Busy busy!

Well Sarahs wish to never speak to BT again unfortunately didn't come true and so we are still waiting to be connected and therefore have only spasmodic internet access if we visit either Inverness or Aviemore. An inconvenience for us but a diasaster for Sarah, trying to build an internet based business and now living at the house. However -all is not lost as our immediate neighbour John has come to the rescue by giving Sarah his wireless password and she can now often be found working perched on a stool at the top of the garden where she can pick up a signal!!

Sarah and Joe moved in on 17th and were amazed at the cavernous size of the interior of our 807 as they managed to put both their sofas in at once! Their rooms are beginning to look very cosy and they say it is lovely to see the stars so clearly from their window at night.

There is so little light pollution here that if you get up at night it is impossible to see your hand in front of your face - we may have to install some kind of night light on the landing or we could find visitors wandering all over the place!

Liz had a much calmer set of flights this time with six nights at work in Sutton and then was due to fly back with Ruth, Bethan and Toby for a few days. Unfortunately both Tim and Ruth went down with food poisoning the night before and so Bethan and Nana had a 'big aeroplane adventure' all by themselves. Ruth and Toby came up the next day and were able to recuperate a bit while Liz and Bethan got on with the serious business of planting out the winter salad and brassicas.

Richard meanwhile, apart from moving Sarah and Joe has been busy putting together bookshelves and unpacking numerous boxes. He has also managed to expand his coffee shop loyalty card collection!

It has been a busy couple of weeks with Matt and friends visiting as well as Mum and Dad and their friends Tony and Yolande and we are looking forward to actually having two whole weeks in Scotland when we return this time.

We drove down overnight on Tuesday with Bethan who proved herself a true traveller and was an absolute star. Mummy and Toby flew down on Wednesday afternoon and collected her before driving back down to Winchester. Unfortunately both Liz and Richard seem to have picked up the bug so all further packing is on hold at the moment.

We have hired a van, which together with the 807 and our new, high sided trailer should hopefully transport most of our remaining belongings from Belmont. With Matt moving into his new flat this week-end and Tim and Ruth moving into their house at the end of September it continues to be a time of change for the Coolings!

Here...or there?

After a very uneventful week back in Belmont eating the dubious remains in the fridge Liz caught the flight back by a whisker -becoming a bit of a habit!! Suffice to say that she was on the M23 at 09.15 with her flight due to leave at 09.30!! Convinced that she would be spending the next few hours in the airport she nevertheless hurtled through the depths of Gatwick and amazingly found herself at the gate just as they put out the last call. It was a slightly surreal experience - once she had recovered, to see the loch and house at Moy on the descent to Inverness an hour and a half later. The experience was similar to what one would imagine it is like to be 'beamed up' and strange to think that just three hours earlier having been in charge that night at work, she had been handing over to the day shift on the neonatal unit.

Saturday saw Richard and Liz at Moy fair, a hugely well attended event which was a great afternoon out and we walked home laden with edible goodies which we were able to share with our new neighbours, John and Barbara who we joined for a cuppa on the way home.

Our first guests have arrived and seem to be enjoying themselves. It is good to have a slightly longer stretch up here (8days) and so far it has been a time of highs and lows - excitement for Liz at finding that Pete, another neighbour also reads 'Home Farmer' and 'Country Smallholder' and shame at having to confess in the agricultural supplier that she only needed one 'tattie sack' for her crop of potatoes - well, there's always next year!!

We were offered 20 chickens this week but feel that until Liz is in Moy permanently it would be difficult to look after them properly so reluctantly had to decline although it was tempting...

Making progress - and losing the dog - again!!

Having been forewarned by Sarah about the 'redecoration' of the lobby floor we were nonetheless pleased to be back after a very straightforward run overnight. A strategically placed rug covers the 'teal tension' and will no doubt stay there until we get around to redecorating that area - not high on the agenda.

The guest room will soon be complete and we look forward to welcoming Paul, Jasmine and Millie next week. Jasmine and Sarah were at college together and Jasmine was one of Sarahs bridesmaids. The Moy game fair takes place next week-end and we are informed that it is a ;must' for the locals, so we will all be there.

Rhema once again decided to raise our stress levels by disappearing while Richard and I were unloading the car. Despite the 'trail' of a furry bone left at the top of the drive we were unable to locate her and were beginning to think it was possible that she might not be found when we got a phone call to say she was safe - on the other side of the A9!! For those of you not familiar with it, the A9 is a very fast road, notorious for the number of accidents on it so the fact that out air head of a dog managed to cross it without either getting hit herself or causing an accident is nothing short of a miracle. Sadly we have now decided that she cannot be free range and have had to keep the gates closed.

We are beginning to think about cutting wood to start dryingout and I am now the proud owner of my own chainsaw together with some very fetching steel toed orange wellies! In due course I will enrol on a chainsaw course but in the meantime am now back in Sutton after possibly the worst journey back we have ever experienced. I skidded into night duty with about 30 secs to spare and nearly broke my record of never having been late for work.

It's all systems go now as the survey on our house in Belmont will be done this week and the purchasers hope to move in in September. Richard will be heading back North with another car load on Monday - after a day watching the cricket in Birmingham and I will fly back on Thursday - wonder what I will find this time?