ on the way. We decided to have dinner sitting outside one of the small restaurants near our hotel, and it turned out to be really good with a very friendly head waiter who told us that he is from Bangkok and the chef (to whom he introduced us) is from Columbia. We complimented the chef on his delicious food. We stayed sitting under the walnut trees for ages in the warm evening, chatting about all sorts of things. It has been such a good day. 

Degas at the Burrell

I have had a pleasant few days of housework, admin, packing and even a bit of socialising. And spending time with the cats of course. On Saturday I was back in Edinburgh, this time with James, Davie and Chanel, to see John Bishop at the Usher Hall. John Bishop is a Liverpudlian comedian who has been popular on television doing stand up and panel shows for many years, and in his fifties he is still at the top of his game, telling the audience rambling and amusing anecdotes about his life. He is very funny and the audience loved him. We had dinner at One Square, in the Sheraton Hotel, beforehand, mainly because it’s straight across the road from the Usher Hall. We had a good meal and chat with Davie and Chanel. Just as we were leaving the restaurant who came walking out of the hotel but John Bishop himself, he must be staying there. At the end of the evening we got the slow train to Uddingston with Davie and Chanel, who kindly gave us a lift home because their car was at the station. It was a really good evening. 
I visited Carolyn and her wee boys again on Monday; Harris is very sweet and funny and Arran is now ten weeks old, he is so fascinated by his older brother! And I had a very pleasant dinner and chat with Caroline N later on. Today Christine and I went to see the Degas exhibition at the Burrell Collection. We had lunch in the café first. The exhibit was very interesting, Burrell was the first serious collector in Scotland of Degas’ works. There were lots of paintings to look at; I liked the way that Degas captured the natural movement of the figures, especially the ballet dancers. We finished the afternoon back in the café with coffee and cake. 

Lunching

Yesterday I met up with Helen, Wendy, Maggie and Libby for one of our Ladies’ lunches. I so enjoy these meet ups with my school chums; I can hardly believe that we left school forty-five years ago! We sat at our usual table in Zizzi’s and Blanca was our waitress again, she is so pleasant and friendly. We had lots to catch up on; some serious life issues and also lots of good news, and we had an afternoon of chat and laughter. 

It’s nice to be back in Cambuslang and today I enjoyed pottering around the house with the very companionable Tom and Flora, who turned up in every room that I was tidying to see what I was up to! This evening we had a lovely curry and watched more of Vikings. It's holding my attention so far but there are a lot of episodes to go and I think that it moves on to future generations; I might not enjoy it so much without Ragnar, Lagertha, Siggy or Rollo. 

Rebus

Heather and I went to Edinburgh this evening to see a play called “A Game called Malice” which is a murder mystery starring Inspector Rebus. It was written by Ian Rankine, who also wrote the very successful Rebus novels. There have also been two television series about the sardonic Rebus solving crimes around the underworld of Edinburgh. It was at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, so we had a tasty dinner first at Solti’s which is just round the corner. The tickets said that it started at 7 p.m. but it turned out to be 7.30 so we were very early; we had a coffee and a chat in the theatre café. The play was good; very traditional with a group of characters who are having dinner in a posh Edinburgh house when a body is discovered upstairs. Gray O’Brien played Rebus; I remember him fondly from his days in one of my old favourite series, Peak Practice. He was suitably cynical and intelligent. The rest of the cast were very good too, and I enjoyed it, but the dialogue felt a little stilted from time to time, almost too witty to convey real feelings. It was an entertaining watch though, and afterwards Heather and I took the train back through to Glasgow (Heather got off the train at Croy, where she had left her car.) This is an important week for Heather, she retires on Friday, and we were talking about future plans and holidays. 

End of our summer in Ullapool

Yesterday was our last day in the cottage after a stay of nearly six weeks; Heather and Ewan set off home after breakfast time and we did some laundry and spruced up the cottage ready for our next visit. It felt very autumnal, there were a lot of leaves lying on the path to the bridge. The weather had been absolutely wild during the night; I’m generally a very good sleeper and even I was woken up at one point by the rain battering on the velux windows. We set off homewards just after half past three and were home by 8 p.m. The cats were quite philosophical about being captured and put into their car cage, and the journey went smoothly. We listened to The Rest is History podcast in the car; firstly the very end of the run up to the 1st World War, and then we started the run up to the French Revolution with Marie Antoinette and the Scandal of the Diamond Necklace. Poor old Marie Antoinette, she had nothing to do with the necklace scam and yet somehow she was implicated. 
Back home we put in a washing only to find that the washing machine was broken. My hero James spent hours trying to get different ways to fix it with the help of various YouTube videos, and eventually he found the fault and got it working again. This made us very late to bed and we were exhausted. 

