Festivals in and around Loch Lomond

Coming up in May we have Booked which, as you might guess, is a literature festival. Organised by West Dunbartonshire Council library service this festival is just a few years old but already has a loyal local following and has an interesting programme with a great variety of authors speaking.

Events are held (mainly at libraries) throughout the area and there is the opportunity for Q & As and signing sessions at the end of each talk.

Over recent years I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to a tremendous range of interesting people; some first novelists, some seasoned household names, poetry and music, factual social history, biographies, shadow writers, world adventurers and local colour. Whether you're resident in the area or a visitor you are sure to find something of interest.

We've left copies of the programme in both cottages, tickets for the events are free and can be collected from West Dunbartonshire libraries.

Thoughts for the garden

Not the day for sitting outside but not so bad a day for planning what to be growing in the garden this year.

My main focus is always vegetables and fruit, we are not self sufficient but make a fair contribution from our own patch to the kitchen and thoroughly enjoy the prospect of harvesting some of the food we eat.

As a parent one of my favourite times is when the children get home from school on a sunny day, fling their bags towards the door and dash into the veggie garden to eat peas and mange touts from the plants followed by a helping of raspberries from the canes. I dream of this as I look out of the window at the falling snow!

Geilston Gardens

The National Trust for Scotland's Geilston Gardens is about 8 miles away from us and there are many things I really like about this place. Essentially its a very small NTS property compared to many but there is such a wonderful variety of garden landscapes in a relatively small space that there is always a delight around the next corner.

We last visited a few weeks ago as the apple blossom was starting to show its beauty, I love the orchard and am always inspired to come home and when we planted our own (does 13 apple trees equal an orchard? - I'm hoping so) I came to Geilston for inspiration. Actually whenever I visit a National Trust or similar type property the kitchen garden and orchard are my favourite places. Aside from inspiration you can often buy great quality and good value plants; in summer months you can also buy surplus veg from Geilston, all the better for knowing the proceeds go to the charity.
 I also love these gardens because they have something to appeal to all members of the family. The children loved the Giant Wellingtonia tree, we speculated whether the folk of Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree might live in something like this? Was there a slippery slip through the middle of the trunk?! There's a great variety of planting, when we visited much was just waiting to burst into life.

Hello again!

Time flies by with all that sunshine keeping me outside rather than here by the laptop. Lots and lots of sunny days and the garden seems to be growing well after a slow start. Aside from the garden the sunshine has huge benefits; we've generated heaps of electricity via the solar panels and the hot water is abundant too and, to be honest, I've only just turned my mind to the veggie garden so a slow start to the season has been an inevitable consequence. One of the great things about living in Scotland is that while Spring comes more slowly than further south we do have fantastically long days through the Summer and there's plenty of time to catch up. We've planted out the rest of our potatoes (we're cultivating 3 varieties this year) as well as cauliflowers. We'll also sew some more salad leaves and quick crops, these will take a short while to come through but we've got pots of rocket and lambs lettuce to pick at which we established indoors. Away from our own patch we've been putting pots of herbs on the patios of the holiday cottages so guests can help themselves. Whilst we've popped a selection of dried herbs and spices in the kitchen of each of the cottages we know keen cooks will enjoy being able to pick their own. Plum trees have been planted at the edge of the patios so in time to come guests will be able to pick their own fruit, maybe for making a nice plum crumble for tea.
Here's an updated picture of the sitting and dining room of 4 bedroomed Curlew Cottage, there's heaps of room for families and groups to relax together and plenty of space so you don't have to be on top of each other. We've had a few guests in the cottages but there's an inevitable gap between the website being completed and the world realising we are available for bookings. So we've decided to run a great offer to encourage those who are thinking of booking a holiday to pick up the phone and make it real. More details very soon.