Summer 08

The nichts are fair drawin in, and the only remaining vestiges of summer are the midges and ticks, which hopefully soon will go the way of the warm days and late sunsets. We never got away this summer but still managed to somehow spend more than we would have if we'd gone on holiday. Oh well! Now we're paying for it with strict budget cuts and frugal living, so we're feeling a bit poor. Never mind all that though, here are some of the highlights of our summer in pictures.

The last month of summer term we had Zoë and her friend Monica staying with us and attending Ullapool High School. Not sure what they made of school in Scotland, but we loved having them around even if they did slink off to Perth every weekend, foiling our dreams of free babysitting. Thanks guys.

We thought we had a few years left before the kids started going in for wild hairdos, but Mhairi got started at the school sports day at the end of term.

Finlay mastered his two wheeler at the start of the hols and has rarely been off it since.

The outdoor pursuit of the summer was swimming in the river near home. Here's me having a wee jump. Note the weird convex warping effects the g-force seems to have on my abdomen.

I managed to get out once or twice on the mountain bike. Joe looks much better than me though.

After 8 years in Ullapool, everyone except me (Dave) finally made it on to the ferry to Lewis. Grandma, Grandad, Auntie Jockie and Rowan came too. It was atmospherically dreich.

We did get away camping once for a few days, just down the coast at Gairloch. It's always nice to camp right on the beach and we got the new canoe out a few times. This picture's a good one because it almost looks like Christine knows what she's doing.

There were several walks up the hill at the back of the house. This one obviously took its toll on Joe and Christine.

My pal Jeff came over for a whirlwind tour of Scotland and to see a Man Utd game at Old Trafford. The game was rubbish, but Scotland's glory made up for the disappointment that is Engerland.

It was nice to have a visit from Uncle Cobb at the end of August, but a little worrying to see him turning back to the old ways, albeit in a funky Kajagoogoo stylee.

Joe won 5 gold medals at the Beaver Scouts Olympics. As Beaver leader, I had to restrain all the fatherly-pride celebrations till we got home.

The other day we had a wee explore of the caves at Rhue.