Here For a Good Time

Today was my last day in Skipness. Very bittersweet. Mostly sweet because I am so pumped to visit Iceland for a few days, but bitter nonetheless. These last few days have been awesome and so fun. Two other WWOOFers showed up on Wednesday to make us a party of five. It's a little cramped in the house but with the wood stove on a rainy day it feels nice and cozy. 

This week has been thoroughly exciting compared to the last, when I was the only wwoofer. I found that I was counting the days until I headed home rather than enjoying my time here. Now with everyone here, I don't want to leave!

We have made a huge dent in the rhododendron burning and firewood collection project with double the people as before. But those aren't the exciting things! I finally got to work in the garden and greenhouse, tying up beans and planting leeks.

There's a scaredy cat peacock that lives in the garden, and is very good at getting in the way.

I also went horseback riding with Rupert's cousin who runs a horse summer camp every few weeks. Haven't ridden since Girl Scouts, back in the day, but it wasn't too difficult to remember. We went all around the estate, even across a stream. It was very exciting.

The next day we stacked firewood for most of the day. That was really exciting...

The rest of the afternoon was absolutely
wonderful. We went to the Seafood Cabin, which is run out of the big house and quite popular for the tourists. It overlooks the sea, the castle, and a couple of fields so you really feel like you're in Scotland while chowing down.

There's the big house/cabin from the top of the castle.

The food was amazing. Best seafood I've ever had. Sorry, Maryland. After dinner we got roped into playing a ballgame out in the sheep field with the cousins and some French guys that work in the cabin for the summer. It was a mix of baseball, cricket, and rounders. So whichever team was losing would pick a rule from the sport that would help them the most and argue for that one. We played until we were exhausted (about three hours), and then collapsed in the field with some local beers from the island of Arran. It was a great day.

Today was yet another great day. We started off  early and took to the heather for a hike. It's much more difficult than it sounds. There are cliffs and gorges and uneven fields, cow dung, and lots and lots of ticks. We went up to the top of the dun, which used to be a lookout point for the castle of each end of the loch and the glen. Made for some amazing views.

 

Except for the rain and fog of course, it was beautiful. Got drenched all the way through, happened upon sheep, and saved the dogs from falling into a cave. Very exciting afternoon. After hiking around the estate we came back to the house where we threw logs on the wood stove and warmed up with some delicious soup and homemade bread. Finished another book too... Spent the next few hours sharing stories, baking rhubarb crumble, getting chiropractic advice, and drying out our clothes from the hike earlier. All four of us get on really well, we all wish our stays had matched up a bit more. These last four days have been spent with amazing company.

Tomorrow I take the bus from Tarbert back to Glasgow where I wait for my flight out to Reykjavik Monday morning. I am really excited to finally go to Iceland; have been since we had a connecting flight there on the way over to Amsterdam. So I'm ready for some geothermal pools and traditional icecream! 

Don't worry Scotland I'll be back soon!