We made it for the Easter weekend! All completed in glorious weather -
the one day of snow didn't set us back as everything was watertight
/snow tight by then! I have promised myself that I will keep up this blog - so i hope you enjoy reading it.
As you may have guessed Ben Ledi and Ben Lomond were taken
down at the end of October. But I didn’t take Stuc a’Chroin down until
the beginning of January but unfortunately not before the unbelievable storm of
3
rd Jan. I had all the furniture, carpets etc out and the yurt did
battle with the wind. Apart from a couple of cracked rafters it survived. More
than can be said for the barn as the side blew out, and a 100+ year old huge
Scots Pine blew down and blocked the river, and a chimney pot from the
farmhouse was blown clean off the roof.
The weather in November and December was not for the
feint-hearted either but lots of folk had a great time despite gales and floods
and just Scottish winter weather! A real bonus for everyone, was the pink footed
geese who spend their winter here – thousands of them - and they fly in
formation with their evocative laughing chatter. They are on the fields
at this moment stocking up on my early grass before heading back to the Arctic Circle
for breeding. It’s always a sad day when they go .. but almost the same time
every year the first swallows will be arriving from their winter holiday in
Africa – and so the seasons go around again. Already there are
birds thinking about breeding – oyster catchers, curlew, peewit and sky larks
fill the air with their distinctive songs. In the evening the bats are
out again and the owls are hooting away.
The cattle have had a tough winter as it has been so wet.
But they too are less interested in their haylage and are competing with the
geese for the first fresh grass! The Shetland calves that many of last year's guests saw arrive last
summer are now sturdy little animals and we are getting ready for calving 2012
– June/July.
I thought you might like a flavour of my winter guests
through comments in the guest book - they say it all!:
“Four intrepid adventurers made their way to a yurt in
Scotland, despite all advice, to escape the sweltering heat of England. Just as
they hoped, they arrived at a wet, grey, and joyful West Moss-side Farm and
settled in the warmth of the yurt. There they encountered great floods, bitter
cold, packs of angry geese, rugged mountains, mythical beasts, biting frost and
thick, blanket mists. But solace was found in the cosy yurt, the plethora of
blankets, the baking stove, the tuneful guitar, the bouncy mattresses and the
flickering candles. The intrepid adventurers set off home, pleased they had
conquered Scotland, and remained mostly dry. Thanks Kate we had a lovely time.
“ December 2012
Then there were my Christmas guests – Do you remember the
weather we had ! David and Aileen and wee Jessica (aged 11 months) braved it.
“Jessica’s first Christmas and one to remember. We had a
wonderful, cosy three days in the yurt. The storms just added to the fun as we
sipped wine and listened to our little wind-up radio. Kate’s rare breed beef
made for a delicious Christmas dinner, and we can’t wait to come back.”
And finally a very special occasion for a local couple who
married on New Year’s Eve and came for their Wedding Night.
“We cannot have imagined a more perfect place to spend
our wedding night. The yurt was the most enchanting place to be on our first
night of married life and thank you Kate for the finishing touches and keeping
the fire going for when we got back in the small hours of New Year’s Day.”
