The happy farmer took us all out for lunch today to the Port Charlotte Hotel, two out of three children were quite happy with the suggestion, so we weren’t doing too badly, and the third soon forgot her gripes once we were in the car and heading along the coast road. Oyster catchers were lying, huddled up in the sand, between the rocks as we drove along. Primroses and bluebells brightened up the verges along the way, and a menu of fresh seafood greeted us on arrival.
Watered and fed, I made my way to the swing park with the younger two, while the happy farmer headed to Debbie’s stores at Bruichladdich for carry out coffees and a strawberry milkshake with our eldest. I should have known better though, it took the happy farmer a long time to go the short distance, what with chatting to the girls at Debbie’s, and then meeting the BT boys along the road, or ‘Outreach’ boys to give them their new titles!
I took to sheltering from the showers of rain under one of the canopies on a climbing platform as I patiently waited for the happy farmer to return. The children had a great time though; they don’t notice a shower of rain with so many rides to go on and climbing frames to clamber over.
The play park was a community venture. A group of local mums set about fundraising, and now Port Charlotte boasts the best children’s park on the island. It is packed with all sorts of brightly coloured adventure platforms, roundabouts and swings, basketball nets and a football pitch, and built near the shore it has the most spectacular views out across the Atlantic.
In the summer months they are going to run a campsite nearby, having built a new community centre, which offers a hall, kitchens and restaurant, toilets, changing rooms, launderette and showers. It will be a hive of activity, and to top the lot it has its own power generated from a wind turbine, and is heated with some new form of eco heating using heat energy from the ground. Oh dear am not too good at describing these green energy devices. I must learn more. The happy farmer was very impressed; I think he is hoping to change our heating system at some point in the future to something similar.
I got out for my run, getting soaked in the process, and nearly losing the dogs as they raced off to greet one of the dogs staying at our cottages. Nearly tripped over a lamb out the hill too as the sheep dog took to rounding it up and chasing it under my feet, eventually I managed to escape from the lamb and got the dogs safely home. Pet lambs fed and children in bed, the happy farmer is out lambing and I am off for a rest.
Until next time….
Watered and fed, I made my way to the swing park with the younger two, while the happy farmer headed to Debbie’s stores at Bruichladdich for carry out coffees and a strawberry milkshake with our eldest. I should have known better though, it took the happy farmer a long time to go the short distance, what with chatting to the girls at Debbie’s, and then meeting the BT boys along the road, or ‘Outreach’ boys to give them their new titles!
I took to sheltering from the showers of rain under one of the canopies on a climbing platform as I patiently waited for the happy farmer to return. The children had a great time though; they don’t notice a shower of rain with so many rides to go on and climbing frames to clamber over.
The play park was a community venture. A group of local mums set about fundraising, and now Port Charlotte boasts the best children’s park on the island. It is packed with all sorts of brightly coloured adventure platforms, roundabouts and swings, basketball nets and a football pitch, and built near the shore it has the most spectacular views out across the Atlantic.
In the summer months they are going to run a campsite nearby, having built a new community centre, which offers a hall, kitchens and restaurant, toilets, changing rooms, launderette and showers. It will be a hive of activity, and to top the lot it has its own power generated from a wind turbine, and is heated with some new form of eco heating using heat energy from the ground. Oh dear am not too good at describing these green energy devices. I must learn more. The happy farmer was very impressed; I think he is hoping to change our heating system at some point in the future to something similar.
I got out for my run, getting soaked in the process, and nearly losing the dogs as they raced off to greet one of the dogs staying at our cottages. Nearly tripped over a lamb out the hill too as the sheep dog took to rounding it up and chasing it under my feet, eventually I managed to escape from the lamb and got the dogs safely home. Pet lambs fed and children in bed, the happy farmer is out lambing and I am off for a rest.
Until next time….
Lovely - It took me back to the days when I spent hours with young ones at the climbing structure. You are the only person I've ever heard of who nearly tripped over a lamb while running!
ReplyDeleteHello Posie. It's so lovely to be reading you all again. Beautiful picture too. Know what you mean about feeeling befuddled by computers - think I am going to need a few days off after all this!!! x
ReplyDeleteThis site is sooooo much better for pictures!! Yes, we've been looking into that ground source heat pump too - quite a lot of money to install from what we can gather, but some grants are still available I think(?). It's the way to go and we are seriously looking into it - our neighbour has one and swears by it.x
ReplyDeleteWhat a fab picture. How nice we can post as many as we like now. Just need to work out how to do it. Getting more computer-illiterate by the moment here.
ReplyDeleteWe can never get 100% agreement from our 3 either, so we usually think 2 out of 3 is good too
ReplyDeleteI forgot you are a runner, I'd just started running and I've been whacked out by this labyrinthitis thing. hope it goes soon as I can't wait to get back to it
xx ps was cowgirlsuk