Well, on Wednesday the first storm of the winter hit us - Storm Ali. Amber warnings from the Met Office and terror all round. As a  gesture  we closed the hoop house door, took the chairs off the balcony, and one of our braver cottagers gave up half his holiday to hi-tail it back to that safest of places - Harrogate. (Having lived in Leeds for a number of years I experienced some of the worst storms ever, but there you go). Of course it was all exaggerated. 60 mph gusts at Machrihanish but here at the Mains we are very sheltered and, apart from the wisteria descending from the pergola, all was well.

At least it could give CalMac an opportunity to have a new excuse for the boats not sailing. It has been a terrible year for the timetable - boats endlessly breaking down and at the moment they've had to shuffle them all around and at the week-ends they are all whizzing backwards and forwards round the Mull of Kintyre to provide the next sailing to Stornoway or Uig or  Barra. The down side of living on the islands. My cousin's daughter has just moved to Coll and has a new baby, so every visit to the obstetrician in Glasgow necessitates boat and train and overnighters in Oban.

Cottages are suddenly easing off and at the end of this month we move into the cheapest of price brackets, so be tempted! We often holiday at the beginning of October and nearly always get lovely weather. Apart from a hill-walking break up north one year when we got soaked every day as we tramped the mountains in gales and rain, and draped our cottage with sodden jackets and dripping dogs (try getting a sheepdog onto a pulley) every night.

Enough, the sun has come out and the tomatoes will be ripening.

Well, I'd never winner 'Blogger of the year' as there 's no time to blog! Far too busy growing monster marrows. Yet again we mourn the passing of the garden show. So that's 10 jars of wonderful chutney (we hope - you have to be patient with chutney)  My brother-in -law, clearing out his mum's house a few years ago, found some home made jam dated 1956. However , if you're into that sort of thing, the brambles are brilliant this year - huge and juicy and masses of them. I always freeze them and end up making jam the following July.

Village is over the summer rush so no exuberant dances  or exciting golf matches ahead of us. And sadly the famous Carradale Duck Race is no longer ,which is a huge miss for all the visitors.

And yet more depressing news - the shop has finally closed. We all had great hopes last year when
a young couple moved in, but it just didn't work out . We can still get milk in the Post Office - and digestive biscuits - but it's a trip to the toon for anything else, so be warned.

I can offer wonderful dark skies however.  We've had a couple of nights with amazing displays of stars, and with Mars and Saturn both hovering above the southern horizon it's very spectacular. Out with the telescope.

And just to sum up the recent weather, we have an Israeli couple in the cottage just now, and last dreich, drizzley Sunday  he said to me  'Trish, what is this weather called - we don't have it at home?' Thank goodness we've now had 2 sunny days.

Rain at last - and the only people not overjoyed are Mr Claffy and his merry gang who are just putting finishing touches to the Village Hall roof. They have done a wonderful job repairing and reslating it and haven't they been lucky with the weather? There was only one week-end when we slightly panicked that the tarpaulin was going to blow away and leave a gaping hole , but all was well and for most of the two months or so that thay have been working away it's been almost too hot to hold the slates! We will really miss them - ice creams have been exchanged, as have packets of Pringles and the brave lady in the team has got a marvellous suntan.

The garage roof much appreciated a dowsing and is growing away brilliantly. Not to be outdone by Mrs Claffey I was up there on my hands and knees weeding it at the weekend, and although far from having complete coverage it's coming on nicely. We had a lovely stray poppy the other day which was very cheery and who knows what other goodies will arrive. It was thistles and willowherb that I  had to remove .

Lots of discussion about the village shop which is being vacated by the  present tenants in August, and no one knows what will happen. We are so lucky having it and if nothing else there are plans to make it a community shop,  A meeting last week was inconclusive until there is more information, but at the same meeting was discussion of  the proposed community composting project.  We really are getting like a village in The Archers! 

Enough, I'm off to pick blackcurrents (having only just made last year's crop into jam). And the sun's coming out again.

85 degrees here yesterday - what a change from these freezing winter days. But lovely and cool inside - the sound of bees, a distant saw, the smell of peat wafting through the window..........the smell of peat wafting through the window? 

We rushed outside to discover that our intrepid cleaner, Sue, had managed to set my geranium pot on fire when she stabbed out her cigarette.  No wonder they tell us we mustn't use peat based compost. Fortunately Lynsay is in the local fire crew so she knew what to do. Spray the whole thing with foliar fertiliser.

