On the Sea in Skye

I was on a teambuilding day this week with work. Usually I hate these things. I hate paintballing or anything ‘shooty’. And there is always a forced feel about the whole thing. Well, not this time!

Thre are about 15 of us scattered over Scotland, 4 in Skye, so we all converged there and went out fishing and spotting cool animals. We were on a boat called the Spindrift, and I really couldn’t recommned it more – Pam our sea-faring guide was able to spot and show us loads of wildlife (gilemots, cormorants, puffins, SEA-EAGLES, seals, porpoise) and we caught a few fish too. OK, so the other boat with the other half of the company caught 17, and we caught 5, but we were worried about overfishing….

I’d have to recommend Cafe Arriba if you happen to be in Portree. Its has a lovely atmosphere, great food and they put together a great picnic for the 15 of us!

I also did some great shopping at the Uig Pottery which you can buy in Uig or in Portree (Crocks and Rocks).

I also stopped at the fantastic Pottery Bunkhouse in Lagan on the way up, which does AMAZING home baking (think there were about 8 freshly made cakes including Orange cake filled with fresh cream and strawberries, Queen cake, Stem ginger cake, lemon drizzle, carrot cake which I had and was AMAZING…) and has a great wee shop too.

And had a delicious bowl of cullen skink and fresh baked bread on the way back again at the Invergarry Hotel. I really recommend the food there, and the kids menu is great (I have a real problem with most kids menus)

Pics to come…

Clever Floss…

… has taken some splendid pics of the bits and bobs I put together for her for the Thatlittlebit greener swap which you can go see here.

I think the lovely French sunshine makes a big difference to the random mish mash of things I sent to her!

Thanks again Floss, and big thanks also to Emma and Rachael for organising the swap!

Oh no – not ANOTHER apron.

Nope – TWO!

Ha!

Modelled here by the delightful Frankie, I appliqued on a wee blue letter F on the fron that you can’t quite see. Her dad, Guy, had a lot of fun filling up her front pocket with bananas and spoons!

Working up another for my cousin’s wee girl, Sophie, known affectionately to us as Soapy.

A month???

Outrageous…..

Anyway, let’s gloss over that (again…)

So, I have actually been doing stuff. Like the “Thatlittlebitgreener” Green Swap.

Following are pics of what I was lucky enough to receive from Floss, my swap partner.

A lovely handmade postcard using old french maps and a fabric flower.

A set of my own fabric flowers.

A doorstop ( very handy when having windows open to stop slamming doors.)

My very French very lovely apron.

Some Fair Trade Vanilla pods, and a set of napkin rings.

4 lovely, French, fabric napkins, one seen here being used this morning for breakfast (honey and butter on toasted rolls)

Shamefully, I forgot to take photos of what I sent her but it went something like this: Green and blacks Chocolate – Peppermint ; Pincushion made of old shirts ; A string bag ; some locally produced hot banana chutney : a jar of buttons ; a jar of nutmegs ; and a handmade (very handmade) case containing handmade books, some pencils and recycled gift tags.

Aren’t we clever!!!