No Scotland - Again

Primroses on a local roadside

Friday, March 5

I was so disappointed last week. On first hearing of Boris's road to the end of lockdown, euphoria. Self Catering was legal from April 14. We could look forward to another week in the Highlands, cottage booked for 2020 and deferred until this year. 

Then, Nicola moved the goalposts for Scotland, making Boat of Garten an impossiblity. An email from Sykes Cottages endorsed this, giving us the choice of choosing another date or having our payment refunded. Fair. I looked at the dates, it would have to be 2022 as our cottage is fully booked until November this year. We were not that happy with the place anyway so we decided to cancel and look for somewhere else for 2022.

Having now engaged brain and read some more, I realised that all, Mull and North Uist included, would be impossible as hotels would not be open until May 17 - a week after we should have arrived on the Uists. No longer should we drive that far in a day anyway. Our days of driving to Sunderland for a Sora and home by lunchtime are long past. Pam loves driving, but the physical stress of it has caught up with her. I can't drive more than short distances so we can't share.

We then started looking in the Highlands area and ended up booking an extremely expensive house outside Grantown on Spey. We fell for it, and threw usual caution to the winds. A culmination of two years disappointment and the need to have an enjoyable target. We have remained positive throughout all the Covid 19 lockdowns, staying at home etc. That was a low point. Going out on Monday helped enormously.

It's planting time again. On Wednesday, I planted three varieties of tomato seed, peppers and leeks. If seed is successful in that it tastes good, I continue to use it when possible. This year I have planted old favourite Ferline which is the standard round red tomato, Rosella, a cherry type and Country Taste, a beefsteak. I was happy with the Big Daddy I grew last year, but the seed was not available. The leeks are Musselburgh, an old variety which stand well over winter. I wanted to try some new ones, recommended by Gardening Which, but couldn't get the seed.

I've done my rotational veggie crop plan for this year and the potato patch has been covered with fleece, warming up the ground ready for the second earlies, Nicola, which are chitting very nicely. 

We are still enjoying our favourite webcams. Being able to rewind the film means that we can see animals which visit in the night. The moderator gives a time frame and names the animal.The Flying Squirrel which visited the Ontario feeding station was far too rapid to photograph. The Genet visited the Pretoria platform, the Opossum was at Canopy Lodge, Panama.

A Genet 

and an Opossum. This had an extremely long tail which disappeared off the edge of the table. 

Last night, we had the pleasure of watching David Bryant's Zoom presentation entitled 'Birds of the Yare Valley'. Despite my learner's ineptitude in using a new programme, missing the introduction and the first few minutes of sound, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and smooth running session.