I have spent a lot of to-day on the computer just catching up on the last months stalking mainly.

The weather outside is grim, I had a walk around this morning for an hour but even the deer were absent, just a few Curlews which are always good to see. The rest of the day writing but also listening to the Rugby, Well done Scotland.

The stalking pages I was working on to-day are over on the Red Deer page there are a few pictures of dead deer if you don’t like don’t go there!!

Let me start with Dave Wardle, our last couple did not last very long but there are plenty takers for a job on Rona. So it did not take long to find a willing helper in Dave, just temporary because there are big changes coming. More later. But in the meantime after a change of direction by the owners and ourselvers we will have Dave helping very occasionally and others for the forseeable future. He came up mid September for two weeks and is hopefully back in a fortnight for a week, in fact he is looking for a house on Skye, any offers?

In between strimming and deer work we had our visit down to see John and Erlet our lovely neighbours, sadly being so busy this back end we dids not get enough time to go down more often but we will be down soon doing a deer count and survey. Great to see them.

We had Katherine Hay, journalist with the Scotsman (my daily read as well as the Times) over. She is walking round Scotland and was interested in coming to Rona, I like her articles, she has for sure a good grip on rural life and their challenges.

There is no order suffice to say that all of these photos are from the last blog until nearly to-day.

The grandchildren were over with Dad for a few days of Mayhem, great fun but a sigh of relief when they left. They are full on but interesting too. Dad was tired so it was good to take them out and about although they have the attention span of a gnat, thank god for so called no stain felt pens.

This took up a lot of our time in the last 6 weeks, 12 carcasses butchered and packaged, a lot sold. Christmas is coming so we are getting prepared for Christmas orders, but the weather is grim and difficult to get a few hinds for butchering. We have lots in stock but have quite a few hinds to cull.

The end result, silverside of venison, cooked long and slow, then sliced with a very sharp knife put back into the pot then covered with an onion gravy and back in the oven for half an hour, this roast lasted us (and Katherine had dinner) three days, delicious. Follow the link for the recipe, click on Silverside.

On a more ‘sober’ note, our good friend Ross Cowie passed away, we knew him from the first week of coming to Rona and were often bumping into each other. He ran the boat for Dan out to Rona for a while and we used to spar about this and that whenever we met, he will be sadly missed. The wake in the Tongadale was oversubscribed so I decamped to the Pier Hotel where a smaller unofficiasl affair was had, whisky was taken and I think we did it well, despite the sore head the next day the sunrise was stunning and cheered me up no end.

The weatrher has been up and down since my last blog, we missed a good week on our travels but Storm Bert is trying to rip out our foundations as I write, the windows are bending, nothing unusual for November although the Climate Change guys will be doom and gloom.

So a quick resume, a wee storm a few weeks ago fairly tried the shore, ripped out the steps to the old pier and other bits and pieces but no big dramas. The moorings are up for the winter, or at least on the sea bed, so that is another job done. The stalking signs are down but they did not stop a gang of Danish folk from a very late yacht walking right into the middle of our stalking party in October. A bit rich that it was during the Danish stalking guests week. What they were doing where they were I could not find out, taking selfies as far as we could see. So much for the notices. and finally when the sun does shine it is welcome.

More soon.