Bleak.

Like the bird feeders I feel totally empty.

We found out this morning that our 'potential purchasers' were just - well not sure how to describe them. Playing a game? Not a funny one.

They have not got finance, have not instructed for their house to be put on the market, and indeed are now 'interested in another property'. Presumably to go play in someone elses home and string them along and along and along. Why view here twice? Why ask to buy the furniture, why,why, why? The amount of work we have spent giving them information, figures, advice. Were they rubbing their hands with glee when they received the stuff through the post, that I had paid for them to get?

By the way this information was not from them. So much for keeping us informed.

There should be a law against this sort of game.

Familiarisation jaunt.

Today our Best of Banffshire and Buchan bed and breakfasts had one of our trips to familiarise ourselves with a visitor attraction so that we can talk knowledgeably about it and send off our guests to also visit.

We had an excellent guide and a tour round from barley from the fields through to the finished product, which some of us sampled at the end. All this cost the princely sum of £4 each, and £2 for the senior citizens. We welcomed on board our tour a lone ranger from Seattle who was still sampling the various tots as we left. I think he was considering going round again with what looked like two coach loads of Germans. I had talked him out of visiting London, telling him it was far, far better in Scotland. And if he really wanted a city to try Edinburgh.

We had started our jaunt with lunch at Lochter Activity Centre which we visited last year when we sampled the many delights on offer there. Fishing, playing with diggers, and wierd scooter things and lots more. The food in their restaurant is amazing, fresh, wholesome and reasonably priced to boot. And not far from the distillery.

So a good day.

We had Lucy and Sandy with us in the car. We were almost there before Lucy sorted her seat belt out, and then throttled me with mine to tell me it was s****. I love Lucy.

No excuses for this picture.

Yet more sky. So good for the soul. And the stress!
Funny old day today. We went to our friends this morning to help with computer problems, not sure they were sorted! But I had the chance to view the two baby ducklings, hatched from their duck eggs in their incubator, and their flowers and vegetables all growing well. And a good crack, or is it craik? (chat). Home for lunch and the friends then came here to fit our grill element on the cooker. Isnt that just wonderful that friends, real friends, help each other. (Memo - stop grilling fat sausages on grill which has flared up and caused fatal damage to grill element. )
Lucy and I drooled over great pile of fabrics I bought yesterday. Waved Lucy and Sandy off with thanks for their help.
Then suddenly I had had enough.
You get to the stage where everything just becomes too much - overload. So I gave my apologies for Rotary tonight - just could not dig up any lets go out and be sociable and smiley stuff, most unusual for me - and hole up for the evening. So here I am. I have just read all my blogs. What a wonderful place I live in. What super friends we have made here. So no, we wont be going to Findochty or Gardenstoun, because its round here and with these views, and the friends we have made is where I want to be.
Tomorrow along with other friends we are off out for lunch at Lochter, then a tour round Garioch distillery. Friends are what its all about - and skies. Look upwards and nearby. Not forgetting those friends who are distant in miles but not in their thoughts and allelulia for the internet!

Bit late with the ploughing..

There was actually a heron in the middle of that lot!

At the other side of the house it was the great carrot harvest. Which has now ground to a halt as "The supermarkets dont want them just yet." Seven huge great pantechnicons waiting to be loaded with said carrots have all gone home. It is an amazing sight when they do get harvesting. There are special tractors for removing the miles of black liner stuff that with straw covers the carrots through the winter. Another tractor extracts the carrots which go up a moving 'staircase' and tip into a trailer. This is then tipped by the lorries and another moving staircase rattles off the earth and places the carrots into the huge lorries and tarpaulined over, off they go to be packed for the supermarkets. Our feudal master, the owner of the land, has suggested we go and get a bag or two of them. So a pantechincon of carrot soup seems on the cards.

I am also much more cheerful than yesterday. Having calmed down and of course people can view the house as many times as they want - so long as they are serious buyers.
I have had the chance to meet my lovely friend, who has moved to the UAE, for an all too brief chat and to take off her hands some beautiful fabrics. My mind is now buzzing as to what I can do with them. One option is to recover all our dining chairs (8) but are we to take them with us? Also to re upholster two dinky bucket chairs, but are we to take them with us? Sod it I will just make some cushions.

I could live here!

Isn't this amazing! A local Animal Rescue Centre, The Willows. Each cat has part of a shelf.

Well what a weekend. We had our booked in viewers on the Saturday and then on the Sunday had the couple who came two weeks ago. They did phone first. I brought them through to the sitting room and asked if they would like coffee. Yes please. So I am in the kitchen making it when I heard them tramping about upstairs. Without a by your leave, or anything. I was furious. I had to charge after them to stop them entering the guest room which had guests in it.
They were here for well over an hour. Going round and round the house and garden. And as for them dishing out any information as to where they were in the buying game was like drawing teeth.
To be honest I still haven't calmed down. Is this to become a regular Sunday afternoon jaunt? As Mike put it, "Lets go pretend we are living the dream."

I am trying very hard to put my usual humorous end to this blog post.
Lets just say I have the vacant shelf at the top in my sights.

Shall we live here?

Mike and I had a day off. We went North and then followed the Coastal Trail South. This is Findochty. Lots of lovely fishing villages in this part of Scotland. Not that far away from here, but a completely different world. Still thinking about it.

We had another viewing this afternoon. Another 'hit' from the reactions of the couple. I am not sure how many more of these I can take without someone making an offer.

Think I just might reward myself for the marathon of cleaning - we also have guests arriving tonight - with a wee glass of the red stuff.

Volcanic dust?

