New Beginnings

What do you mean that doesn't look like the sort of holiday place you're thinking of for a dream vacation in Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park? The patio areas certainly need a good sweep and, if there were any windows, they would need a good clean so that you could see the splendid views.
RENOVATION WORK STARTS 16th MAY 2011, hurray!
The sun is shining and we are very excited at the prospect of renovating these lovely but very very tired buildings and creating two tip top holiday cottages for visitors.
The plan is to create this. As you can see by the date of the archive entry this has been 'work in progress' for a long time. Lots of unremarkable reasons for that - life work family balance - but we are really keen to see these buildings brought into vibrant and viable use and to share this lovely part of the world with a few people. We'll post more detail on the design and construction approach in due course but, yes, they will have the same high standards as the house we built 3 years ago (can't believe its been that long!). We'll be adopting the AECB silver standard as a target for high levels of thermal efficiency and air tightness to ensure excellent comfort levels for our guests and to promote a more environmentally conscious approach to renovation and building.

In the meantime here's a few moments of Spring beauty present at this time of year...

daffodils at the very end of their prime, blossoms coming forth on the fruit trees...

clusters of primroses in the shady spots...

and a wee bit more apple blossom to show how pretty it is. We planted some fine old varieties of apple 2 years ago to create an orchard and I'm pleased to see that is really taking shape and providing interest now. We planted a mix of culinary and dessert apples and hope the mix will provide a decent long season of apple picking for us and our guests.