A watery week

Well it's Nature Friday again, and truth to tell, I've been struggling a bit this week to come up with a coherent post, as we've been here, there and everywhere, including a quick trip over to Torridon to deal with a (Gail says) boring cottage maintenance issue.

Looking at the various photos taken over the week, a common theme did emerge.

Water! 

Something we are never short of in this part of the world. 

So here I am by the River Dee on a peaceful Sunday walk with our friends M, J and K (photo taken by M).

Then a day later, on the Nairn beach, favourite stop en route to Torridon. (These days I'm let out of the car after an hour of driving, or maximum an hour and a half, which means lots of nice little walks.)

It was a watery scene when we reached Loch Torridon.

See the puddles outside the front gate to the cottage just after dawn on Wednesday.

A bit later that morning I enjoyed the tranquil scene by the loch, for a few minutes anyway, before the wind got up and more rain swept in.

At least the waterfalls never run dry in this part of the world.

Can you see me here, showing great bravery crossing a stream in the woods at the base of Beinn Eighe, a final walk on the western side of Scotland before we set off back to the relative dryness of the north east.

 

Look! There are actual patches of sunshine on the slopes of Slioch. After our walk in the forest, Gail wanted me to wash my paws with a paddle in the clear, clean waters of Loch Maree before I got back into the car, but I did not co-operate.

Happy Nature Friday friends. Was your week a wet or a dry one?

A good decision. Or not?

So Gail has apparently been going round telling her friends how she made a bad decision staying in Torridon for one extra day, how we should have left before the bad weather set in, and how it was a scary drive across blizzard hit northern Scotland on Tuesday this week, with the car skidding all over the snowy roads while at the same time being buffeted by gale force winds.

To be honest, if Gail's fingers were gripping the steering wheel with more than the usual strength during the white knuckle drive back across the Highlands to Aberdeen, I hardly noticed as I was comfily curled up in the back of the car, daydreaming about the two lovely short walks we'd enjoyed the day before. (The day we would have missed if we'd come home earlier).

Friends, do look at the pictures below, and let me know if you think we should have gone back home early, rather than relish being out and about around Loch Torridon, soaking up an all too brief episode of winter sunshine.

Happy Nature Friday! And thanks to our LLB Gang friends for continuing to host the blog hop despite their 'blogging break'.

Never write off a tough little terrier

Gail here:

So the year I didn't expect Bertie to see began with the two of us enjoying a brisk six mile walk in 'exhilarating' conditions along the southern shores of Loch Torridon. 

Not far shy of his twelfth birthday, deaf as a post, and a year and a half after he first showed signs of bladder cancer (for which he's still on palliative medication), you might imagine my dear little dog would have been happy to curl up in front of the log fire and doze contentedly listening to the stormy weather outside the Torridon cottage this weekend. 

Not a bit of it! I'm not going to deny that inside the house Bertie does spend most of his time at rest, preferably lying across my lap on the sofa. But when offered the opportunity for an outing in our glorious Highland landscape, he grabs it with both paws, undeterred by mud, rain and gale force winds.

I have no idea how long Bertie will retain his zest for life. I do know that, after a bad patch with 'bladder control issues' last August, I had a serious discussion with his vet about euthanasia. Then things settled down, and I learned better how to manage the problem. These past couple of months Bertie's condition has been stable and over Christmas we both had fun with our wee poodle guest Ella before she went home and we came across to Torridon for New Year. 

And I've given up making predictions about my tough little terrier!

PS Our New Year's Day walk was the 10 km 'Balgy Trail', the red line on the map below:

All in its rightful place

Oh I'm so thrilled! It's simply the best news ever!

Just when I had given up hope of ever seeing my favourite sofa again, it has magically reappeared in the Torridon cottage. 

(Gail tells me it was there all along, upside down in another room while the renovation work was taking place.)

I'll be honest, travelling tires me these days, and aside from the occasional gentle stroll by the loch, I've barely shifted from the sofa since we arrived here on Friday. 

I mean, who knows, it might disappear again if not carefully guarded.

Gail tells me that my friends will want to see how the cottage is looking now that the renovation work is all but complete. She thinks you might not be so interested in more photos of me relaxing on an old piece of furniture. 

