Moving Trucks - DIY or All Inclusive?
There is a profession in home removals - not only is moving a stressful time, it's a time when time itself is precious (things have to...
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John Burkinshaw
Nov 11, 20235 min read
Getting the Kids Sorted
This is where the hard part kicks in. Our house move will involve moving five people and three cats in four different directions! It is a...
John Burkinshaw
Nov 4, 20232 min read
Tidying Out The Junk
No matter how ruthless you are about selling on or chucking out your stuff, if you live somewhere for over 20 years, it will build up....
John Burkinshaw
Oct 28, 20232 min read
Rain Rain Go Away
Argyll and Bute climate is wet and mild. A quick check on the MET sites shows that there's about 3 times as much rain than in the West...
John Burkinshaw
Oct 21, 20232 min read
Art
Liz : When I first talked with Kathryn about her coming to see the house and stay with us she said how nice it would be to do some...
John Burkinshaw
Oct 14, 20232 min read
Minard and Kilmartin
Tuesday we thought of venturing to the other side of Loch Fyne, as little as 10 miles as the crow flies but about 40 miles drive as you...
John Burkinshaw
Oct 7, 20233 min read
Puck's Glen and Studio Cinema
Monday was going to be 'mixed' with weather coming in during the day, so we headed over to Holy Loch and took in Puck's Glen which is one...
John Burkinshaw
Sep 30, 20231 min read
Caol Ruadh Sculpture Park
It does have to be said that John is not very arty, so for him to say that paying good money (albeit only £5) to walk around a garden and...
John Burkinshaw
Sep 23, 20231 min read
Making it Feel Like Home
At this point in time (July 2023), we haven't hired a removal van to move our stuff from Leamington to Scotland, so there's a balance of...
John Burkinshaw
Sep 16, 20233 min read
Beach Day With Kathryn
Fast on the heels of our June break in Glendaruel we headed back up north with Kathryn, a friend of Liz's from her time working in NHS...
John Burkinshaw
Sep 9, 20232 min read
Clacheranmor - what does it mean?
No one seems sure on what the house name, Clacheranmor, actually means. We asked Adam and Emma, the previous owners, and Heather and...
John Burkinshaw
Sep 2, 20231 min read
Birds and Squirrels
One of the most wonderful revelations about our new house is the huge number of birds and other wildlife in the garden. And we are doing...
John Burkinshaw
Aug 30, 20232 min read
A Bizarre Twist, Small World and Sprint Finish
The first viewing we had was a bit random. Over a year ago, one evening, a polite lady knocked on the door and left her number with us,...
John Burkinshaw
Aug 24, 20232 min read
Getting the House on the Market
The emotional debates about putting the house on the market were intense, both between us and with our young adults. Deciding to sell up...
John Burkinshaw
Aug 19, 20233 min read
Sudden and Drastic Change of Plans
Despite our best laid plans, set in motion over a year ago, everything has taken a sudden turn.... children, even grown up ones, are so...
John Burkinshaw
Aug 12, 20232 min read
Last Day and Heading Home
After Martin, Sarah and the 3 kids left we had a few hours left, before heading back home, to tidy the house up and maybe tick one last...
John Burkinshaw
Aug 5, 20233 min read
Guests With Kids
Our friends, Martin and Sarah, are a little younger than we are and have 3 kids quite a bit younger than ours - 6,4 and 2. They called in...
John Burkinshaw
Jul 29, 20232 min read
Benmore Botanical Garden
We are really lucky to have the beautiful Benmore Botanical Garden on our doorstep (well, a mere 20 minutes drive down the road). We...
John Burkinshaw
Jul 22, 20232 min read
More DIY
We'd planned for a mixture of DIY and having a break. John's DIY focusing in the un-seen stuff like pipe lagging and insulating whereas...
John Burkinshaw
Jul 16, 20232 min read
Filming Day
After our frenetic bedroom decorating ahead of 'I escaped to the Country' coming to see us we were a little exhausted but put our best...
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