What a scorcher!

Well the weather's been so good up here lately that it feels more like we moved to Spain than Scotland!

Not that I'm complaining of course... it has given me a chance to do some more work on the beloved vegetable patches I've been planning. It's been a hard day of digging for me but finally I've finished the first one! That's one down, three to go... oh rats! Anyway I'm very pleased as I've planted lots of seeds in trays in the summer house and already have plenty of beans and peas ready for planting out. Incidentally am I the only person who is always amazed when seeds actually do what they're supposed to do??! Anyway the idea is to make it easier to get hold of fresh fruit and vegetables without having to drive the 45 minutes to our nearest supermarket every few days. I have possibly been over-ambitious in my planting scheme of peas, runner beans, french beans, broad beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, peppers, squash, swede, carrots, chillis, parsnips, broccoli and cabbages... oh and I've thrown a few herbs in for good measure! Fruit-wise I've not been so thorough but have managed to plant out cranberry, tayberry and blackcurrant bushes so we should be okay for jam by the middle of next year! Who knows what will succeed and what won't, but with any luck we won't starve! Meanwhile Matt has been busy today building a hen house so hopefully we will soon be ready to fill it with some hens! Looking forward to lots of fresh eggs for breakfast soon!

As for the rest of our spare time, well we had a big group in the hostel over the bank holiday weekend, which meant we were able to get a couple of nice days out together. Saturday we cycled down the length of Loch Garry to Tomdoun, it was great to get out on the bikes again after so long. Sunday we decided on a scrambling route up the south face of Sean Mheall. The guidebook's description of the steep heather becoming 'rather tedious' wasn't far wrong, but when we reached the rock we were supposed to be scrambling up I decided the heather was preferable. Personally, steep, loose, crumbly and damp lichenous rock is not my idea of perfect scrambling material. We were glad we persevered though, as we were greeted on the summit by a wonderful view of the entire Great Glen - from this viewpoint it was easy to see how it came to be named. From the summit we then walked west to the summit of Sron a' Choire Ghairbh, our first Munro together! A good long day out, despite the disappointing scramble!

Anyway that's about all for now, we'll post another update in a few days.

Thanks for reading!

Jenny x