Well, at last a spell of nice weather and we're having odd people coming at the last minute for a 3 nighter which is lovely.

Here we see Mike doing a bit of tree cutting - all looks a bit precarious but it's all part and parcel of our house extension next door to the cottages - no he's not going to use the wood for the stairs, it's just that the tree blocked the view from the new balcony.

At long last Tom Plumb has found a slot to finish our connection to the mains water, so for those of you familiar with our rather peaty brew , it will soon be glorious Scottish Water . Don't think it will taste better but it will certainly make make the bath water look better - and you can always pop across the road to our trusty burn for the real thing. AND it means no winter cancellations when the water freezes.

I was going to show you a lovely picture of the sunrise over the bay, but unfortunately the sun seems to have stopped rising! 60 days with rain every day now and we're fed up with it - but we must be in for a lovely dry November, just the time to have a sneaky week-end away.

The photo is of Dougie's barley field LAST YEAR when we were worried whether he'd get it in on time. He did. However this year the same field has had to be turned into silage because he didn't manage to get it in on time. The awful problems of being a farmer when the weather turns against you.

Still the village has moved into winter mode - Golf Club Dinner next week, SEVEN people at badminton (that's a lot) and a swinging evening of singing and brass bands at the Women's Guild. Can you resist coming to see us?

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.

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......

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 .

Well at last the geraniums have come out! what an awful summer - we keep waiting for it to happen and now it's nearly September. I judge a Carradale summer by the number of times I swim - record is 18. this year it's 1 (lowest ever) and I nearly died of hypothermia. The poor old flowering barrels have had an awful time, struggling away, but now at last they are looking very pretty. Met some friends from the south last week and they were appalled that my tomatoes are still green!

Still plenty of people coming to the cottages - September used to be a quiet month but not so now. Perhaps you're all trying to save a wee bit of money, I know we are. But at the moment Colin's is free towards the end of the month. September, if the weather is reasonable, is one of the lovliest months here with the rowans and heather and lovely lights.

Don't forget how flexible we are - any days booking as long as it's not less than 3, and 25% off last minute bookings.

Panic in the farmyard! Dougie's three young white ducks went missing and poor Dougie was hurtling around in a demented way on his quad. bike searching in hedge and ditch. Had Mr Fox had his wily way? Were they even now being served up on some Bearsden table?

But no - they'd gone walkabout! There they were, at least half a mile from home, happily sleeping in the verge and pottering around in the stream.

So Dougie gave them a good row.

Great night in the Village Hall on Saturday when the Drama Club presented their hilarious award winning play, (they actually reached the area finals in Kilmarnock), followed by Jane of Mad Cow Productions doing one of her excellent monologues. Place was packed, and helped by a bar and enormous raffle, a good night was had by all.

Jane's secret is to learn her lines as she walks round the Bay, so if you meet a distracted looking lady muttering, don't fetch the police.

Nonnie - ex barman of The Glen - has moved to the Ashbank and is attracting the crowds with his inimitable presentation of the Thursday Quiz. We don't do pub quizzes ourselves (too difficult - who is Andy Murray?), but we're assured it's great fun. So if you're staying in Carradale do come along to these things because you would be made very welcome .

I know I go on about the lovely vegetation around here, but it is one of the real pleasures of Carradale. At the moment all the hills are purple with rhodendron flowers - almost makes up for the green leather hills the rest of the year. And I certainly didn't expect my tropeoleum (spelling?) to survive the winter, let alone be the best it's ever been.

Quite a lot of last minuters at the moment - don't forget you get a massive 25% discount if you book within 7 days of arriving. We always enjoy unexpected visitors - our local windfarm seems to generate a lot of interesting people. The sub-station in the village has undergone major upgrading and we get everyone from ecologists studying the damage to the environment to seriously brilliant boffins who are stitching the whole thing together.

Carradale harbour is looking a bit sad these days. Once the centre of a hectic fishing fleet it used to throng with activity, and those of you who have come for years will remember how it was the place to be . Now it has a tiny fleet of small fishing boats, is messy and run down.