After that excitement it was a nice chance to continue with the watering. Hanging baskets are all very well but until we get the automatic sprinker system going again its a bit of a palaver keeping them moist. And now we have the 'green' roof to add to the list. Which is, incidentally, doing tremendously well and now even has poppies bobbing around in the breeze,

So there we were sitting on the balcony last Sunday and heard a familiar  clanking and round the point came The Waverley.  For those of you who haven't heard of The Waverley, it is the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world and cruises around the Clyde all summer reminding people of the good old days of going 'Doon the watter'

She is a real icon, and a few years ago we were hugely miffed when a lady from Bristol came into the workshop and said ' I see you have borrowed  our steamer', We soon put her right. But the cruising season does start in Spring when she bravely battles down to the Bristol Channel for a few weeks. Then it's back up to Oban for some marvellous trips to Coll. Tiree and around the coast. But her real home is here on the Clyde , and there couldn't be a nicer treat than catching The Waverly at Tarbert on a Wednesday afternoon and cruising up Loch Fyne. Combined with a pre-cruise lunch over at Portavadie it makes for a grand day out.

Delighted to have storm Hector last night - we were getting really fed up hosing the garage roof. Unfortunately it coincided with a day that the electricity people decided to disrupt our power for the day to do maintainence.So for the poor souls in the cottages, not only did they have to wander off to find heat and light on the first of our greyer days, but the electricity was 2 HOURS late coming back on so drenched and starving they had to wait ages before there was any respite. AND they missed the Scottish News. Here's hoping they had all been visiting the distillery. A stiff letter has gone to the Hydro Board and a lot of use that will do. But huge apologies all round.

We are delightfully sheltered at the Mains, but not so just up the Glen and poor Judi, my trusty assistant, got held up coming to work by a fallen tree.  A fairly common occurance round here and it is miraculous how quickly a few experienced guys with chain saws can clear it all away. At least the trees are all well in leaf now , so not as much damage as a gale earlier on. Our cousin sailing back to Ireland this morning had a VERY bumpy trip, and most of the ferries were off but for once the Ardrossan-Campbeltown ferry has managed to sail.  If I rush up now to the balcony I will see it on the horizon. Or not.

One of our hens is sitting ( for about the twentieth time so we don't hold out much hope) so we are hoping for chicks. They are rather special Rhode Island Red bantams, and though we started off with 6 we are now down to 3 , so the egg supply really needs replenishing. One year we had a hen who produced 20 chicks from a shed at the bottom of the garden in November. She solemnly walked them all up to the house over the gravel. We rescued most of them and they ended up at the farm next door.

I will keep you posted....

Who would have thought of it. For once while it is floods and thunder storms down south, we are basking in our second glorious week of sunshine. So much so that we've been out watering the garden and the farmers are (of course) worrying about the barley crop. But all the way to Campbeltown the bright green landscape shows us that the silage is in and already en route for a second crop.
A lovely afternoon spent indulging myself in a spot of sunbathing down on the bay. Two other groups of people there happily splashing around and a couple of yachts , and  that was it. Apart from hordes of gannets up from Ailsa Craig and having a splendid time swooping into the sea.

The ridiculous new path from the Hall to the village is now complete with lights so no longer can dance goers justify falling into Dougie's field - what spoilsports the Government are. But visitors to the cottages will not even need a torch as they wend their way home. Will it spoil my  stargazing from our balcony? That remains to be seen, but for any would-be astronomers amongst you we have an almost perfect 'dark skies' area here, and once we're over the longest day it will soon be out with the telescope again.

Time to go and have a taste of my first strawberries of the year from the hoop house,although sadly the gooseberries are looking very sad  - that's gardening.

I don't know what happens to the blog over the winter - we still have people coming and going, we still have bookings coming in, but basically outside it's damp and cold and there are no leaves on the trees and the place just doesn't look inviting! But it is, it is! Since I last wrote we have had dances, concerts, the terrific little Music Festival (worth coming to next year ) , the Kintyre Way Ultra with runners and cyclists whizzing past the window, and now the huge excitement of re-roofing the Village Hall and a mammoth and ridiculous path project from Hall to Village which involves about 50 men, cranes, diggers, road rollers and huge trucks -  all of whom trundle down the single track road from Lochgilphead. So much for austerity! And all we want is a few of the potholes filled in.

But this means that you will be able to walk very very safely as far as the next dangerous corner. 

Now, I know you will be wondering why I'm showing you this dreary picture instead of the bright green young leaves of the beeches and limes of Carradale, BUT, this is very special. Because this is the start of our green roof.


As we sat on our balcony and looked at the tatty garage roof which leaked like a sieve, we knew something had to be done, and I hit on the idea of planting the roof and making a garden. We got very enthusiastic and then looking at all the pros and cons we sort of gave up. However a Christmas present of 'How to plant a green roof' did the trick, and about 2 years later (and a lot poorer) we have just completed planting the roof with 'Seascape plug plants for green roofs'.

It is a very tedious process - very strong joists and wood followed by waterproofing then a serious liner, than a fabric liner, then 5 tons of special soil carted up (mainly by Mike) in bucket loads, and then planting 203 wee plants (mainly me) and then letting the whole thing get going. but even after 6 weeks it is thriving and we actually have 6 flowers! 

I will keep you posted.