Here we go, after many months of rain we have had two whole days without rain in daylight hours, absolutely amazing. It is as if we have woken up from hibernation. But the ground is still sodden. This was the view from the bedroom window at 6 ish last night.

First This Year

This is the first decent sunset for a long time, nice to see and a promise of better day to-day (Tuesday).

Sunday was dry with the radio telling us it was barbeque weather down South, makes a change but it looked like it was moving North so our fingers were crossed. I took a walk as I was missing some sheep the ones we bought from Canna (via Dingwall) and sure enough here was one of the thinner ones lying behind a dyke dead, Braxi I think, but who knows. The other two were outside the fence one to the North, one to the South.

Spot The Sheep!

Monday we woke to a glorious sunny morning so straight away we headed to Dry Harbour to try and get Skyescape together for Marc, Nicola, Lesley and Clive coming up next for a week in both cottages. It was a good day and such a pleasure to get so much done out of waterproofs and in bright light. My eyes are sore to-day, I guess it must be the sun.

Spring Clean.

8 hours later and it was 5.30pm and time to head home, loaded up with all the debris we headed over the hill with the first red rays of the sunset appearing.

Finished for The Day

We had a visit organised to-day from Applecross, Ali on The ‘M V Veruna who writes the blog Applecross Life was coming over with Sean to look at the new site for the broadband. It is being beamed into Fearnamore/Lonbain and the North end of the Applecross peninsula using Rona as a relay. Excellent news for them, it should make a great difference to their lives over there and not before time. We are keen to help out and they have offered a connection here which will be very handy too.

But before they arrived I had a bit of tree cutting and finishing to do at the cottages. Just as I was throwing some trees over the fence I spotted my first antler of the year (or maybe my last antler from last year). It was one from the blind stag, that we used to have, probably dropped last year if not the year before. It was in good condition, no chewed by the deer or mice.

Hidden Away

All too soon it was 11am and right on time Ali arrived.

The Veruna and Guests Arrive.

Applecross is hosting an environmental seminar with delegates from all corners of the globe and Ali had taken a few of them for a day out to see what ‘Rona Life’ was about. They did look a bit shell shocked and Sean did say it had been a bit bouncy on the way over.

Nice Bag

I had to have a chuckle when I saw the ‘rucksack’ which one of the visitors was carrying, we don’t see many designer bags out here!!

I took Ali on the bike up to the turn off for Church Cave to show him the route, the rest followed with Sean heading up to the site for the relays. I chewed the fat with Ali for a while and was surprised to hear some of the Applecross news, nothing much changes but the Community are putting up a valiant effort to improve their lives and the facilities over there. Let us hope that the changing face of Scotland will encourage others to ‘muck in’ and move these remote communities forward. Nothing stays the same and there is nothing worse than a stagnant economy and community. Good Luck over there.

We could have blethered all day I’m sure (or at least I could have, been a long winter) but I had to go and survey the three rock options for the site.

Sean Surveying

The sun was in our faces but the wind was cold so we quickly hatched a plan and I look forward to hearing from the engineers to arrange the installation now that the site is agreed. We headed back and met up with Ali at Rona Lodge. We were chatting in front of the Lodge when the Sea Eagle made an appearance, barely 50 metres above our heads. It stayed for a while and then drifted away as Ali remembered he had his camera and a blog to find photo’s for.

Ali Admiring The Sea Eagle

All too soon they were on board and heading out of the harbour, the wind had dropped a bit so I hope they had a good trip back.

Heading Home.

I had the gangway ramps and plates up for repair but with the weather being what it has been I had not been able to use anything electric outside, so a lot of the outside chores are way behind. The step up onto the gangway is a bit dangerous with a couple of old storm damage holes a foot could go through right at the step onto it. So for the afternoon I hurriedly put the plate back on after flattening it out with the digger.

I did find out as I was coming down the hill that the digger had lost its brakes, a wee bit of a moment but I managed to miss the house and bring it to a halt in front of the house. So tomorrow that will be the first job, check out the rotten brake pipes.