Thursday 22 September 2011


A wonderful day out when you are in Carradale is to go over to Bute. Ferry from Tarbert to the amazing marina at Portavadie where you can have excellent coffee and scones, watch the rich arriving to their yachts in helicopters, and shop in the pleasantly inexpensive shop. Then on round to Colintrive with terrific views of the Kyles of Bute, a wee ferry across, and you are in Bute. Rothesay is a wonderful Victorian holiday place - now struggling a bit but still with some beautiful houses , and the Victorian loos are a tourist attraction.

Next stop is the Victorian fernery at Ascog - buried into the bank with a wonderful glass roof, it is full of dripping water and exquisite ferns. And the gardens there are worth a browse.

Then the piece de resistance - Mount Stuart. Home to the Marquess of Bute it was rebuilt after a fire in the late 18 hundreds in the most unusual and eclectic manner. Stella McCartney got married in the white marble chapel. Lovely grounds as well.

So there you are - another holiday treat.

Saturday 3 September 2011

We have always been on our own water supply here and on the whole we like it - tastes like proper water, and it's free. But the disadvantages are that it's a bit erratic, it can freeze in winter, and it gets very brown when it's been raining. As we have holiday cottages it gets regularly checked, and E.U. regulations don't like it being brown! So - time to change. What a hassle. Here you see the pipe being laid up to the workshop door, but lots to do before it can be finally connected . Silly things like raising the level of a tap in case all our sink water goes whoosing into the system and kills everyone in Carradale etc etc. As if......

Thursday 1 September 2011

Well, the good news is that after years of careful negotiation, we are going on to the mains water supply. So those of you who have, over the years, put up with dark brown baths , pleas to save water (yes we did once have a hot summer) and peculiar tea , can breath a sigh of relief. Personally we really like our nice pure hill water, but the E.U. doesn't like the colour.

Mains pipe runs along the bottom of the garden, but nothing is easy these days and we can't just ask Scottish Water to connect us. We have to chose a provider, and he negotiates with Glasgow, who negotiate with Lochgilphead, who put it on the back of their desk and forget about it. Until one day they panicked and calculated that if you all did the washing at the same time the village would run dry! A £1700 pressure test was proposed which we refused to contemplate, so they saw how silly they were and at last sent the co-ordinates of where we were to join the pipe. It turned out to be in the middle of the burn. So Mr Gull and Adam are just digging away where they see fit, and in due course (probably another 6 months) it will all be up and running.

So I can promise you a warm winter as one reason for this was that the water kept freezing up last Christmas .