The Invergarry Harvest!

Well the last week has given us glorious sunshine here in the Highlands and the vegetable plot is looking fab as a result - lots of big leafy cabbages, swedes and broccoli in one bed, some lovely juicy peas and broad beans in another, and also some very tasty wild rocket and lamb's lettuce which we've already sampled in some summer salads - yum!

We've also continued to make the most of the free food on offer up here - my own raspberry plants are still fairly small after I planted them in spring, so hopefully they'll be good for next year's harvest, but meanwhile today we've been taking advantage of the wild offerings around the Hostel so it looks like dessert is sorted for the next week!

While we're on the subject of free food, I recently noticed that we've got 3 elder trees in the garden which are fruiting heavily now, and after a lucky posting on Freecycle.com last week we managed to get hold of some free wine-making equipment. So once the elderberries are ripe in a few weeks time we'll be having our first go at homemade elderberry wine... I'd better let Morrisons know so that they can reduce their wine deliveries accordingly :o)

With our Hostel business now hotting up for the summer, our opportunities for days out are decreasing rapidly but of course that is great news for the coffers, and we're also managing some great days lounging around in the garden reading and gardening. We've also spent a few afternoons down at the lochside with our puppy Dylan, trying to teach him to swim... not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon, and it certainly beats the old days of 9-5 office jobs!

Jen x

Billberry goodness

Since we’ve been walking our new puppy Dylan we’ve noticed huge numbers of bilberries hanging on the bushes in the forests, so today we decided we’d take advantage of the freebies and go for a bit of a forage!

We went equipped with a big basket and picked ourselves a lovely harvest while Dylan happily sniffed his way around the forest paths. By the time we left we’d picked almost a kilo of berries, but we had made hardly a dent on what was there. Plenty left for our next visit! Our ideas for using them were ranging from wine and liqueurs to pies and jams, but we thought we’d start off with some simple Bilberry Vodka and Bilberry Jam.

We half-filled two bottles with vodka and topped each one up with crushed berries along with a few spoonfuls of sugar. They should mature nicely and be ready for Christmas! With the rest I’ve made two jars of jam which smells lovely – fingers crossed for the taste test tomorrow morning!

As for all our home-grown produce, it’s coming on a treat – the peas and broad beans are almost ready to pick, and there are plenty of little green tomatoes growing in the summerhouse which is acting as a greenhouse. Also coming along are our chilli and pepper plants, although there’s not much in the way of fruit showing yet. The cabbages, Swedes and broccoli have also made a good start for the autumn and winter produce. I did also sow some carrots, parsnips and beetroot in a separate bed, all in lovely straight lines and perfectly spaced. Unfortunately the cats didn’t like the arrangement and promptly scattered the seeds all over the place. I now have plenty of little seedlings coming up all over the place, but have no idea what is what. I guess that’s the joy of pets :o)

In other news, Matt has sold two paintings this week and he wants me to mention that he won Bowls this week.

Jen x

A quick trip to Polldubh

My friend Rich was making a 24 hour flying visit and wanted to get some climbing done. We had grand plans for Ardverikie Wall at Binnein Shuas on Friday afternoon/evening but the weather decided it was not to be.

After doing the chores on Saturday whilst Jen was out having afternoon tea, the weather still wasn't looking great but we decided we'd chance a trip to Polldubh. I took my scrambling guide so we had a wet weather option, fortunately the weather gods where smiling on us as we headed up the glen.



We headed more or less straight up to the small but appealing SW buttress at the head of "The Alp" as I already had my first route in mind and knew the buttress would be quick drying. Tear (HS 4b **) is a nice but a little short crack up a slabby face. Good job it's quick drying as it started raining as I got to the crux. By the time Rich got up the sun was back out, we headed straight back down for the next route. Rich headed straight up Scratch (VS 4c *), a slab on thin cracks leading to a wider crack for the second half of the route. Whilst belaying I was entranced by a HVS 5b crack slanting right across the buttress. I almost had myself convinced that it would be my next route but I had a closer look when I was seconding up after Rich and got a bit scared. From the top of SW Buttress it is all of 10 meters to the bottom of Pine Wall Crag, I knew there was a longer Hard Severe on there that might interest Rich, he's only used to short Yorkshire gritstone crags so it'd make a nice change.



After a false start that involved me heading up completely the wrong route, we checked the guide book and started again. The route was really nice, exposed slab climbing on perfect rock, one definitely to be repeated soon. And that was it for us, Rich had a drive down to yorkshire ahead of him and I had the old Highland Hostel to run.

--Matt

New arrival at Invergarry Lodge

We’ve had lots of visitors lately and have been taking the opportunity to get out and about a bit. Matt’s brother James was over from New Zealand and came up to see our new home, and as he’d never been to the Highlands before we decided to show him some of the fantastic scenery on Skye – luckily we picked a gorgeous sunny day so we had a great day wandering around in the sunshine taking photographs and eating fish and chips and ice creams! Proper tourists!!

We have also recently adopted a new addition into our family…Dylan the puppy! He is a 4 month old black Labrador, unbelievably he came from a rescue home, which is probably because he still likes to bite a little when he’s playing.That hasn’t stopped him being a big hit with all the guests in the hostel though, and a couple of times he has even sneaked down to entertain them all without us knowing!We are doing quite well on the training front, mainly using food which seems to be a great motivator (like owner like dog?!). He’s still struggling to get to grips with the bed-making downstairs but we’re sure he’ll get there soon enough….!

