Highland Line Number 34

The house renovations are, for all practical purposes, finished! Only a few items remain to be completed but the house is totally livable and very comfortable and roomy. The scaffolding came down, the building materials and debris were cleared away, the skip has been uplifted, and a new pathway has been laid down to the front door. The place looks great. We hope you have checked the blog now and then to see some of the photos, but if you haven't done so, you can take a look back at June by scrolling down this page and looking on the right side for a heading that says "Archives." Click on "June 2006" which will show the blogs for June, beginning with the last entry at the top of the page and the first at the end.

We feel that the past 7½ months of disruption, aggravation, and for a while there, displacement, have been worth it for the splendid results we've achieved. We had some of the best tradesmen in the area and must say that they were all good people as individuals so that having them around was not unpleasant. Still an all, it is nice not to have to get up early so we can get ourselves dressed and the car moved before workmen start arriving or to leave the car elsewhere until they leave at the end of the day.

Most of the remaining items on our "snag list" are relatively minor. The largest item that remains to be done is the painting of the garage, but we can wait a wee while on that. We did have the side fence painted. The greatest problem is the studio cupboard as it still doesn't exist in any form. All we can do is keep nudging our contractor to nudge someone else, but so far, the nudging and even getting cross does no apparent good. Like the Buddhists, we've tried to "cultivate patience" but surely there are limits!

This month the decorators finished their job too. Now it is down to us to get the landscaping and room decorating finished. We have made a start but still have much to do. I've spent quite a bit of time unpacking boxes and putting things away. We've both done some planting but there is much more to be done. Don put together a trellis planter and has begun putting together the garden arch to encourage visitors to go around the sitting room extension to the new front door, but building the arch takes a lot of work and that, in turn, takes quite a bit of time. Unfortunately, when he isn't out playing golf—or when we aren't making one of our weekly half-day trips to Perth—Don has been watching either Wimbledon or World Cup matches. He did, however, put together two more dining room chairs the other day so that we could do our first bit of entertaining last Wednesday when we invited two couples over for dessert and coffee and to see our new "digs."

We had some wonderful weather in June: lots of sunshine and blue skies, very little rain (although we just had a week of cooler and at least cloudier weather with one day of rain). The good weather trend is back, however, and continuing into the first week of July when we're expecting more sunshine and temperatures reaching highs from the low 70s, then into the mid-70s, and by next Wednesday a high of 84 is predicted (and this time, we have a fan). Lows are to be in the mid-50s. We have now passed the Summer Solstice so the days are just barely beginning to shorten. The sun is still rising at 4:30 each day and setting at 10 pm giving us many daylight hours to be productive.

The Petanque Club is back in full swing. The long evenings make it a most enjoyable after-dinner activity. We aren't super players but at least we didn't get appreciably worse during the winter lay-off. We also are enjoying the new season of Jazz Nights at Tullybannocker restaurant and look forward to upcoming dates on that schedule. A big night out for us in July will come on the 24th when we and Robbie and Peter Innes go to Glasgow for a Billy Joel concert.

Donald has won yet another golf tournament, this one a golf outing by the Comrie Seniors to play the course at Kirriemuir. Don and David Nicholson tied for the cup. With David's handicap being only 11, they awarded him the cup but gave Don a bottle of gin, not a bad compromise—and a prize he doesn't have to give back at the end of the year. For Father's Day I gave him an electric golf cart to help get his clubs up and down the hills at the Comrie Course. (This isn't a ride-on cart but just a battery-powered trolley for his clubs.) He continues to play at least 5 times a week and to work hard at improving his game.

I am so pleased to have my studio back in commission and to be back at work on my quilting. We hung some new quilts after the decorating had been done and switched some to different locations. It's amazing how the same quilt in a different location and with a changed background colour and more light gives the piece a new look.

No visitors are scheduled for July and so far, we have no July travel plans. We hope to finish up the landscaping and interior details and decorating this month and begin to start to catch up on local entertaining.

Are you enjoying some vacation time? We hope the weather where you are is not too extreme. We've been hearing of unseasonably cool weather for some of your areas and horrendous rains and flooding for others. We can tell you we don't miss the heat and humidity even a little bit, although locals (especially the young ones) think we're crazy not to want to be in warmth and sunshine all the time. The thing is, with this climate, when you do get warmth and sunshine, it is really special and something to truly appreciate and enjoy.

As ever, we look forward to hearing from you sometime and catching up with what's happening with you.

Love,

Lynn and Don