Double Diary - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 20 October, 2025

by Rosemary at 9:21am in Smallholding No comments Add your own

Monday 6^th October

The lovely autumn weather continues with sun, broken cloud and blue skies

Dan had his first curling match of the season at the Bonspiel.

Tuesday 7^th October

Murdo was here today. He finished manuring the polytunnel, then he and Dan made a start on the bird boxes – taking down, cleaning and replacing. All the ones they took down today had been used, which is good.

Wednesday 8^th October

I took Linda and Mickey to the vet then collected (finally), Calum’s watch. It’s now ready to go in the post tomorrow.

Lorna and I had a pleasant, if blustery, walk along the front.

Thursday 9^th October

Off to Hampden for Scotland v Greece. Very happy with three points; if only it was fun to watch, rather than purgatory. The smile on Lyndon Dykes’ face when he scored kind of made up for it though.

Friday 10^th October

Knackered this morning; we got in about 1.30am. I can’t do late nights. I had a walk with Lorna, but Crafternoon / Gaelic had to make do with shop-bought biscuits.

Low tide at Arbroath.

Saturday 11^th October

Early start as Pauline and I attended the first day of the SNP Conference in Aberdeen.

Carnoustie seafront.

We now have a strategy for the 2026 ScotParl election. Now we have to make it work.

Sunday 12^th October

Back to Hampden for Scotland v Belarus. Jings, it was worse than Thursday, but another three points. So jammy. At least it was a 5pm kick-off, so home at 10pm. Dan's not feeling 100% - two 90 minutes sessions in the Hampden stands might not have helped.

Monday 13^th October

Another lovely start to the day. Dan’s caught a heavy cold and is feeling awful. I am offering TLC. I’m really tired too, and my brain feels like cotton wool, so ploughing through a few mindless tasks including baking for the event at the hub tomorrow – Chocolate ginger muffins and Mini fruit cakes.

Tuesday 14^th October

Scott, our Farrier, was out to trim Mickey’s feet. The dogs were pests, trying to grab bits of hoof. Smokey is much more productive than Mickey, but they have six weeks to wait for that.

Murdo was here, so he started weeding the fruit garden. I carried on with my cleaning – that’s upstairs done now and the hall and stairs. Planning on doing the living room tomorrow.

Dan’s still not well, but did a couple of hours work before going back to bed.

Wednesday 15^th October

Lorna and I had a walk along the front. Dan was well enough to go curling.

Thursday 16^th October

Now I have the lurgy. Feel awful so staying in bed. Must be right for the Festival.

Friday 17^th October

The sheep went home today. I will miss their wee faces at the gate; won’t miss Stinky Pickles though. I don’t remember our Ryeland tips smelling like that - at least not as strongly.

I had planned to travel down to Edinburgh today, for the Festival tomorrow but felt too rubbish. Sore throat gone, replaced by a chesty cough.

Saturday 18^th October

Brilliant day at the Scottish Smallholder Festival. We did our talk, had a lovely lunch, met loads of folk, I judged the pig fancy dress - handler and pig dressed up. What a grand event. It's such a shame that more smallholders don't come along and support it - and a few volunteers for the organising team wouldn't go amiss. But a brilliant job was done - just a bit stressful. Even I was stressed - must be my annual trigger.

Sunday 19^th October

Prepared the hens winter quarters; we’ll move them Monday night so they’re settled before we go on holiday. Drifted around not doing very much until Dan gave me access to a file of 19,000+ photos dating back to 2001. Down the rabbithole!