We’ve been enjoying taking him for some little walks round the village and Loch Oich, it doesn’t take too much to tire him out at the moment, but it’s great when he’s just flaked out in the evening on the floor… cuddles aplenty and no energy for biting or chewing!

Jen x

Laggan Wolftrax

Jazz and I headed out on our bikes again this morning, this time over to Laggan Wolftrax. We didn't have long so we headed straight up the hill to do one of the red runs.

Despite early protests from Jazz about being saddle sore we made it to the top in good condition, it seemed a lot easier than yesterdays slog over at the witches trail.


The run itself was good, it seemed a bit more technical than the runs we did yesterday. All single track with lots of obstacles to negotiate and a few big rock slabs to tackle if you are feeling brave enough (we weren't!). It took me the first few obstacles before I remembered I wasn't on a bouncy downhill bike like yesterday so I might have to concentrate on where I was going a little more. The course all had a liberal coating of mud and water as well which makes it all feel like real mountain biking. The last 240 meters of the route follows boardwalk laid through the woods and leads on to the lower section of the fun park which you can take as slow or fast as you like for an exciting finish. Great fun again and I'll definitely be back. I could get into this mountain biking lark!


Oh, my brother has asked me if I can point out that a pink helmet and gardening gloves are not his usual biking gear, he usually looks a lot cooler.

--Matt

Witches Trail and Downhill Racing

My brother, Jazz, is over for a visit from New Zealand, he's a keen biker so he borrowed a spare bike and we headed over to the Nevis Range. I'd been wanting to do one of the red runs since me and Jen were last there and this looked like the perfect opportunity.

Like last time, we warmed up on the skills loop (I managed about half the black run this time) and then decided we'd have a go at the UCI World Championship circuit because we'd seen it on TV the night before. The route is only suppose to be 8km but it felt like we'd pedalled 8km just to get to the top. Very hard work, but the good bit was to follow.


The very first bit of downhill had a fairly big drop and we both got quite scared but the route eased slightly and we had a great time following the burns down the hillside and then dodging through the trees as the singletrack wound its way through the forest. We got a bit lost at one point and ended up on a different route (10 under the Ben) but luckily the routes joined up towards the finish. Absolutely brilliant. I'll be back there to do it again as soon as I can. Maybe not 6 times in 2 hours like the world champs.

As we sat in the van having a spot of lunch we decided we'd like to have a go at the proper downhill track from the top of the gondola. The nice people at the Nevis Range recommended we hire the proper gear (full helmets with face guards, body armour, elbow and shin pads, and of course, a couple of proper downhill bikes), oh, and they made us sign a disclaimer in case anything happened to us. We got to the gondola looking the business and feeling pretty confident. My confidence began ebbing as we rode the gondola up because I could see the track winding it's way down below us and some of it looked pretty hard!


Once we got going it was absolutely brilliant, the bikes were amazing, they just swallow up the rocks and dropoffs, you don't need to worry about where you are going, they go over everything. The cycling is really intense, even with all the suspension your arms take a battering and your head is numb with concentration. We had to stop a couple of times just to regain composure, oh, and I had an unscheduled stop when I attempted to ram down a tree with my head. I won (just) because Jazz had an wee accident on the last jump - hopefully he's not planning on having any children soon!

--Matt

Bolinn Loop

We thought we were on for seperate days out again this week, but all of a sudden the hostel cleared so we took the opportunity to head out. Matt wanted to go for a run, I had a sore knee so wanted a walk - in the end we compromised and headed out on our bikes.

We decided to have a go at the Bolinn Loop, a 12km route which takes in some of the nice local forestry tracks around the hostel. I tried to ignore the fact that the website described the difficulty level as 'Intermediate / Advanced', and just hoped that my new clippy pedals wouldn't cause me too much trouble.

We headed out straight from the hostel, down to the end of the lane where we picked up a good forestry road. This took us uphill for the next 20 minutes, and we were well out of breath by the time we arrived at the faint track leading away from the road. As we made our way along the track, we began to wonder whether we had taken the right path - it disappeared a couple of times, only to re-appear as what looked like a stream-bed further on. After consulting the map we realised it was definitely the correct trail, so pressed on. The trail continued, sometimes rocky, sometimes muddy, and sometimes totally overgrown with grass and bracken, and there were more than a few 'wet-feet' occasions, but at least it kept things interesting!

After a while we left the single track behind and rejoined the forest road, and soon found a lovely spot to have lunch overlooking Loch Garry.

After admiring the scenery for a while and getting increasing lethargic in the sunshine, we got back on the bikes. The road wound its way around a hillside before we arrived in a field full of highland cattle - we didn't want to start any fights with those horns, so made sure they knew we were coming. I had always wondered why I had a bell on my bike and now I know!

The sun was beating down by now, so the last little bit of uphill was fairly sweat-inducing. After this though it was a great cruise back downhill towards home. Luckily we'd been home about five minutes when the heavens opened and it started pouring down - thank goodness that lunch stop hadn't been any longer!

Jen x