International Skye

Skye is a very popular destination for holidaymakers. People come for any number of reasons - there is so much on offer, including hill walking, coastal walking, climbing, photography, wildlife, history, geology.... and just plain, simple peace and quiet.

When we first offered our self catering accommodation to visitors, by far the largest proportion of them came from the UK, indeed, it was quite rare to get an overseas booking at all. But things have now changed. Gradually, the Europeans discovered self catering on Skye, and we would get bookings from Germany, Netherlands, France, Belgium and Italy. But as much of the booking today is done through international booking websites, we have now become truly international. We have been using booking.com for Summer Cottage since we bought it, and at that cottage, a booking from the UK is quite a rarity!

Here's the most recent couple of pages from the Summer Cottage visitors' book. To save you straining your eyes, I will tell you that the entries here have been left by people from; The Netherlands, Romania, Finland, Israel, France and Scotland. There's no photo, but on the previous page are entries from visitors from the USA, Australia and Hong Kong.

The New Toy - Update...

A few weeks ago, I promised I would post some photos of my new toy when it had its new number plates and Skye graced us with some decent weather... well, it happened...

First Time Ever...!!

Yesterday was the warmest day we have had on Skye this year - a very pleasant 24C in the afternoon, with wispy white clouds overhead. Additionally, I have been aware for a couple of weeks now, that we are almost completely midge-free at the moment. This was confirmed by spending a couple of hours cutting the grass wearing a short-sleeved tee shirt, and getting no bites at all.

So, come the evening, I rummaged in the garden shed and came out clutching an unused disposable barbecue that a visitor had left here a few years ago. A few minutes later, a match had been applied, and the thing seemed to began to light OK, so I set off to the freezer for a couple of burgers.

The little barbie didn't seem to be getting going too well - I'm sure the charcoal would have been damp - but I persevered, and sat happily in a cloud of smoke for about an hour, sipping a can of cider while my burgers gradually turned from pink to slightly less pink. I eventually gave up, and finished them off under the grill, but hey - this was the first time in all the years we have lived here that I have actually managed to have a barbecue, even if it wasn't an all-out success!

Chef at work!