Night Vision

04/19/2006

How a day or two can make a difference, the weather is still changeable with rain forecast for the end of the week, however, the temperature has struggled to eleven degrees at last and when the sun appears there is a definite feeling of spring in the air. I have been down to Balvicar ostensibly to help the Kerr’s antifoul their boat although I did seem to end up playing a round at the Isle of Seil golf course followed by a couple of stiffeners, then to be hauled off home by the painty pair. During all this, I saw a swallow possibly en route north, but certainly a day or two ahead of the awaited arrivals in Glen Trollaigh. Now we can expect weeds and midges in their thousands, while Glen Coe hopes to provide skiing for another three weekends!

We have survived the traditional attack of campers and canoeists over the Easter weekend. Fortunately, poor weather kept the numbers down, however, the river Trollaigh did seem to play host to half of the Cardiff University Student’s Union who paddled up and down for five days, becoming increasingly irritating. A couple of camps sites were put under severe pressure by family groups, fathers drinking beer and openly using beach casters to poach the river, whilst mothers and children run about shouting and chopping down trees that the PhD’s with clipboards would have me arrested if I so much as looked at them with a saw in my hand. I am afraid that Lachie and I now grit our teeth at this ignorant behaviour and prepare for a few hours work with bin bags and shovels after the savages have headed off into the sunset, it is certain that we will get no support from the law makers and enforcers who are all on holiday anyway.

Of course, it is not all doom and gloom as the girls come down from the Highburgh house and a few old stalwarts visit for the first time since the end of shooting. We have rather a nice party with hardly a cross word and spend much of the wet weekend tramping about the glen and of course admiring the progress on the new garden. All the guests got together a surprise for yours truly and presented me with a handful of the most wonderful new gizmo. They are little coloured LED lights that can be attached to a dog’s collar so that you can see the brutes in the dark, by varying the colours one can even tell which dog is which. We have great fun watching the pack cavorting around whilst we stayed, Ardbeg in hand, to watch from the safety of the library. Nothing would do but some on the youngsters strapped lights to their wrists and started climbing trees and baying at the moon, all quite batty and an invention with absolutely no practical application that I can see, but that is what I like about them. Yours aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.