Midwinter Update

I can see that I am really not going to keep this blog up at all - I'll try to get to the first anniversary of our moving here, which neatly co-incides with my 60th birthday, for which we are planning a party.

It seems a long time since our first Christmas in this house - complete with both daughters and as you can see we had a good feast. Edward and his friend Susan arrived (more or less, after a long saga of snow, missed flights, lost luggage etc) from New York, via Grand Rapids, on the Saturday after Christmas and stayed for a few days, feeding our new neighbours as you can see below (the cat is not too sure about these new somewhat large neighbours). They went to Glasgow for New Year (at a do in Hampden Park) and we just went along to the Port Charlotte Hotel to see in the bells. Plans to cycle along did not last long in the cold and dark, so I drove and limited myself to one dram.

January has been pretty cold, though we have avoided the snow which has fallen elsewhere - we just have it on the hills to provide us with cracking views. I did mange to go on a "test walk" for Walk Islay week, over the hills in the rain and have managed several rounds of golf, though mostly delayed because of frost in the mornings. We had a nice break thanks to a visit from Sue & Tim who also needed a break so came for 5 days in the middle of the month.

I have very busy setting up the golf club membership system in order to get the subscription renewals in the post this coming week. I have even manged quite a few rounds, though they were often delayed by frost. I also got sucked into a game of table tennis for the first time in many years.

It being January we were involved in two Burns Suppers - well one was the Port Mor lunch club do where I did the toast to the lassies and Bronwen sang. She was also singing at the Feis Ila Supper, of which a DVD was made and just arrived - Bronwen seems to be hiding it for her private consumption only, but if I can extract a bit I might put it up here!

I also managed a trip off the island last weekend (only my 4th I think) to a bridge congress in Dunoon. Very tiring playing bridge until after 11 each night, but very enjoyable. We did not feature in the prizes, but neither were we last. With any luck I should be off the island again on Thursday/Friday when my dad is due to get his cataract sorted in Glasgow - this was delayed last month due to him catching a cold, so we hope it will happen this time. Friday was the Choir's annual dinner, with an excellent meal at the Port Charlotte hotel .

Sadly Bronwen's mother seems to be fading fast after suffering another stoke, so things are somewhat uncertain for the next few weeks. The photo below is Ed and Bronwen from the hill behind the house looking south, the house being the one just to Bronwen's right shoulder.

Where did November Go?

I can see that this is now going to be a very occasional blog indeed as we seem to be very busy - or at least the time seems to vanish very quickly. I have been getting up to speed with the membership side of the golf club, as I have to get this year's renewals in the post by mid February. We are changing the system we do this on, so I have been doing trial runs to ensure that it will all work.

November saw the Golf Club prize giving dinner - sorry about the photo - I had had a drink or two, having won a couple of prizes. The t-shirt was a present from the ladies section! Roz was over that weekend and our table ended up winning the quiz as well (Roz also won a bottle of wine in the Lifeboats raffle). Bronwen was away on Quaker business and visiting her mum in the Lakes for about 10 days. The following week we had a supper for those involved in building our house - apparently the first time in about 25 houses that they had ever been invited to such a thing. We also finally managed to get the solar panel fixed - so now we haven't had any sun for a few weeks! The weather has been much colder than usual so our electricity bills will be high (if we ever get one - we switched to B Gas on August 5th and have not had a bill since!). We are getting plenty of use from our multi-fuel stove though.

Last week saw our first "free" flight to Glasgow to take dad to a couple of hospital clinics. They are free in that the flight and (I hope) taxis are paid for, but nothing else - they do contribute to B&B if you have a receipt. However dad enjoyed staying a couple of nights with his brother in Milngavie and I stayed with Pam in Cardonald. The flights were very good - lucky with the weather, but killing several hours in Glasgow airport is not much fun.

We are now gearing up to our first Christmas on Islay, although things are very sad here with the recent terrible road accident (see BBC News) which happened about 2 miles from where we are. So far we have had the bridge club dinner, and this week sees the lunch club dinner(s) and Bronwen is at some ecumenical gathering for lunch today. Roz arrives on Saturday, Pam on Monday and then Ed and girlfriend Sue fly in from the States on the 27th. So I guess this will next be updated after the festivities. I had intended to produce Christmas cards using the photo below, but somehow it just never happened.

All the best for 2009