But don't worry! We have plans. The Harbour Group (CHUG ) is working hard to make improvements. Not easy in these days of belt tightening and closing rural schools, but we are slowly arriving at a consensus of what should be done, and how to do it. Most importantly it is to be a community project. Everyone must be involved and have their say - fishermen, local pleasure boats, visiting yachts, visitors, and the local community.

To this end we had a great meeting in the Hall last week; Mike did a presentation with loads of slides - just look at what Tarbert has done in the last 2 years - there was plenty of chat, a cup of tea, and lots of questionnaires returned - all enthusiastic.

So we'll keep you up to date with progress.

The camellia's never been as good! Those plants that survived the winter - and most of them did apart from a very precious passion flower and most of the abutilons - are doing brilliantly. This little treasure between the two cottages is looking marvellous and will go on flowering for some time, although resorts to green glossiness when the majority of visitors are here! Moral - come to Carradale in the Spring when it really excells. The fields are full of lambs leaping around and doing all the things that lambs do, and it's all primroses and violets and daffodils.

Not so good news for those of you who likeThe Glen restaurant; the girls have had to close it and have left the village. So until it's sold that's one less drinking and eating place. And the petrol pumps have closed too, so fill up in Lochgilphead. But everywhere else is up and running and looking forward to seeing you.

Yes, you may well wonder at the symbolism of a narrowboat on a cottages blog, but Mike and I have just had a smashing week-end sailing from the Falkirk Wheel to Edinburgh and back in a dear little narrowboat. Which reminded me that it was our holidays on narrowboats that inspired Mike's design for the studio cottages. When we took over Colin's cottage it was a rather run-down 3 bedroom family cottage, but we had found that staying on a well-designed, compact little narrowboat was great for a holiday. Much tinier than our studio cottages but with all mod cons it was all you needed for a week's break, and fun as well. So he designed the studio cottages to be compact, well appointed, and hassle free. Hope you think he succeeded.

Lots of lovely rhododendrons out around the estate, although a spot of frost last week has damaged some of them and turned the edges brown. But they are wonderful tropical looking flowers and very cheering after a long bleak winter. Daffodils too, just everywhere. Kintyre is brilliant for daffodils, they pop up everywhere. I found a lovely little bunch growing among the trees by the river, and all along the shore walk there are sudden unexpected flashes of yellow. How on earth do they get there?

Place is still quiet, though two of our cottages are occupied this week, and there are enough places open round and about to ensure you can get a meal, or have a nice jaunt some where. Portavadie is proving a very popular haunt - get the wee ferry across from Tarbert and find yourself in an unexpectedly plush marina with super food, lovely shop, and sensible prices.

Sadly the Semple's petrol station had had its last load of petrol, so make sure you fill up at Lochgilphead or Campbeltown. It will be quite a loss to the village -there are talks of a Community buy-out, but I think that's beyond us!

Well here we are, a bit more Springlike. These are the snowdrops in Colin's garden. When Colin lived in the cottage the show was much admired by passers by, and when we revamped the garden we made sure the snowdrops stayed.

After a rotton Christmas, when the water actually froze up and we had to cancel our Christmas visitors, things have much improved! New Year people managed down and since then it's been all go. If you are tempted - like lots of others - by our last minute 25% discount just give us a call as that's the easiest way to organise it at short notice. Otherwise on-line booking lets you see just when there are vacancies.

On the water front we have been trying for about 3 years to get connected up to the mains , which runs along the bottom of Mhairi's garden. As they are going to be metering it you'd think Scottish Water would be delighted to help. However they make it so difficult what with drawings of flows, and estimated usage etc etc we just keep giving up. But we'll persevere as we don't want a repeat of last Christmas, and if you want to taste our nice pure unchlorinated supply, you can still pop up the hill to the tank!

Looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces this coming season; you will be amazed at Mikes building works on the house!