Well they did say we would have fantastic sunsets with this volcano spewing in our direction. Well we usually do have fantastic sunsets, so presumably this is actually blanking it out. There was also a health warning for people such as I with damaged lungs, and I have been wheezing a fair bit, but no doubt thats just down to the household dust I have been stirring rather than volcanic.
We have a judge in for two nights, though here in Scotland they are called Sheriffs. This one has brought his deputy with him...So after dishing out the verdicts and sentencing or whatever, they went off to sample the delights of one of our many castles.

Now how do you do b&b when your grill explodes? As it did this morning. Dry frying tomorrow til we get the part and then try and get hold of an electrician to fit it.

Our wee road has been severely damaged by this winter's weather and we find a notice affixed to our telegraph pole saying the road is to be closed for repairs. So how do we do b&b then? They can't fly in can they!

Whatever next. I expect there will be something.

Don't say a word.............sssh

Trying very hard to not get excited. But our 'buyers' may become buyers on a formal footing. Scottish system can be quite wierd and things happen here that would not happen in England. Like buyers solicitors having friendly chat with sellers' solicitors without actually saying anything. At least our buyers have now instructed a solicitor which is a huge step forward.
If I bate my breath much longer I will drop down dead.

However. Mike and I went and viewed another property today. Fantastic view over the Loch of Strathbeg with the sea in the distance. I could have made the house work for us but as you cannot do anything about neighbours who were all around and very, very close, we knew it was not for us. So its back to our short list of two.

Its been quite strange lately as we tour the countryside for houses for sale. I have been up and down so many roads, quite close to us here, that I have never done before. Seen our house from miles away at different angles! We are quite a feature. In fact we were once visited by the Ordnance Survey to ensure we werent going to dig the front garden up. Apparently they use our garden as a measuring point from a small aircraft to do their maps. The garden has a distinct cross marked out by the walls and paths. Must remember to tell our successors.

Wow!

This is an Osprey catching his dinner, Loch Garten. We have Ospreys around here also, we know where they nest but it is a secret.
My next nest is also a secret, even to me.

We are going to look at another house tomorrow. Our last viewers are still desperate to buy. But I am not building any hopes up. Or down. Well, actually I do go up and down. But who wouldn't!

Guests left this morning. Just imagine - we had a couple of vegetarians in and a (very dishy) young man who filled our shed up with dead deer. We just managed that they did not meet up for breakfast and share - well anything really!

Life goes on!

Mackerel sky this is called.

Good job in some ways that I am running a b&b - takes your mind of the fact you wish you weren't!
Had a mammoth ironing session this morning and cleaned and set up a few bedrooms. Zoomed round the sitting room, dining room, hall ways, corridors, followed by mopping the lot.
Then baked some cookies. Guest who was arriving "early evening" strolled in at 3p.m. just as they came out of the oven. So while muttering curses at him I forgot for a while that I really dont want to be here, if that makes sense.
Tomorrow is my day 'off'. After I have cleaned his room and set up another for more guests arriving. However I have my afternoon of 'shut down' while I have my hair colours done. Rotary in the evening. Well, thats the plan.

No time to play for me.

Alright for some.
Well - what a week. We had our viewing on Sunday and it went extremely well. We scoured round for the few properties up for sale in our price range, location choice, and other being picky limitations, which brought us down to two. One I like and one he likes. But as we had heard nothing from our potential viewers we were beginning to think it was all a waste of time. Then yesterday they phoned. They need more financial stuff for their financial advisor. More importantly they are still desperate to buy. So we spent the best part of today (and it is glorious, sunny and warm,) trawling through accounts etc. Remember we have never been seriously into business, so long as we can do an honest tax return thats all we do. No spread sheets, no profits and losses, no long term forecasts...We know someone could really make this place crack, but knowing it and presenting it as such to a bank manager is a different kettle of fish. Now its up to them. And really with what we have already provided them with they should have been able to make a good case. But like our usual 'we aim to please' we have probably done the work for them. Just hope it pays off. I am in a terrible state, cant settle to do anything, most of its done anyway. I had intended to re-pot all my lilies today, but the best part of the day is gone. So I am having a glass of wine - so there.

Woman at work.

Here is moi in the factory.
This morning I had decided to take a day off. Then the phone rang. A couple wanting to buy a bed and breakfast. Checked the date that it wasnt April the 1st. They are to view tomorrow so my day off sank without trace.

What happens when the snow melts.

Did I mention we had tons of snow at the beginning of the week? Probably not. But we did, blizzards even. Then it melted and the river which we cannot normally see from the house got bigger and bigger.
We had two shooters of deer in most of the week, so I was quite pleased to see the snow as it would make it more difficult to shoot anything. They managed one each.
Been catching up with the ironing and cleaning. A couple in for one night on Sunday. So two nights 'off'.
We also went to view a potential property to move into. I did not like it. It was in a lovely situation and an area I do like. However the living room was the same size as our library here, so not enough room to place our furniture. The dining kitchen was okay size wise and the land with it was enough to populate with any number of geese, ducks, hens, but we are not getting any younger. So a larger sitting room is more important than flocks of poultry. After all you can only eat so many eggs in a day.
This morning Mike found one of our three hens minus a head and dead. Looking on google this could have been a racoon or a horned eagle owl - then I realised I had not put in UK - so it was probably a weasel. His task today was to move the hen run, ensure it was fox proof etc., tho theres not much you can do about weasels, but we will now be watching for dusk to shut the two remaining girls into their hut.
My task was to do the supermarket run. Not a good plan on Good Friday as apparently this is similar to New Years Eve when the place is packed and trolleys are piled high with booze (and Easter eggs.) (two for £7.) They had even run out of the senior citizen trolleys, you know, the small ones you can lean on, so I had quite a wait before even getting through the doors.
However I made it eventually and am well stocked up with beer and wine, but missed out on the easter eggs - and with our depleted flock probably on hen eggs too.