We never thought it would come but at last a few warm days of summer and some sunsets.

Flat Calm Fishing

Having had a request from Chris who was in Escape with his family to go out fishing, the forecast looked unbelievable and so it turned out, after heavy rain over night the day steadily improved to a cloudless sky and warm weather, nothing for it but to go fishing.

Happy Kids

Thank goodness for Mackerel, great fun for the kids who always get excited when they catch fish.

Competing

There is always a bit of competition to see who can get the most but once we had enough for tea we headed in, checking the lobster creels on the way back. It was just after twelve when we got back in and it was so hot.

A Quick Lunch then…..

We had the cottage guests booked for dinner so a part of the afternoon was spent preparing. I had gone to the freezer for langoustines but I found only three, that had been another reason to get out sharp in the morning. We had the three from the cooler for lunch with spiced chickpeas, very healthy!! No wine.

Prep’

The dinner menu was langoustine, crab cake and black pudding.

Starter

Then slow roast venison on a bed of vegetables, very tasty. Pudding was the marmalade ice cream.

And Focaccia

And Focaccia which we did not need. The wine was good, Andre took over a ten year old Riesling, followed by a Villa Bucci, excellent. Andre, Antoine, Christine and Kasia are our Sea/Skyescape guests. Andre from London, chefs and writes about Italian wine, so there was much comment about the wine and food which made for a really good night. Antoine and Christine (from France) brought over a very nice Sancerre to add to the mix, excellent.

Site Photos

Gill our architect (Rural Designs, in Portree) wanted photos of the site where we are going (hoping) to build the new house, it was a grey morning but a good excuse to clamber about the rocks to get rid of the previous nights excess. This is the view from behind the site which is on a shelf at the foot of this hill in Big Harbour. Nice view!!

The rest of the day was taken up with other wee jobs round the place, I pulled the plastic wing off the jeep yet again, so another duct tape repair was necessary and at last I got a chance to fit the new brake pads which took two minutes as Steve (Cat’ Orca) had loosened and greased the calipers earlier.

Instant Repair

With the changeover happening the next day we got really busy in the afternoon, especially because we had to get the male lambs to Portree later on Saturday so that they would be there for the sale. The first time sheep had been sold off Rona since 1987.

Another great day

It was a very windy morning on Saturday but it promised to get calmer by the afternoon, M V Aspire arrived and had to manoeuvre round the yachts in the bay. Calum was on board, he came out to give us a hand. Usually it is a bit of a rodeo penning the sheep without a dog, so with Calum’s help and the new Escape guests we got them into the fank for sorting out without any trouble.

The shepherds

Mark and his climber friends had come over on the ferry for a few days climbing the rock faces around Rona, they got ‘roped’ in too!!!!!

Ready for the Off

We tagged the sheep and got them on board, there are too many males here and with enough lamb in the freezer there is no point in keeping or feeding them over the winter. It is unfortunate that we cannot slaughter our own lambs and sell them. The law states they must go to a slaughterhouse and that would make the logistics of selling the end product here (the meat)  not viable. Which is a bit bonkers because we can shoot our deer and sell the venison but not the lamb. A shame because it would help the economy of the Island. We will see what they fetch to-day (Monday) at the sale.

At Last a Decent Sunset

Saturday night we had 9 yachts in, quite a few local ones but good to see the bay busy at last. Better late than never.

At Last a Decent Sunset

By 8.30 it was sun down and getting dark, a sign we are heading into Autumn and the winter not far away.

At Last a Decent Sunset

It promised to be a good day on Sunday and it was but first thing it was flat calm, there was a heavy shower and then midgies. So we did not see many sailors coming ashore, one by one they slowly left and the day became a bit more windier but the sun came out and it was the most wonderful Sunday, absolutely fabulous. There had been forecasts of winds but they were out of the East and not too strong.

Andre Preparing for Monday Night

I went over to Dry Harbour to see the guests, the Escape folk had a problem with the central heating which I quickly sorted out, back down to Seascape with new provisions for the cottages, both tenants are here for extended stays and both say that it is still too short. We are going over tonight (Monday) to sample Sea/Skyescapes cooking so we are really looking forward to that. It looks good already, I arrived in time to see Christine passing in the cooked Velvet crabs to Andre. But first of all they were coming over to watch the BBC Alba DVD /programme about Rona on Sunday night

So Naturally……

So naturally we had to have a bottle of Fizz to round off the day. It was very pleasant to sit outside for a couple of hours until the sun disappeared. We had more food, just burgers, crab crostini’s, salad and crab cakes, then up to the cabin to watch the DVD. We ‘fished’ out Hugh Fearnley’s programme on Fishing and watched that too. A few years ago he came to Rona, was here for the day in the pouring rain and we had a really good day. Quite amusing watching the DVD from 8/9 years ago.

To-day, as Gail and Michael (Yacht Marguerite) from Findhorn and regular visitors, predicted, the weather is very good. The sun is up after a brief shower this morning that soaked the washing left out last night, it is now very warm and pleasant, just the way to start the week.