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SLUIE LODGE TODAY

25th January

December '09

 

There'll soon be the beautiful Loch of Sluie at the bottom of our garden

9th August

We are involved in some toad comings and goings here. This shows the lengths we go to in making sure our resident basement toad doesn't get stuck at the bottom step or fall off the top of the steps. The toad staircase is made out of whisky barrel wood - our staircase building skills are available for hire in return for a large tot of the stuff.

1st August 2009

We've had our 13 year old Emily-Jane staying with us for a few days. To make life easy we identified each other by number rather than by name: Cally = 1 / Emily = 2 / Harley = 3

Two night's ago we (nos. 1, 2 &3) invented a new game which we played in pairs: 1+2 / 1+3 / 2+3 / Each pair was given a maximum budget of £10 to bid for something on an eBay auction that evening - auctions which would close within an hour or so. The £10 had to include postage. We had to chose an item which we thought the other player would/might like. It had to be kept secret from the intended recipient - difficult to do because we only had one computer to share between the three pairs.  It was hugely exciting and noisy right up to midnight. The surprising choice of 1+2 for me (3) arrived yesterday (see pic) I removed the base and hung the wheel and bell on the front Garden Studio. I am totally delighted with it - I'm calling it "Three Bells"

22nd July 2009

THE LEANING LARCH

Across the stream in the area we call Paradise there is a 120 ft. larch tree which is leaning at 70 degree angle. It's doing the lean for the first 80 feet and then suddenly turns all vertical for the remainder of the trip. A gale back in February made it lean a bit more and it now looks quite determined on demolishing our wood shed.  We asked Gareth, the Moray Estate Forest Manager to do a site inspection. He came and looked at it and shook his head in disbelief. He was accompanied by his big black Labrador, the sort who keeps themselves to themselves and seem to be hugely intent on something just out of sight which no one else can fathom. Gareth was obviously keen that his Labrador should take an interest in the leaning tree but it was not to be and they were soon leaving us with a vague promise that they would send someone over to look at it.  

The question now is, should we move the chain saw to somewhere safer than the wood shed where it normally lives. If 120ft of larch decides to visit then we can't do much about it if the chain saw is buried underneath a large trunk.

SLUIE TICS

We get tics here in the summer, in fact Moray got itself talked about in London - House of Lords no less! It was all the fault of our bonnie Earl of Moray who spoke from his lordly seat claiming that the Lymes Desease, what the wee tic beasties are keen to give you and me, should be re-classified as a proper disease. We know people who are still suffering years after they contracted it - because they said "No" to antibiotics. Cally got Lymes Desease last year and went all funny for a few days. Happily she said "Yes" to antibiotics and a week later she was restored to perky health.

But we now have developed a remedy to outwhit the beasties  - well two infact:

CALENDULA OIL

We make it, store in bottles and squirt on our persons when ever we venture out into the woods.

Step 1

Visit local health food shop and buy bag of Calendula (marigold) petals. 

If you are a purist then you might want to pick your own. If you are and do then you'll need to pick the blossoms on a warm dry morning. If the blossoms are still damp, spread them out on a flat surface and let them dry in the sun for a few hours. It's important that the blossoms are dry because moisture on the blossoms can cause mould to grow in the oil.

Step 2

Put the dried petals in a quart-size canning jar, and pour hot olive oil over them. Stir until all of the blossoms are covered with oil.

Step 3

Cover the jar with cheesecloth to allow any moisture to evaporate, and place the jar in a sunny window. Leave the jar of calendula oil in the window until it has turned a sunny golden colour.

Step 4

Strain the calendula oil through a folded cheesecloth laid in a strainer, squeezing the blossoms with a wooden spoon.

Step5

Pour the calendula oil into the sterilized bottles and store in a cool, dark place.

Step 6

Decant into 100 ml Spray Bottle for spraying onto boot tops, cuffs as required.

WEE TIC SACKS

Run up a pair of small cotton sacks with flap - see pics - finished size 3ins x 1½ins.

Bung a desert spoonful of dried petals into each and pin one on each leg when you venture out into any tic-filled landscape. 

Dose: one wee sack full will last you one tic season

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