Last weekend Chris and I went to Scotland to see George, our son. He's working as a stalker on the Glen Kinglass estate on the west coast, between Oban and Glen Coe.


Ardmaddy, George's cottage on the shores of Loch Etive

View from the hill above Ardmaddy (you can just see the roof of the cottage down below)

Loch Etive: looking south (above) and looking north (below)

We stayed with George for two nights, and then went to the central Highlands for a night.
If you are going to central Scotland, we can thoroughly recommend the Atholl Arms Hotel at Blair Atholl http://www.athollarms.co.uk/ .

The Glen Shee road between Blairgowrie and Braemar

We spent the last night in a very plush, spivvy hotel on the shores of Loch Lomond. The sauna was much too hot and steamy, the food was a triumph of marketing (give everything a posh French name and pile it in a round mountain in the centre of a large, cold plate, and with any luck nobody will notice it doesn't taste of anything), but the sunrise was worth it:

I hope this hasn't persuaded you to go to Scotland, rather than come to West Ilkerton, for your next holiday!

It's time to say farewell to the swallows and housemartins for another year (and time to hose down the porch!) A family of housemartins took up residence on the electricity meter (see previous blog) and several swallows took over the antlers inside the porch during rough weather.

Cattle and deer grazing together in Rough Field

Last week Peter Ridd came to brand the horns of our Exmoor Horn two-tooth ewes. All registered Exmoor Horn sheep have to be inspected and branded. It looks scary, with lots of smoke, but it is painless to the sheep (honest!).

After we'd finished haymaking and branding, Chris and I went up to Scotland to see George for a few days. Sarah stayed at home to look after the animals. Some photos of Scotland will be in the next instalment.

At last we're getting a summer, but at the wrong time of year. We made about half our total crop of hay and silage in the first week of September. The picture above is of baling hay in Ranscombe Field, with Countisbury Hill in the background.

Barham Field: Chris taking the hay back to the barn

Meanwhile, Sarah was an exhibit at the Dorset Steam Fair!