May 2001

Apologies for not updating this site but I guess things eased off after christmas and I did not have much news to pass on. We had a dry winter, very different from last year when it seemed to rain non-stop from november to may. There was an unusual amount of snow that stayed around for a couple of weeks causing a few delays to our postal service but life quickly returned to normal. Thankfully foot and mouth did not reach this area and most of the movement restrictions have now been lifted. Following my contract cancellation in January I was unable to work my notice as the range area was closed off. The range has now opened but as I officially became jobless on 10 May it is no longer of any relevance. Naturally I have had a lot of time to contemplate my future.

There is little or no work in the area and I cannot see myself commuting 4 hours a day to Inverness. The local PC/Photography work still arrives but is unpredictable and certainly not sufficient to live on. A new twist has been scanning & printing watercolour paintings from a local artist. My investment in high quality equipment is paying off as the results are indistinguishable from the originals. It was a natural progression to provide a complete service including picture framing and I used the last of my cash to purchase everything nescessary to start the business. It is amazing how expensive this gear is but the results are impressive and I can confidently turn out framed pictures as good as any I have seen. It will take a long time to recoup the outlay but at least it is another service I can offer. I have started to advertise locally and show a few pictures in the Rhiconich hotel. Hopefully the tourist industry will recover and I can sell some work.

The three pictures at the top of the page are examples of my work and are printed in widescreen format with a black border and frame. This works well and I have also produced A6 miniatures of some watercolours also with a black frame. Black does seem to set everything off well but I have to be carefull not to become the "Henry Ford" of picture framing - any colour so long as it's black !. think the hardest part is matching frame moulding and mountboard to the picture but I will get better at this as time progresses. My kitchen "extension" now has a window so that I have a great view of Ben Stac while I am washing up. I added a couple of shelves and started growing herbs. These have now been transplanted to a series of growbags on a shelf outside the house. I needed to keep the plants out of reach of the sheep as they are partial to corriander.... Talking of sheep, I now have 8 lambs from 7 sheep. Just one to go but she seems determined to hang on. The ewe's are 8 years old now so this has to be their last season. Problem is that there may not be any sales this summer so I may have them as "guests" for next winter as well.

January 2001a

Update I wonder if the sight of an eagle combined with an eclipse is actually a bad omen. It certainly was for me as the following day I received a letter from my employer informing me that my contract had been terminated. Apparently the company has been making cut backs and of course sub-contractors are the first to get the chop. It is ironic that the only reason I left BAS and moved up here and bought the Land Rover was because of the job. I could not afford to miss out on a 5 (or more) year contract. My original plan was to get enough cash together to rebuild the house and then take my chance with getting a job. Naturally this was not good news for me and I now have 4 months to find alternate employment. Not easy in an area that is suffering from reduced fishing and a slump in fish farming. I have a few ideas but will have to wait and see if anything turns up. Thankfully I did not re-build the house so I have no mortgage etc.

On a happier note.... I spent last weekend connecting the hot water tank to the fire heating system and routed pipes into the kitchen. The sink has finally been fitted and I now have the luxury of hot and cold water. I am amazed at how efficient the copper coil is. I put the immersion on to get the water hot initially but have not had to use it since. Bearing in mind that I am using heat that would normally go straight up the chimney so it is effectively free heating. The cold weather continues to hang around. My drive has been like a skating rink and has not thawed for over a week. Two days ago we had a very sharp frost (unusual round here) which froze my shower - looking forward to the weekend when it is supposed to get milder.

The car has now had it's 60k service and I am told it is in very good condition. There is a good chance that I may have to part with it if things get tight but I am reluctant to do this as I would lose a lot of money and it is such a useful vehicle. Maybe I will have some better news next month.

January 2001

Whoops, there go another 4 months since I last wrote. Amazing how time flies. I guess the problem is that very little has happened that is worth recording and life just drifts by. I seem to remember August and September being fairly wet and full of midges. More work was done on the house to make it warmer and less drafty. I even replaced the front door and removed a wall to make the kitchen bigger. An alcove has been built to house the kitchen sink but I haven't installed this yet... The hot water tank has been on it's travels again and is now a feature of the living room. The idea is to connect it to the fireplace heating coil which will give me the luxury of running hot water in the kitchen. At present I wash up in the bathroom and use the shower to fill a washing bowl. A Calor gas fire keeps the kitchen area at a reasonable temperature and encourages me to cook proper meals instead of eating pre-packaged stuff. Another luxury has been the purchase of a tumble dryer - how did I exist before !.

A surprise e-mail from BAS led to a short contract to provide cruise support on the JCR. I flew to the Falklands around mid November and returned a week before Xmas. It was a great cruise, good weather and met up with a lot of friends. I am sure that some did not realise that I had actually left BAS. Xmas day was spent up at the Rhiconich Hotel. Somehow I had been placed in charge of the turkey - a great but worrying honour. It nearly turned into a disaster when the hotel kitchen ovens decided not to work properly and after a couple of hours the bird was showing signs of boredom. A quick burst of panic saw me taking the turkey for a walk to the hotel flat and another oven. By some miracle it was ready on time and tasted pretty good. Not sure if Delia Smith wants to publish my cooking style but it seemed to work. The whole day was excellent and it even snowed in the evening.

New year was pretty quiet. I decided to "pop" down to Inverness on Jan 2 to do some shopping but had no idea that Scotland has an extra day's holiday. 100 miles is a long way to travel to find that Tesco is closed. Eventually went back on thursday to re-stock my food shelves. Of course shopping at Tesco now takes much longer as they seem to add new items every day. I am still waiting to see someone purchase a widescreen telly and put it on the conveyor belt - swipe that then !!.

The landrover is still going strong and I had the timing belt replaced just before I went south. It is now due for a 60k mile service so I hope not too many problems are discovered. My range work starts up again in a couple of weeks time and should be fairly intense for a few months. The first week is always bad as I have to get up at 6 am - not something I have done for a long time.

My "sheep adoption" progam has not been very successfull, in fact I have not received any sponsorship at all so I guess it was not such a good idea. The sheep are still away from the croft at the moment but should be back soon. 9 Jan Saw my first eagle today !. Just looked out of the window and noticed that the skyline towards Foinaven had an extra bump on it. Not sure what sort it was but there have been reports of a sea eagle that visits the area on a regular basis. Unfortunately it sat still for a long time and of course I was not watching when it flew away.

The other event today was the eclipse. Did not think we would see anything as there was a lot of cloud and it even started raining. However the weather cleared long enough to view the initial shading and it was quite clear by the time the eclipse had finished. Ok that's enough for now, I don't want to get carried away with this writing lark.