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.