Very busy right now! Its August! Phew...the sun is shining and the moon is a waning balloon.

September 15th. After the wild weather of the first week (tail end of American Hurricane) true balmy September weather is upon us.  A time of mellow fruitfulness indeed.  Our visitors are enjoying freshly picked apples and fresh apple juice from the old tree in front of the greenhouse.  Sue Williams reckons its a Ross Pippin variety, but who knows. Its old, been there since Joyce and Roy moved here in 1972.

There is still time for some blackberry picking - so there will be some blackberry and apple crumble on the menu this week!

Joyce is sunbathing on her patio after some light ironing from our Thursday changeover.  Its too nice to be indoors so I'm off down Pelistry Lane to the beach, time for some blackberrying on the way.  Toodle pip.

Oct 31st.  We are officially closed today. Our last visitors have left us and now is the time to draw a deep breath and think of what needs to be done for next season!

We have been joined by a new member of the family 'Bugsy' who replaces the Rav 4 - a lovely little 4 seater electric golf buggy complete with covers.  Bugsy has a glorious history as a Ryder Cup buggy - who knows which famous golfing bottoms have sat on his seats!  Joyce finds it easier to get in and out of Bugsy and we have had a number of trips out and about this month.  A trip into town takes about 5 minutes longer than it does by car, but we have effectively reduced our use of fossil fuels for transport by more than 50%.  Our guests will be welcome to book 'Bugsy' for an occasional outing during the season.

Nov 15th.  All the flats have had a thorough 'Autumn' clean.  I have made a list of all the jobs that need completing over the winter including repairs, decoration and improvements.

Newcomer to the Islands, Mark Prebble - who has taken over Buccabu Bike Hire - has been a 'garden angel' helping with garden projects here at Carnwethers. We have built some more compost bins using old wooden pallets to deal with all the grass cuttings generated over the year, extended the rain-water harvesting system for the veggie patch and completed a lot of hedge-trimming - though this does seems like a never-ending task! Generally, the hedges need cutting twice a year, but we need to avoid the bird nesting season - tricky given the increasingly earlier Springs we've been having! 

The governments turn around on solar feed-in tariffs for solar photo-voltaics has been a bit of a blow for the local Community Energy Group, and caused a lot of stress and anxiety for local households and businesses who hoped to have installations completed by mid-March.  Given the Islands relative isolation and lack of local skills and knowledge it always takes longer and costs more to make changes/improvements/innovations.

Hopefully we will still be able to get 2.5kw of solar voltaics installed by the beginning of next season which will provide about one third to half of our electrical consumption from the suns energy thus reducing our reliance on energy from fossil fuels even more.

 

Dec 2011.

Happy Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year to you all!

Joyce is enjoying Christmas and New Year with Maureen and her family in Hayling Island.

I am in Arequipe, Peru with my daughter Nathalie and her boy friend Matt! 

Robbie and Sue are looking after Carnwethers!

I can still manage the bookings by email -oh the wonders of modern technology!

Back in January!

26th January

Back home at last!  Time to catch up with all the paperwork and crack on with painting/decorating etc.  The garden is looking great thanks to Mark and Robbie who have been looking after things whilst Joyce and I were away.

Today is lovely - blue skies but a bit chilly the birds are singing and the buds are bursting - is it tempting fate to believe Spring is arrived?