James & Clare, Coddiwomplers Inc: The four 'F's of Scotland

Only in Scotland ...

Felines

We booked a sit in Lochgilphead, on the shores of Loch Fyne, to take care of three puddy tats for Robina and Bill. This was one of those sits that was just meant to be. We found it early one morning and had come to an agreement within approx 20mins of application. Just how we like it too work :-)

The drive up through the mountains and lakes was very beautiful. We arrived on Clare's birthday .... she always gets to travel to cool places on her birthday! We met Sydney, the 22 year old black cat who has clearly had a charmed life as even at this age she is still relatively sprightly. Not always happy with the antics of the young ones, but that's just par for the course for the older generation.

Awww, bless :-)

Her house mates are brother and sister pair Alfie and Millie

We're not meant to be on the bed, but aren't we cute!?!?

These two were hand reared after losing their mum and seem to have missed out on learning some standard cat behaviours .... like keeping dry and warm inside. Whenever it rained (which it did a lot!) these two would come in wet through and shake like a dog. Too funny!

Crazy cat Alfie

Everyone was certainly up for plenty of cuddles, one of the things we love about sitting cats. Along with the fact that they leave us plenty of time for one of our other favourite 'F's ....

Fishing

We conveniently found ourselves on the Crinan Canal which is used by yachties to get from Crinan in the Mull of Jura to Adrishaig on Loch Fyne which is a sea loch. We spent a few hours at the lighthouse in Adrishaig spinning for mackerel to use as bait. We were successful enough to get a good feed out of the bigger ones. Some of the locals told us that there used to be enough fish in the loch to 'fill ya boots' but the loch has been done over by commercial fishing for langoustines ... a local delicacy that the area is well know for. Nothing quite like fresh mackerel though ... just ask the cats ;-)

We would then drive the 20mins on a (mostly) very narrow one-lane road to Crinan at the other end of the canal to fish for something a bit bigger. Again with some success.

Fish on!

We caught quite a few of these gorgeous Thornback Rays. Too beautiful to take home to eat so they all went back to live another day ... or two. Allegedly the wings are delicious so maybe one day we will have to partake.

We also caught a few dog fish and one day the mackerel were so active in the wee bay where we were fishing that we couldn't help but set up a spinning rod just for fun.

Crinan Hotel ... what a majestic location!

On the days that we had Foul Weather (the third of our four 'F's), which was more often than not, we ventured into the surrounding forests to indulge the last of our favourite 'F' words ...

Foraging for Fungi

We are all up for taking the good with the bad and lots of rain actually means lots of wild mushrooms. It seems that some of the most beautiful scenery in the world is created by very wet conditions. This stunning part of west Scotland is very much a product of this phenomena.

Wet wet wet

We visited the beaver regeneration area in the Knapdale forest. No beavers to see but plenty of beautiful scenery and quite a few mushrooms.

We found a huge supply of the most beautiful white oyster mushrooms, almost too pretty to pick, but these ones found their way into the kitchen. Yummm!!!

We came across lots of other mushrooms, some we have seen before others not but each as interesting and pretty as the next.

Not a fungus ... Dog lichen
Still pretty

Dyers Mazegill (or jam donut!)

We were also treated to a good ten minutes of watching this cute guy who wasn't as afraid of us as we expected. These native red squirrels are endangered in the UK, unlike their imported cousin, the grey squirrel.

We visited the pretty port town of Oban on the very day the Highland Games began. There were lots of pipe bands playing down the main street and lots of whiskey shops. We felt like we should have gone in for a tasting but neither of us can stand the smell of whiskey, let alone the taste. Sorry Scotland!