Carpets of Snowdrops
The storms and bad weather that has effected ferries sailing to Islay has not deterred the snowdrops from making an appearance in Bridgend woods. They are carpeted with the first flowers of the year and are a truly welcome sight.

 Back from a walk in the woods and on to finishing another path in the garden at Rowan Cottage. During a welcome break from path laying the sky caught my eye, the shafts of light seemed to create golden pools of light on the loch.

   

Next step in the garden at Rowan

Work got underway in the next  stage of developing the grounds at Rowan Cottage this week.   

 

We look forward to sharing photos of the next phase of the garden development next year.

 

Paul Jones comes to Islay

 

 

Luckily for me I came to Islay on the week that Paul Jones and his wife visited. They were in  Bowmore Village Hall telling us their story of how they found their faith, which they did in an entertaining and enthusiastic way. I just loved listening to him and his wife singing and his harmonica playing was just great.

 

 

Oh and by the way he does look that young!

 

picture on the patio

 

Thank you to Rachel and husband Marc for creating this picture on the patio. It is made up of stones and shells collected from various scottish islands, including Islay. As they were too heavy to take back to Germany on the plane, Rachel made them into a picture for us during her trip in June. When I visited a few weeks ago, the picture was still intact.

 

If anyone likes collecting shells I have found that the beach at Ardnave is a great place to go. For those who like collecting shells with cockles still inside them a trip to killinallen across the bay from ardnave is a good place to go cockle raking. We have spent great times on claggan beach making stone towers from lovely looking stones, a great way to spend some time with the kids and be creative.

garden continues to grow

The garden continues to grow even though the growing season is coming to an end. The framework of the garden is well established even though it is taking time to implement. Innes our neighbour has done a wonderful job of putting up fences to frame the garden and the washing area. He is now working on creating different levels in the garden for us.

view from rowan cottage

Amanda and I recently visited and managed to gravel the washing area and we were able to do this in the wonderful November weather and take in the views as we did it.

oars well thats ends well

the gig oar makes it to Islay.

 The gig oar used by friend Toby in gig races off St.Martins makes its way to Islay. The old oar had been resting behind the seven stones pub on St.Martins when it was spotted as a potential name plate for Rowan Cottage. Toby sawed the end of the oar and it was transported to the mainland by the helicopter to Penzance, then it continued its journey on the new ferry the Finlaggan to its final resting place on the gate of Rowan Cottage.

In the same trip we managed to paint the shed, now looking quite coastal and adorned by oyster shells.

the green green grass of home

can you tell the difference!  Well yes you will be able to but you can do all the things on artifical turf that you can do on the real stuff. As you can see it is being thoroughly tested by the "kids" but a big thank you to Frank and Chris who made a momentous journey to lay the lawn and edge the pond. They did a great job.

 

                                                                                        the pond is now ready for planting up in  June    but there are already tadpoles, water boatmen and

whirlygig beetles bringing life to the pond.