For sale – sunglasses, T-shirts, shorts, sun tan lotion, a parasol. All new, unused. Will accept thermals wellies and raincoat in exchange.

We have had our ‘summer’ holiday. Two nights on Skye and overnight in Glenelg. It was a lucky break, we had sunshine, excellent B&B Peinmore, and Glenelg Inn is a wee gem. The scenery on Skye is gorgeous in sunshine, stunning, dramatic in mist.

We spent two days cruising, gently, all over the place – and saved a fortune in fuel by not rushing about. People with attitude shouldn’t venture onto the single track roads. You go nowhere fast except over the edge down a steep hillside. We met only one unpleasant driver, a man in a wee sports car. He pointed at us, to reverse instead of going back himself. We reckoned he was closer to a passing place and indicated he should go back. Well! He shot off backwards, tyres squealing(!), at great speed, obviously furious. Apparently, as we passed he showed me (I was driving) the finger but I didn’t ‘see’ it. I was looking at the road… What he didn’t know was that I had three boxes of rocks , all the luggage and  the dog in the back, and to reverse even the fifty yards uphill on a single track road would have taken me so long that he would have grown a beard by the time he could pass. I just hope his reversing caper didn’t ruin his lady companion’s holiday. Tut tut.

The purpose to go to Skye was to collect marble from Torrin for my bases. It’s a fascinating place and the people couldn’t have been nicer. We got  a wee tour of the quarry. Hard hats and day glow vests  were provided – did no favours to my already windswept look – and that had a big wow factor. It is a beautiful rock face, all the colours and patterns in it. I could have brought home half the rock face. They are after the white marble but I tried to pick chunks with most colours. Make a note – take photos of the cut stone and include on the web site…. I’m glad nobody took a photo of me in the hard hat and  vest. That added to the torn jeans and wellies was not the most flattering attire. Still, did I care.