Menoffagainorrhoea - a few sights more

Continuing to share the day spent with Mlle GC. I did think I had taken an external shot of the house in Auchindrain in which the visiting student helpers were staying, but it seems I didn't. It was rather lovely, seeing and the smoke out the chimney and smelling the peat fire on the inside. They were making use of the old box-beds. Their water was coming from a standpipe over by the field gate, which draws water from the burn (stream) coming down the hillside.

There were about ten, as far as I could determine, a mix of male and female and from various countries. They were digging out the channels for the runoff water. A perennial task, no doubt, and much needed as it gets pretty boggy underfoot in the lower parts of the settlement. Food was provided by the cafeteria at the entry gate, so they didn't have to make use of the old ranges. I love seeing those wrought iron stoves. My grandparents lived in a house which had this style of cooking equipment. Before they 'moved up' into all mod-cons; still a range, but run by oil, with a boiler at the back to provide running hot water. No more need for dip-baths topped up with the kettle. 

Then there was the trivet - the drop down iron kettle/ pot stand. It was in the 'parlour'; kept water/food piping!

With the sheep around the place also, I was very much carted back into memory of early childhood. 

As we came down from the high house, the clouds came over real dark. We just made it into the cafeteria when the heavens opened. Being a tin roof, it was a fierce drumming and we could hardly hear each other talk, as we tucked into lentil soup and cheese doorstops, which they called sandwiches. As we finished, so did the rain and we set off for a wee look around Inveraray and home via the 'scenic' route of Hell's Glen. The heather put on a fine showing.

A lot of that road is the single-width, passing-place type of road, affectionately called as 'sheep track'. Very picturesque, but surprisingly busy and one must keep alert. Particularly as going over the edge means precisely that.

Mlle CG is like myself and enjoys a wander along the lesser routes. That was her plan as she set off next morning, to take the by-ways and back roads round to Crianlarich and Perth, before back to Edinburgh. On that second day the rain came BIG, but she and Desiree had a great time, regardless. A bientot mon ami.