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.