Highland Insider

No posts since June, but I have a note from my mum to say I was too busy upping sticks to log on.

You’ll notice the view at the top of the page has changed. We’ve left Nairnshire and headed west to that magical bit of coast where our hearts have been twiddling their thumbs for years, waiting for us to catch up with them and move there. It took longer than planned as Nairnshire turned put to be more lovely and interesting than we ever expected, but we wrenched ourselves away at last and here we are, in a seaside village, renting a house while we look for our own place.

The view’s certainly different – it’s weird to be living on a street again, even a small, quiet one, after years in the hills. But just beyond the streetlamps are hills more rugged and sunlit than any we had before, and just round the corner is Loch Broom leading out to sea and the Summer Isles. So we’re happy to be here for a while, enjoying the convenience of having two bookshops and several pubs and cafes nearby, not to mention the local market which is a treat for anyone keen on beautiful arts and crafts and seriously good food. The market is only on once a month during the winter so we’re looking forward to our first visit on Saturday.

Nosy Norris is missing the woods but loving the beach and riverside, and making us lots of new acquaintences whenever we take her out.

The village is a lively wee place and we’re almost overwhelmed with the sudden choice of things to do. Which pub to try this time? A potter in one of the bookshops? A live music session? There’s even a cinema in a van that parks up every few weeks. We’ve got a few months here to try them all, if we want to. But we won’t forget to just sit back now and again, and enjoy our new view.

Our old chooks

I spent the day at the Royal Highland Show on Saturday and my head’s still spinning. In a good way, you understand. There was everything on sale from woolly socks to astrantias, chicken coops to jewellery; there were gun-dog displays and horses, canoes and coracles; artists and crafters; and I only got round about half of the site.

The RHS is much more than an agricultural show these days, but livestock and various crops still form the heart of the show. And what happens to livestock and crops? They are turned into gorgeous, yummy, moreish food. I didn’t even find the Food Hall until after six in the evening but there were still loads of freebies to be had and lovely people who weren’t at all grumpy at the end of a long day. I came home with Stockan’s Orkney oatcakes, Thistly Cross whisky cider, and some gorgeous Lymn Bank cheese with cracked black pepper.

You can still tell it’s a farmer’s event, even if you manage to avoid the hi-tech machinery like I did. There was a stall selling not just roast beef sandwiches, but roast Simmental beef sandwiches (the queue was a mile long) and another with chocolate-dipped strawberries. Nick Nairn and Hardeep Singh Kholi were there, doing wonders with Scottish produce. Not being a meat eater, I ended up with a giant savoury pancake, followed by a Graham’s ice-cream which is now officially the best in the world, in my book.

I spent half an hour in the poultry tent, drooling over the smartest birds you’ll ever see, including silky-legged cockerels, hens with hairdos, fluff-ball ducklings and beautiful, gentle-looking quails. I MISS  MY HENS! One day I’ll have some more.

Of course the only downside to the Royal Highland Show is that it’s not in the Highands at all, but at Ingliston just outside Edinburgh. But I suppose that’s not a downside to anyone south of Aviemore and it hasn’t put me off planning a return trip next year. I’ll be needing to buy a new hen coop after all…

The dreaded midges are back. Today is damp, a wee bit warmer than of late and perfect for the tiny tormentors. It’s the first day this year that they’ve been bad enough to drive us indoors, and from now until October our lives will be permeated by the smell of midgie repellant.

The PL goes for the serious, deet based stuff but I was put off that when I once left a bottle of it on a shelf and it took a ring of varnish off the surface. I prefer the more gentle ‘Wee Beastie’, a gorgeous lavender and citronella spray made by Purdie’s Scottish Soap Company. It’s a pleasure to use, I’m happy to spray it on the dog as well as myself, and I reckon it works just as well as the chemical stuff – which is to say, it’ll put the wee buggers off but won’t keep them all off forever.

Don’t believe anyone who says they have a product that will guarantee you won’t be bitten by a single midge, it just doesn’t exist. It’s well worth using something though, as without any protection you’ll be completely covered in red, furiously itchy bites that get worse the more you scratch. At least with ‘The Wee Beastie’ I know I’ll only get a couple, and around here that’s just something you have to live with.