It was a lovely evening watching the sun set over the longest day. The weather has been amazing this week – long may it last!
Down at the bottom of the garden near to the road are the remains of the old cart track. It has lovely mossy stone sides and we have wanted to try and uncover it and restore it for a while now.
A recent spell of windy weather meant the largest of the trees covering the path was damaged and needed cutting down giving us the perfect opportunity to start work. It also meant Tom could use the chain saw so he was happy.
We’ve had some amazing skies here recently but we’re rubbish at photography so we have had to rely on Dani who was staying with us in Willow lodge last week and shared this lovely night sky with us.
We’ve still got a few gaps and some Autumn availability – why don’t you join us in some star gazing? If you’re really lucky you might get to see the Northern Lights too!
Well this is turning out to be quite the year.
The Scottish government have now published their roadmap for reopening various sectors of the economy. Tourism, including self catering accommodation, has been given a date of 15 July.
Your safety is paramount to us and we are being guided by detailed cleaning and sanitising guidelines which have been published by the Association of Scotland’s Self Caterers, along with other organisations. In brief, the equivalent of a deep clean followed by sanitation will be carried out between each let.
We will be staggering arrival days and opening up to any day arrival to ensure that we never have more than two lodges to prepare in one day. This way we can be sure that we have prepared your lodge to the very best standard.
If you have been to stay with us before you will notice some changes in your accommodation. This is all based on the guidelines we are working to. We will have to strip out non essential items such as books and games. We are also advised to remove throws from beds and sofas.
We’re not entirely sure what will be open in the way of restaurants and cafes. What will be open will be the great outdoors. So if you’re willing to accept some compromises but you want a change of scenery and fresh air then that’s all still available.
Anyway – the photo is of the sky at midnight last night. Lovely noctilucent clouds 🙂
Hello everyone
We hope that you are all well and that the impact of this horrible situation is as minimal as possible to you all.
The island community has been amazing. We have all come together to make sure that those who are isolating are look after. We are shopping a few times a week for neighbours and were today gifted these amazing hand dived scallops by the Ethical Shellfish Company which we cooked up with some local black pudding.
We don’t know when we will be allowed to re-open yet, but we’re going to spend the next few months finishing off the winter jobs list and hope that we’ll be able to welcome you back soon.
Jo and Tom x
So Storm Dennis wreaked havoc over the country and that included the destruction of our bus stop and bin shelter. We’re sad that we can’t fix the shelter but it gives Tom a great excuse to ignore my beautifully prepared winter jobs spreadsheet and instead spend hours in his shed making a new bin store. This means he can use ALL the tools from the ‘middle of Lidl’, including this lovely multi tool.
It keeps him from being under my feet I suppose.
After all our New Year guests had left we closed the doors for four weeks to get some work done in the lodges. One of our main jobs this winter is to strip and revarnish the floors in Beech and Willow lodges. The floors are now ready for the varnish, but ‘Storm Brendan’ with it’s pesky 60mph hour winds has led to the boats being off today, so we’re hoping to start the varnishing tomorrow. If you want to check out our lovely new floors for yourself then we are re-open from the start of February all the way through until the end of the year!
We don’t get out very much during the summer, but we made an exception on Saturday night to go to the Seafood extravaganza in Dervaig village hall. Six courses of the finest food, including an enormous seafood platter.
It’s a once a year event but you can sample amazing food like this at some of Mull’s fantastic restaurants. The chef for the evening was Helen Swinbanks who runs the Hebridean Lodge in Tobermory, one of our favourites. Why not treat yourself when you next stay with us!
www.hebrideanlodge.co.uk
We’ve promised Fuggle extra treats if we can fill the remaining gaps in September.
So here she is doing her best begging face. As an incentive she’s asked us to take 10% off the standard rates.
September can have the most lovely weather and it’s so nice seeing the landscape change. Come and see!
Congratulations to us!
We’re been awarded a Certificate of Excellence for all of our lovely lodges AND we’ve also just been given ‘Superhost’ status on Airbnb. Yay!
Naturally, we always prefer it if you book with us directly – both Trip Advisor and Airbnb add fees on for both guests and us so it’s always cheaper to book with us directly.
It’s a great boost for us though and shows that we’re getting things right.
Abandoned Boats
Beech Lodge
Willow Lodge
Rowan Lodge
Sycamore Lodge
Need more? - Catch up on Island life Blog