Lazy Days and Sunday Mornings

The tourist season has pretty much come to an end for this year with just a trickle of visitors coming through - intrepid adventurers who obviously like to experience the solitude and winter wilderness out here, just as I do actually.

It usually takes a week or so for me to start unwinding and to reclaim the house as my home again after filling it for 8 months of the year with house guests from all around the world. Don't get me wrong, I like this business especially as it allows me to live here and enjoy the lifestyle we have. I wouldn't change a thing and we get to meet some really interesting people with some really unusual stories from some really wonderful places - if we accepted all the return offers of hospitality we would have to start our own global travels right now in order to fit them all in!

My lazy days so far have comprised of sleeping in past 6.45 a.m (woo hoo), not getting dressed until lunchtime (woo hoo too), mountains of toast for lunch topped with lashings of melting butter, reading my book in bed followed by afternoon naps, bowls of cereal for tea, walks on the beach with Megan & John, drinking mugs of hot chocolate and sitting for hours at my laptop in the breakfast room, watching the world go by along with my very own moving picture show in the form of the weather moving up the Sound of Iona, all supposedly under the pretext of updating the website.

One of the best bits though was having friends over for dinner last night and not worrying about getting up to cook breakfast for guests in the morning. These sessions can turn into 'all-nighters' as we put the world to rights! (yeah right, as if it will only take a few wee drams of whisky!). This morning over Sunday brunch and nursing the 'mother' of all hangovers we had our woeful, sorry heads distracted with the incredible flying skills of a solitary female buzzard hovering over the grassy embankment along the beach just outside the window where we were all sat, as it hunted for voles and mice.

It's aerial acrobatics as it hunted its prey and at the same time dismissing the dive bombing antics of several hooded crows (locally known as 'hoodies', because they behave like thugs!) as though they were irritating gnats was a real honour to watch and really rather humbling. It added a certain wow! factor to the start of the day and despite our grumblings of the night before made us realise how very lucky we are to live here and just how small and insignificant we are in the great scheme of things.

The walk afterwards down at Ardalanish Bay helped blow the cobwebs away and cured the hangover. The photo was taken by John this afternoon - it's a great place to walk especially as the tide was out and the beach deserted. Hope you like the view.