Visitors from London

We have Sue's sister Helen and her daughter Sophie staying with us at the Barn this week. They flew up to Inverness from London on Saturday, and return on Thurday. It's their first visit since we've been living here, so they are enjoying their Skye 'experience'. The weather could be kinder (it's drizzling this morning) but it's not stopping us from getting out and about.

Photos to follow!

Website revised!

I have just completed the launch of our website for SkyeHolidays 2010 - www.skyeholidays.co.uk

It's rather a radical change from the previous website, and we are not quite sure that we like the new colour scheme. Please have a look. If you spot any errors, I'd be pleased if you would let me know. Constructive feedback also welcomed, but please be gentle - I'm only an amateur!

I think the biggest problem (aside from learning what all the words mean in Dreamweaver... I still don't know what a 'spry' is...) is getting ones newly created pages to display more or less the same in different browsers. The biggest problem I have had is that Internet Explorer version 7 displays pages completely differently to the new Internet Explorer version 8.... AAArgh! At least IE8 is closer to Firefox!

(For those who are not following this - sorry! My website analytics shows that around 78% of my site visitors use Internet Explorer - don't know which version - and around 17% use Firefox. Then there's Chrome and Safari and a few others.... sympathetic messages from website designers welcome)

Looking forward to winter...!!!

It's Friday evening, which means tomorrow is another day of frenzied duvet wrestling and vacuum violating. Sue is sorting out all the sheets, towels and pillow cases as I type.

We are both beginning to feel that we could do with a break... how the B&B owners keep going all season I have no idea. They have my greatest respect!

Washing machines...

Here at the Barn we do not hear much of our upstairs visitors - the place is pretty well soundproofed... however, we can hear the washing machine when it is running.

Last week we had a washaholic - the machine was used 14 times in one week...

Tonight, Sunday, it is running again. These visitors arrived yesterday...

Now, is it me, or are we suffering from washing-machine abuse?!!!

Rains a lot in the south, doesn't it?

I'm back on Skye. The sun is shining. It's a beautiful day.

I had a great week visiting friends and family 'down south'. With Sara and Rod, who live near Southampton, we went for a long walk along the River Hamble. It rained, most of the time, but that didn't dampen our enthusiasm for what turned out to be a lovely walk.

With Rod in Holly Hill woods

Me, on the ferry slipway at Warsash - note that the wet weather gear has been removed!

From Southampton, I went west to Devon, to stay with my sister Sue who lives near Okehampton on the edge of Dartmoor. Of course - we went for a hike..... in the rain....

Sue and John approaching Black Tor - that Dartmoor Drizzle can be seriously wet stuff!

Black Tor (in the rain...)

From Dartmoor, my next visit was a short journey to Torquay to see Val. The weather was so bad the first day that I couldn't take any photos because I couldn't see anything through the swirling mist and driving drizzle... However, by my last evening, things improved, and here is a shot I took as I fell backwards off my chair in Val's garden while the BBQ was sizzling...