Scotch Bonnets in Scotland?

I planted 18 of these back in March of this year, never expecting much of a result. 2 months later in May I saw the first seedlings appear, 5 to be exact.
I gave 1 to a buddy, and kept the rest for myself. This one has about a dozen fruits, and once they go red/yellow I'll make chilli con carne calliente.

Milly and Meg have a canoe picnic.

Sandra and I have been on holiday for the last week. It's been spent mainly cutting firewood for our winter supply of fuel for the wood burning stove, tidying up our half acre garden, getting the chicken coop winterised etc etc.
Monday was such a nice day though, that we had go for a paddle, and maybe I could try for a pike....

This is a wee loch near Dunkeld. There's a small island in the south west corner so this seemed the best place to take the dogs, as they would'nt be able to wander off. Meg is our 10 year old English Springer Spaniel. Meg is very well behaved, unlike Milly, our 2 year old Basset Hound, she's absolutely bonkers.

I stood watching my rods/floats/baits not catching any pike while Sandra got a wee fire going.


Nothing like burger and onions cooked over an open fire in a proper old fashioned black iron frying pan.

Milly decides to patrol the shoreline and bark/howl/fart at anything that moves.

Well, I never caught a pike but it was a great day just the same.

I do catch the occasional pike though

White water rafting.

Last Saturday along with my son Andy I tried white water rafting for the first and not the last time. This was at the Linn of Tummel, a 2 1/2 mile stretch of grade 2 river finishing with a grade 4 18ft waterfall. The Canadian guide is right at the back and I'm just in front of her.

We never made it, and were swimming just a few seconds later.

Great fun...

Canoe pic.

This is Josh and I on step 5 of an 8 step dam.
We capsised at number 8 due to getting our paddling out of whack.
Good fun though.
I'll get back into my blogging when the cold winter nights come in.
Gordon.

I've been having lots of fun with the canoe this last few weeks. This pic was taken last night on the river South Esk between a wee town called Brechin, and the Bridge of Dun close to the Montrose Basin. There had been a lot of rain so the water was very high and fast. Very difficult to get decent pics on a canoe trip because no-one is very keen to bring camera's or cellphones in case they get wet. This part of the river has quite a few rapids and wiers, and also lots of hairpins and islands.

Great fun....

Chickens.

I finished the chicken coop/henhouse a week past Sunday and on the Monday, Sandra and I went to see a breeder to buy some point of lay hens.

These are called Light Sussex and cost just £10 each. They were much bigger than we expected, and have been laying 4-6 eggs per day between them. The eggs mostly have two yolks of a very deep orange colour and taste great. I have'nt let them out yet but over the next few weekends I'll let them out for a short while in the evening to see if they are happy to come back when it gets dark. Watch this space.............

Sunsets, Rainbows and Chickens.

I've been on holiday this week. Not for a rest but
to catch up on some projects, mainly the chicken
run. I started on the Wedensday by digging eight
eighteen inch deep holes. I then put in the posts with
concrete which I hand batched myself. Thursday
the concrete had set so I set about building the
compound. This has to be tight to the floor to keep
foxes and badgers out.

At this point I have hung the gate, and built the

three sides up with chicken wire. Still have to work

out how to do the front. I intend to have a double

stable type door and another mesh panel. I'll need

to resite the smoker. I'll need to start using the smoker.

Too much work and no play makes Jack

a dull boy.

Nice sunset from my front garden.

Looking out back and there was this nice part

rainbow.

Finally some leaves appearing on the beech trees.

Its going to be a good summer of hard work and hard play.