Well, here's a wee peek at the new kitchen at least.

And from the front garden you can see the big new windows and the not yet quite complete porch. 

I must apologise for neglecting my blog friends this weekend. When one's assistant is so preoccupied with duster, mop and vacuum cleaner etc. (most unusual...) what's a pup to do? 

Finally on Sunday afternoon, Gail recovered from her cleaning and tidying mania. She drove me across to the village of Shieldaig on the other side of Loch Torridon. While I puzzled over the local graffiti, Gail consumed a medicinal ice cream, and then we both enjoyed another short but scenic loch-side saunter.

Now back to my sofa...

Behind schedule?

 

So a couple of friends have been asking if the renovation and remodelling work on the Torridon cottage is yet complete.

While politely reminding my readers that this is supposed to be a dog blog and not a home improvement blog, I am happy to take you for a wee sniff around inside the cottage to see how things are going. 

 

So what do you think? 

Gail recalls how when she first bought the cottage (November 2002) a German neighbour warned her the prevailing attitude in the NW Highlands was deep suspicion of the 'mañana' concept as it implied far too much haste! Over the past few months, the pandemic and associated restrictions + Brexit + Highland Council's slow processing of a building warrant + the particular vagaries of the builder, have all combined to make for slow progress. The delays were to some extent anticipated, and Gail is working hard (and mostly succeeding) at not getting too frustrated by the situation...

And who can feel cross for long when just behind the cottage there are mountains to explore?

That's more like it! 

If not Torridon then Torry...

Our Torridon cottage in the NW Highlands is undergoing renovation - still far from complete - and is anyway out of bounds right now due to Covid travel restrictions.

Since we can't spend time amid the peaceful mountains and lochs of the Torridon area, I suggested to Gail the other day that we go exploring its near namesake, Torry - a district of Aberdeen just a hop, skip and a jump across the river from where we live. 

Gail raised her eyebrows at the idea that Torry would be a satisfactory substitute for Torridon, but she decided to humour me anyway and off we trotted.

We approached Torry via the harbour and the golf course. So far so good. 

But on the hill overlooking the golf course, the sight of these grim apartment blocks, calling to mind Soviet style Khrushchyovka, did not bode well. And altbough to me, the local aroma of waste treatment plant blended with wholesale fish operations was actually quite appealing, Gail disagreed.

Further down the main street, the brutal 1960's buildings gave way to tenement housing, so typical of an earlier era in Scotland. Perhaps the scene would have looked more cheerful on a sunny summer day.

We reached the shops, and discovered the source of the many Tyskie and Zywiec beer cans we'd earlier seen littering the path by the harbour.

Disappointingly, Gail did not venture inside to buy me some Polish sausage, and when we found a more traditional Scottish food outlet, it was closed.

I was starting to think Gail was right to be sceptical about the attractions of Torry, but then, quite by surprise, hidden away on a back street between the shops and the harbour, we came across a couple of rows of old fishermen's cottages, all gaily painted (a most welcome splash of colour amid the all-pervasive Aberdeen grey) and we decided the expedition had been worthwhile after all.

And for those of you who love a map... our route, 4.8 miles, is marked by the yellow line.

PS This post is especially for our dear blogging friend YAM-Aunty. She knows why! 

A quick trip west

So last week at short notice* Gail and I made an overnight trip to the Torridon cottage to check on the how the renovation work is going. 

Let's see how things are looking inside.

In what Gail says is the year's least surprising news, progress is, well it is progressing, but somewhat slower than she'd hoped...

What can I say? My sofa is still stacked against the wall in the downstairs bedroom, and there is dust and rubble everywhere...

I'm pleased to report that at least the view from the front garden is unchanged.

On the way back to Aberdeen we stopped off at the grand but also dog-friendly Coul House Hotel for a bite to eat.

The nice man on reception saw Gail taking my photo...

... and decided she too needed to practice her 'pose nicely please' stance.

 

*Gail says: A new set of Covid-related restrictions for Aberdeen, banning non-essential travel outside of our local area, was announced on Tuesday and came into effect on Friday. So I made haste over to the Torridon cottage for a quick visit, not knowing when our ever changing rules will allow me (and Bertie) across to the west coast again. So hard to plan anything at the moment. Sigh...