Augustus Uvidulus-Drookitus

My Father-in-Law was a bit annoyed at me. He said I was wishing summer away. But I wasn’t. I was only wishing August away. It’s my least favourite month of the year. I hadn’t realised he was correct. August IS the end of summer. June, July and August collectively is summer. But I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that we’re going to have a wonderful Indian Summer all of September and at least half of October, so I consider it just to be starting, not ending. In Ireland they call it ‘the little autumn of the geese’. I can thole anything that August brings if I promise myself an Indian Summer. It’s dry, sunny, the colours are beginning to turn and the roads are quieter. There’s an early morning, envigerating cool autumn air and the spiders hiding places are revealed by the dew.

August comes with the expectation that it will be all about barbeque’s, holidays and suntans, but in the Highlands it brings gridlocked roads, rain and midgies - although the midgies struggled to get a grip in the high winds, which included the tail end of a hurricane this year. When the sun does squeeze through the clouds, it can have an exotic heat, but the next shower brings the temperatures down, along with the spirits, and the moment passes. I don’t blame the holidaymakers for the gridlock. Why wouldn’t you want to come to the Highlands for your holidays? I did it myself when I was 19, once the hay was all in from the fields in late June and I had time to hitch my way around the north west in glorious July sunshine. I knew then that this beautiful region was where I wanted to live. When the sun shines we have wonderfully short memories and forget that it rains. I suspect that short memories and eternal optimism have evolved for our emotional well being in the west Highlands - if you don’t have that, you’re stuffed.

I’ve felt so sorry for the toursits. Often they will say they don’t come to Scotland for the weather. A Maltese family told me it was 40 degrees at home and they spend an hour in the sea each morning and night and the rest of the day hiding inside with the air conditioning on full blast. A Swiss man on his boat in full wet weather gear, told me his friends at home wished they were here as it was too hot at home. He didn’t look so convinced. We’re so lucky to have the water - we know that. But the unrelenting rain this August has almost brought us to our knees. I’ve enjoyed watching the world pass through Neptunes Staircase, using it to cross east to west coast or vice-verse. I’ve had lot’s of French and Dutch visitors at my caravans who have been a real pleasure to meet. August is a stay at home, lucrative and hard working month, and I soak up the exotica of the peope passing through. But here we are at the last day - sun shine and promise. Love it!!

This was the last rays of July. I love that it looks like I’m on a full on drove. In reality it was a 10 minute manoeuvre!

Also the last rays of July. Meg and Cam grew up together before he and his family moved to Australia over 21 years ago. He currently lives with us.

Late July and half of August brought Meg, Darragh, Rua the Lab, and the pizza oven. It also brought 2 Kiwi’s, Roberto and his girlfriend Ellie, and if you throw in Aussie Cam, we sometimes had 7 or 8 for dinner. For the first part of July, me and the dawg lived completely alone because Spook had legged it to Canada, so it was quite a contrast.

Saying goodbye was sad…..

Meg was so worried there wasn’t enough space for the dog that she nearly off loaded the precious pizza oven. She needn’t have worried….

Rua was the saddest to leave. It’s always a wee bit hard when the holidays end.

Running Girl continued with her weekly dips but had to combine her winter and summer attire…

I squeezed in a visit to my bestest old pal at the start of the month over on the east, arriving at 10.15pm in time for the birthday cake. We became best friends when I called in to Aviemore on that hitchhiking trip. I knew that cool girl from college lived there so I thought I’d look her up…..and now we’re 60!!

Tomorrow is September. Today the sun shone, loaded with promise…

And a little creative pollution.