The winter has arrived

Drone on the motte

The motte

The Bailey 

The Bailey 

The neolithic axe factory

Old Pinfold

New Pinfold

St Etheldreda’s Church

Late autumn at the Pinfold

OCC Scottish Dinner

23 gathered for supper at the Royal Nothern Yacht Club on Saturday night. We stayed with John & Rosemary Brown and then went onto Maddy and Simon’s at Warkworth Northumbria.

Bashed up Boathouse

Storm Boris happened while we were on the other side of Europe cycling south from Vienna. Today we discovered that Boris’ storm surge had left its mark on our boathouse. 

Built in 2011 (on foundations first engineered in the 1920’s) our boathouse had, until Boris, escaped damage from the many harsh storms that have raged on Scotland’s Hebridean coast over the last 13 years. But Boris was powered by climate change and rising sea levels Consequently we now have many tonnes of pebbles to dig out as well as essential repairs to the damaged cladding and stoved-in doors.

Having just discovered the damage we set about some emergency repairs today. A couple of fibreglass boards patched the lost cladding and we have begun the backbreaking shovel work.

Visitors at the Pinfold

A fresh lick of emulsion paint, some frantic hoovering, a war on cobwebs and some logs in the log burners saw the New Pinfold ready to receive guests. Annabel, Brian, Charlie, Imogen, Sandra, Haydn, Bryn and Liz  (accompanied by the delightful spanabrador, Jess) all duly turned up for a weekend of autumnal walks punctuated by fungus spotting and tree climbing. Thanks for a lovely weekend.