Brambles from Inverlael

Today the weather was forecast to be showery so we went for a walk at Inverlael Forest, thinking that the trees would provide us with some shelter while we took some exercise. It did rain a little bit at the start of the walk but it gradually became drier and turned into a nice sunny day. James, Heather and Ewan gathered brambles for our dessert tonight. In the afternoon we all went for a stroll around the village in the sunshine. We walked round the bull park and through the campsite to West Shore Street and had tea and cake sitting outside Tea by the Sea. We went to both bookshops, and even browsed in a couple of gift shops, before drinks at the Ceilidh Place. We had got a side of hot smoked trout for dinner and served it very simply with baby new potatoes and asparagus, and garlic aioli. Meanwhile James had made apple and bramble crumble with the blackberries from Inverlael Forest and it was very tasty. A relaxing evening of chat and laughter ensued. 

Cape Wrath

We decided to ask Heather and Ewan to visit Cape Wrath with us today. We had some misgivings about this because it is a long journey; nearly two hours by car from Ullapool, then a short boat journey and then ten miles by minibus along a very pot-holed road. It also takes a bit of organising and some serendipity; it has to be during the short summer season that the minibus runs, from June to mid September, and the ferryman, Malcolm, has to be available (when I phoned last week I found out that he was taking part in a charity tractor run on Saturday for example.) And if it’s too misty or the sea is rough the trips are cancelled. None of this can be predicted much in advance.  However our guests good-naturedly agreed to come on the trip - none of us have visited the most northwesterly point of the UK before - and we set off in the morning to catch the midday ferry. When we got to Keoldale Pier near Durness there were lots of other people, to my surprise; there must have been about thirty of us. Malcolm ferried us all across to the pier on the west side of the Kyle of Durness in three boat loads, and we were then ushered by Stewart into two minibuses. Ewan had, unusually, felt very nauseous during the last part of our car journey when it was quite twisty and turny, so we asked if he and Heather could sit in the front seats of the minibus. The fact that Ewan, who does not like a fuss being made of him, agreed to this, showed that he must have felt very unwell. Sitting in the front seat did the trick and he felt fine both on the way to the lighthouse and on the way back. Just as well that he did, because I have never travelled on a road quite like it. It was first built in 1828 and has not been properly repaired since the 1980s, just patched up from time to time, and it is in a terrible state! The minibuses had to travel at less than 15 miles an hour for eleven miles (18 km) along the narrow road, through the bombing range (which was not live just now!) over narrow and rather precarious looking bridges. We were however rewarded with stunning views, including the distant but clear Sandwood Bay, where we have walked and camped in the past. The weather was cloudy but we had good visibility. 
When we arrived at the lighthouse we had a very simple lunch of sandwiches and oatcakes with coffee at the little café *, which restored us for a breezy walk around the headland. We could see lots more cliffs to the east, and a stunning sea arch just off the headland. After an hour we were loaded back onto the minibuses for our return journey, which somehow seemed quicker. There were a couple of Cape Wrath Trail walkers in the minibus, who had just finished their arduous eight day journey. Back across on the boat we went, and we decided to break our journey in Lochinver for dinner, only a short diversion from the direct route. We managed to get a table at Delilah’s and Heather and Ewan treated us to a delicious meal. By 9 p.m. we were back in the cottage after a long and satisfying day. 

* We read online later that Bill Bailey had eaten in the café at the end of his Cape Wrath Trail journey and had celebrated with a ham and pickle sandwich. He must have eaten the last of the pickle because there was none left when Ewan ordered it! Ewan said "Bill Bailey ate my pickle!" 

Country Music at the Seafood Shack

Heather and Ewan arrived at lunchtime today and we were delighted that the weather was absolutely beautiful for them. The rest of the weekend is supposed to be less sunny so we decided to make the most of the glorious afternoon by walking down to the village. We heard from a neighbour yesterday that the Seafood Shack was having a fundraiser today for the Sandpiper Trust, in the form of a Country Music afternoon. So after strolling along the harbour front we arrived at the Seafood Shack and ordered lunch just as the first band was starting up. They were a great wee group and played a mixture of Scottish traditional music and Country music. Our food was delicious and we sat in the warm sunshine chatting and listening to the music. The only problem was that it was a bit too warm for me (yes, I know that I should be grateful for the heat after the dodgy weather we have had this summer!) and I retreated to a shady spot which suited me much better. As we made our way back to the cottage we noticed that more and more mist was rolling in from the sea along the loch, it looked beautiful and quite otherworldly. Back at the cottage we had coffee in the garden before James, Heather and Ewan went to climb Ullapool Hill. I did a bit of shopping and then met them at the Ferry Boat Inn for drinks. Later I heated up the Butter Chicken that I had frozen (and butter paneer for me) and we had a relaxing evening chatting about all sorts of topics. It was very foggy on the loch by now, and when the Loch Seaforth blew its foghorn Tom and Flora came running indoors very nervous; they must have thought that it was a sea monster! 

