A horse head in my bed...?

On Friday, I received the following through the post:

I suspected that this could be some kind of 'horse head in the bed' message from the Island Mafia, a comment on the popularly held belief that I am the island's 'Ms No' when it comes to assessing people for showers, or maybe some snide hint about my personal hygiene.

Eventually I found the note that was in with it, which although it made me chuckle and solved the mystery, is a far less dramatic story than the idea that 'they' are out to get me!!

I'm still waiting to be asked to check out the large wicker structure they are building on the Oa, health and safety inspection!! Ha, I'm keeping an eye out for them!!!

*scuttles off to peer out of window through binoculars in a paranoid fashion*

End of the day

Just a couple of pictures looking up and down my street at the end of the day. Catching the last bit of the sun:



These are the houses and hotel (and bakery) down by the pier











And this is 'the round church' (they are very imaginative folk here), so built to prevent the devil from hiding in the corner. Now why did no-one think of that before?


The bank also has a round room on the corner (to keep the vicar's money in?)
and there are an unusually high number of dome shaped greenhouses here (to keep the devil out of your growbags.)

Mystery object no.2

OK, still waiting for a definitive answer on what Mystery object no.1 was, but here's another one to get started on:


This one is very freakish, it's another bone, but doesn't look like it comes from any earthly animal that I can think of.
Loch Ness Monster anyone??

No place like home

Been a bit crap in taking so long to get a picture of my house on here, blame it on waiting til there were no cars parked outside the Co-op. Anyway, this is where I live:



For those who haven't seen my house already (oh I love my visitors, thankyou for coming all the way up here)
This is the house I currently and happily under-occupy.
The painting round the windows is a traditional island thing I think. (shame about the colour though)




But is it home???
Had a bit of a mithering time a few weeks ago about how work's going, and everything else, what with it being 3 months I've been up here now.
Then in a uncharacteristic fit of sensible-ness, decided that it is far too early to decide whether it is working or not, so have put off stressing about it any further for another 3 months

And this pictures here to remind me again why I'm here.

A song for Islay

First entry recieved in the 'Song for Islay' competition, songs inspired by this beautiful isle

Sent in by young Dai Bod of South Wales:

" It's so fucking boring in Islay,

I'm gonna be here for a while eh!!

I'll spend my time fishin'

but all the time wishin'

I was back in the small town of Llantrisant,

....just by Talbot Green,.... in Rhondda Cynon Taff, S.Wales !!!!

Chorus;-

There's somethin bout Scotland that gives me the creeps,

All that space, but not enough sheeps!

There's somethin bout Islay that isn't quite right,

There's no drunkun musos on a sunday night !”

There will need to be some stiff competition to beat that one!

The war against the slugs

Having been pleased as punch to finally have a garden again, even if it was just a square of grass, I launched back into the 'Gardener's World' mode, which I have been missing for years. Just realised, looking back on it now, how much work it's been.

First I was donated a load of old wooden framed windows, which I painstakingly scrubbed down and repainted, and built into a coldframe. Despite all the time and effort with the paintbrush, it still looks like a load of old windows, but in my eyes it is a thing of beauty.

I filled it up with all my little veg plants: tomatos, courgette, celebrese and sweet peppers.

Then I watched as the slugs travelled from far and wide for the feast.
And I got cross.

I was out morning, noon and night hunting for the little ****ers who helped themselves to my plants and then disappeared as if by magic.

In an effort to be environmentally friendly, I was reluctant to pour a load of slug pellets all over my garden, so I used rock salt instead.

Finally my plants became big enough to withstand the slugs. Or the slugs got so fat they couldn't climb past the slug defences.

Phase II was a taller greenhouse built by my Dad, as the tomatos quickly outgrew the coldframe.
The construction of this led to us managing to shatter one side of a double glazed pane of glass in the garden, and me getting my first full blown midge attack.

I now have the poshest mini greenhouse I have ever seen, complete with sliding doors.

And hopefully I will have some veggies to show for it at the end of the day. The sweet peppers, celebrese and courgette were the slugs favourites, so there are not many of them left for me. But I should have enough tomatos to feed a small army.