New things
Threre's all sorts of new little things going on. We checked out Wild Argyll Kitchen for cakes in Tighnabruaich, interestingly run by the...
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John Burkinshaw
May 114 min read
Charlotte moves house at last!
Having got home from Italy at 3:30am Wednesday, with Charlotte and Hugo finally set to collect keys on Friday we made plans for a...
John Burkinshaw
May 45 min read
Italy - part 4
22nd April Monday After our last breakfast at our heavenly hotel and saying goodbye to our cat friends we headed up the coast past Bari...
John Burkinshaw
Apr 303 min read
Italy - part 3
20th April Saturday A glorious morning here in Puglia and breakfast out on the terrace in what can only be described as a perfect...
John Burkinshaw
Apr 274 min read
Italy - part 2
18th April Thursday We woke this morning to a glorious clear blue sky and ate breakfast outside just round the corner from our room. The...
John Burkinshaw
Apr 234 min read
Italy! First trip abroad since 2019
16th April Tuesday OK and we are off, for real! We left Glendaruel with Liz's Mum and Dad holding fort whilst the Wren kitchen fitters...
John Burkinshaw
Apr 203 min read
Small but satisfying DIY
We've been keeping ourselves out of mischief with a few bits of light DIY over the last few months - on top of the bigger projects like...
John Burkinshaw
Apr 134 min read
Long overdue trip to Leamington
Our first trip back to Leamington since moving north had been late January, to coincide with Charlotte's 21st birthday. The next trip had...
John Burkinshaw
Apr 93 min read
Trying out Church of Scotland
We always had planned to try the local churches in our new neighbourhood, but with John's illness, it somehow felt even more important to...
John Burkinshaw
Apr 63 min read
An old friend comes to help
We have been making a lot of progress with the house - getting trades in for things like the windows, kitchen, and toilet room, together...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 302 min read
Trying new walks and new eats
There is a lot of loch shore and coastline and trying to find new places for a little stretch is part of what we're trying to do. Glenan...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 264 min read
1 in 2 million: New diagnosis, new decisions
So, it turns out that John has a really rare form of cancer. According to NORD (National Organisation for Rare Disorders), John is a 1 in...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 233 min read
An exciting project
One of the strange features of Clacheranmor is the window inside the house in the porch area. Because of changes that have been made to...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 191 min read
Train trip to Oban
Our nearest train station is Arrochar/Tarbert about 40 minutes away. From there you can either go north to Oban (2 hours) or all the way...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 165 min read
Update on sale prices
This will be the last time we check out the sale prices, to see how the rest of the houses we looked at fared, as it is perhaps a bit of...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 94 min read
Nightmare journey, and first major renovations
Liz works in the double glazing industry and knows that site surveys are massively important ahead of ordering materials. There are an...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 52 min read
Good Times With Friends in February
Murder mystery night We've mentioned before that there is a local amateur dramatics group that put on the panto every year, and in...
John Burkinshaw
Mar 22 min read
CT results - is the chemo working?
Written before the appointment: Thursday 29th February is the date for the CT results and for chemo round 6, but the last few weeks have...
John Burkinshaw
Feb 272 min read
Fun Times in February
Dinner at Portavadie Another local restaurant needing a test drive was at the posh marina at Portavadie. We'd heard good reviews but John...
John Burkinshaw
Feb 242 min read
Exciting update on the kids
In October 2023 the kids had moved to respective boyfriend's parent's houses. Not necessarily ideal, but that's how it turned out. Quite...
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