The Moine Thrust Controversy

We spent nearly all of Friday outdoors in warm sunshine and it was fantastic. The cats loved us being outside and kept us company. James was working hard to paint the fence, this coat is to maintain it after being painted for the first time two years ago. I did a bit of housework and then took the folding table outside and did some admin as well as proof-reading a bit more of my blog. I was about to make the dinner when I noticed in the Ullapool News that there was a Geological Lecture scheduled in the MacPhail Centre at 7 p.m. - in only half an hour! I consulted with James and we decided spontaneously to attend. And I’m so glad that we did! The lecture was called “The North West Highlands Controversy” by geologist Peter Gutteridge and it was about the 19th century bitter disputes over the nature of what we now call the Moine Thrust. He was a great speaker and the story was fascinating. He concluded that it’s easy to criticise in hindsight, and although some of the old time geologists got it wrong, they lacked the modern technology to work it out properly. We were starving when we got home and quickly made dinner.  

Strong Women of the 18th Century

Today Alison and I walked into Nairn centre to go to our second Book Festival event. It was Flora Fraser talking about her biography Pretty Young Rebel and Sean Lusk talking about his historical novel, A Woman of Opinion. Both books are about strong women in the 18th century; Flora McDonald who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape by boat from South Uist to Skye after the Battle of Culloden, and Mary Wortley Montague, a brilliant and eccentric upper class lady who wrote about her travels to Constantinople and introduced inoculation against smallpox to Britain. Both women had to contend with misogyny and used their considerable intelligence to make the most of their different situations in life. Flora Fraser and Sean Lusk were both good speakers and the hour of discussion flew past. Alison and I both enjoyed it very much.

Meanwhile Hugh and James had been using Hugh’s many ride-on agricultural machines, which he and Alison need for their large plot of land. He has a tractor, a digger, a quad bike and more. Needless to say James was absolutely thrilled to try these out and had a great time. We all met up in Nairn and had coffee and lovely scones in a new café called The Highland Weigh, before we bade our farewells and set off back to Ullapool to be reunited with the cats. The weather was sunny and the cats were delighted to spend the afternoon in the garden with us. 

Gunilla the tall ship

We met at the harbour for a coffee after James’ big walk today, as is our habit, to find a tall Swedish ship named Gunilla moored at the harbour. It was very elegant and had a huge amount of ropes attaching the masts to the deck. We noticed that it was just about to open to the public for the afternoon so we boarded it and were greeted by the friendly young people who sail it. 

Gunilla was launched in 1940 and has been a cargo ship and a ferry. It was rebuilt in the 1990s and is now a three-masted Sail Training ship. It spends most of the year sailing around the Atlantic, crewed by upper secondary school pupils from a school which specialises in sailing, called Öckerö Gymnasieskolan.

In the afternoon we drove through to Nairn where we met Alison and Hugh. We all went to a New Writers event; part of the Nairn Book and Art Festival. I found it fascinating; the writers read out their own work and were very different from each other in content and style. Then we had a delicious dinner at the friendly Bandstand Bar and Restaurant, before a nightcap back at Alison and Hugh’s gorgeous house. 

Shakespeare in Ullapool

This afternoon James and I went to see a Shakespeare play, As You Like It, at the MacPhail Centre. It was staged by Folksy Theatre Company which performs in rural areas around the UK. Usually they perform outdoors but this time they were in the wee theatre attached to the school, I don’t know if this was because the weather was drizzly. It was fantastic! There were five young actors who were full of talent and energy, and also all sang and played musical instruments. It was interesting to compare it with the production of As You Like It that we saw last year at Stratford upon Avon. Both productions had minimalist scenery, which worked well. The young actors had each to play multiple parts, which made the plot a bit harder to follow, however what they lacked in numbers, they made up for in enthusiasm. The RSC actors last year were very skilled and experienced, and I think that they gave more nuanced performances, and were also enthusiastic. In the end, both productions were excellent. I do love Shakespeare. 

Pop up Tapas

The summer weather has continued to be very changeable; we sit outdoors or go for a walk whenever it’s dry. James has started repainting the garden fence which is beginning to show signs of the vigorous wear and tear that it gets from the wind and rain blowing from the loch. We had a delicious tapas dinner at the Arch Inn on Saturday. It was a “pop up” event by a catering company called Ballintaggart and we thought that it would be nice to support it. When we arrived at the restaurant it was going like a fair, the staff were really friendly and the tapas dishes were fresh and delicious. There were plenty of vegetarian choices for me. We then strolled back to the cottage and watched a couple more episodes of Vikings.