Jan 10
One of the hardest winters for some time has seen days of sub-zero temperatures and a heavy snow covering on the island. We were iced in for 3 days and had to park the cars at the top of the drive. The roads have taken a real pounding and there are potholes so big that people are now living in them!
We managed to get away at the end of January through snowy conditions to Edinburgh and caught our flight to New Zealand for a month. With the long winters on Skye it's really good to fly away to the summer in the southern hemisphere. NZ had one of the hottest and driest summers for many years so it was quite a change, made even worse by the fact that when we got home in March we were still driving between 6 foot high snowdrifts in the Highlands! It was a very long, cold winter.
Nov
09
It was a very difficult decision but we have found a new home
for the two cats. As we will be spending more time away with the
business and our good neighbours who looked after them while we were
away have moved now it has become a big problem knowing how to look
after them in our absence. The cats really hate going in to the cattery
so the local Cats Protection people found a lady who would take them
both.
Summer seems to be over as August has just been wet, wet, wet. It's warm and wet and everything on the croft is still growing like crazy. Plenty of grass for the 7 young Highland heifers that we have had for the summer to graze. They are beautiful animals, quality pedigree and very easy to look after. We have been feeding them with cattle nuts to help fatten them up, the owner intends to sell them for breeding stock at the end of the year.
July 09
Plenty of visitors coming to stay this month and a busy time with the tile business. The summer so far had been really good, plenty of sun and very warm, but with visitors coming that will change no doubt!
June 09
The bracken has been really bad again this year. Very good growing conditions means that my previous years attempts to reduce it seem to be in vain. I roll it and cut it but although it stops growing further it comes back again next.
Mar 09
Beginning to see some daffs breaking through and primroses are also making a show. The weather is really confusing and there was a temperature difference of 12deg over 2 days recently so the poor flowers don't know whether to bloom or not. After a beautifully warm weekend the forecast is for snow again tomorrow so spring is not here just yet.
Feb 09
Its been our first really cold winter this year and we have had plenty of snow and ice to contend with. It doesn't cause the chaos here that it seems to down south so we have been able to enjoy the snow covered hills and mountains without any associated disruption.
We spent Christmas here with Carol's mum, and already have some bookings for family visits later in the year. The tile business is doing well, with a new website giving the retail sales a welcome boost. Having contacted many of our stockists to gauge business prospects for the year it seems very optimistic as Scotland will probably benefit from stay-at-home holidaymakers and increased foreign tourists with the weak pound.
The new tile website is up and running and already producing some good business, even with the 'credit crunch'.
July 08
We have more cattle on the croft, further details on our Croft page.
Its the busy season with the tile sales but this summer so far has seen visitor numbers well down on previous years. No doubt the 'credit crunch' is affecting tourism in the Highlands, which will be a major blow to the local economy. However, we have still been busy supplying all our outlets so we are not complaining.
Apr 08
To date orders are good with our tile business, and we have taken some nice orders from local shops and castles. We have added a big range of 4"x4" tiles featuring animals and birds native to Scotland that are selling well. As I expand our customer base its looking very much as though we will soon be busy for the entire summer season. We have customers as far afield as Pitlochry, Oban and the Isle of Mull.
Madie and Phil have moved into their new home in Salcombe, we travelled down for a few days in January to help them move. It's a lovely house and they have been fortunate with furniture donated or bought in the sales so they now have a very tidy and modern home.
We returned from a month in New Zealand at the beginning of April, only to find the Highlands freezing under a blanket of snow. Some diference to NZ where we had a month of wall to wall sunshine in what has been a record summer for them.
Carol has been persuaded to do some 12 hour shifts in Portree Hospital as they are very short staffed. With our annual family visits starting in May and the tile business booming it will be a busy summer ahead.
Nov 07
We have starting up a little business selling hand painted ceramic art tiles. I have commissioned some views of local scenes for the tiles, and we are also stocking a large range of standard art tiles to hang inside the home. We are selling through a new website and to stockists on Skye and across the Highlands. To view the range of tiles click here to go to our website.
We collected the tiles from Southampton docks on a flying visit down south in a rented van. Over a ton of tiles and a large roller to tow behind the quad bike made the return trip a bit slower than the drive down, but my garage is now racked out and full of boxes filled with tiles. We have taken orders already and the shops will take plenty in the spring so hopefully we'll earn a little from this venture.
The island landscape underwent a major change during October with the addition of 10 wind turbines erected on the hills behind Edinbane. We can't see them from our house but they dominate the view from the road to Dunvegan and can be seen all the way down the west coast island road.
Wind Farm near Edinbane