#kintyre66 – Middle Age Musings

The good weather continued long enough for us to completely clear the orchard of brambles. No mean feat I might add! With Karen and I working in tandem we are pretty pleased with the result, all of this in preparation for (hopefully) pruning the apple trees in February.

Karen putting the finishing touches to the orchard with strimmer

Further proof of clement weather throughout the majority of January is the abundance of snowdrops and the early appearance of daffodils.

Not sure these will last now February’s storms are here

The weather also made for some excellent walking in January allowing us to find some new routes on this small Island. It may be small but the walking routes are plentiful and with advances in the paths project moving apace, it will surely encourage more visitors in the summer. The Isle of Gigha Trust and the Ranger Service (hope I have that right) must be commended for this initiative and the pleasure the paths have already given us.

The route we have walked the most is that from just North of Achamore Gardens down towards Leim beach through the Island’s wind farm. The first pictures are from earlier in the year with the sun splitting the winter sky, but I have a hazardous tale taken from yesterday’s walk. I dressed in waterproof coat, hat and gloves before setting out for my hour of exercise. On the most exposed part of the walk, which until that point I had enjoyed fair weather, the hail started. At which point I remembered that one shouldn’t walk in jeans as they are indeed the wrong trousers for bad weather. The hail did not take long to permeate the denim and the return leg of the walk had me carrying more weight and some discomfort from my saturated choice of legwear.

However, two new routes have been found. One to a beach on the East just south of and opposite the gardens and a second to the highest point on the Island. We braved the climb, which in all honesty is neither steep or of great altitude, but affords fantastic views to all coasts of Gigha and beyond. Some pictures taken from these walks below.

As often the case in these months we had the beach to ourselves

A bit of advertising for Kintyre Firewood who are keeping us warm with regular deliveries throughout winter

All play and no work makes Andy a happy boy, not quite the proverb but I need to talk about some other gains made however small in the house. The stormy weather that started just before February rolled in drove us inside and we re-commenced the rip out of the Old Manse again. Starting top down as we promised ourselves the stair well between first floor and attic rooms has been stripped.

We knew that the outer wall was prone to condensation as warm air hit the cold wall and it became apparent why when we stripped plaster directly onto brick. The decision has been made to introduce insulation to where it isn’t currently on the outer walls, the challenge is doing so without compromising the space. For now it’s about stripping back and the outer stone has been revealed and the internal walls stripped of wallpaper.

Plaster removed from stone wall – insulation required

February’s storm have also thrown up some new challenges. The shepherd’s hut has lost the roofing felt we were so proud of applying in November and we have had to take emergency measures and the application of a new tarpaulin to the shed roof to stop water ingress.

Re-tarp’ed (not retarded as was spell checked on my Insta post)

Lastly, I have to mention it’s back to play today with the start of the six nations. February delivers a feast of rugby and starts with the Calcutta cup. I predict a close match accompanied by a couple of pints of Guinness!

I have been a little quiet of late and there is little to tell about things at The Old Manse as focus has had to be on our exit from Cardross. The week has come when we have to be out of our rental there and the four bed house has be packed into either a) storage b) our smaller let on Gigha c) the Manse or now d) friends who are willing to look after items for a while. Oh and Facebook marketplace has been a frenzy of activity, in the latest kitchen stock-take we still own 3 slow cookers though…..

At the beginning of the month we began to let a small holiday cottage on Gigha and took the opportunity to scope out the temporary home with our good friends Kathryn & John. Weather not allowing for further work on hut or Manse that weekend we drove the Kintyre 66 – this time (for me) with more success in finding the Antony Gormley statue at Saddell Bay. I have to credit John with the first photo below as he was brave enough to scramble out onto the rocks for the vantage point. https://www.wildaboutargyll.co.uk/destinations/kintyre-and-gigha/the-kintyre-66/

View from the rocks looking back towards Saddell Castle

Lovely to have some leisure time in the middle of sorting out the move and an excuse to show some picture of something other than storage units and rented transits (still to come). We even managed lunch at Skipness and were greeted with a fabulous rainbow captured at Inverary.

Credit to Kathryn for this great shot at Inverary

Back to the serious stuff. Storage is reaching capacity – largely because I wont sacrifice the large dining table and twelve chairs that, for me, symbolises our love to socialise around food. Boxes are stacked high and today will see the last bits of furniture ‘tetrised’ into place. The rented van has seen two trips to Gigha in as many days to transfer all the garden furniture and a collection of tools for the garden shed make their journey to the Island.

So that’s the week’s update – nothing majorly exciting to tell on the blog this time but a marker to all the practical things that have to happen when moving home. Our eventual new home was looking as great as ever when snapped by fellow Islander Keith this week and he again reminds me why we are moving to this beautiful Island. Hopefully the next time I write you will be seeing us working on the Manse to keep warm throughout winter!

Tag: #kintyre66

The wrong trousers

Moving