Claudia's New Wheels

There was big excitement at Tollie recently when the small transport arrived. After a crash course (not literally) in off road driving there is no stopping Claudia and she is whizzing all over the land fetching and carrying materials.

The greens are just about ready for rotavating and seeding. The fourth needs a bit more soil laying which leaves just the ninth to finish off. There has been more snowfall this week in the highlands and Jon reports that it is bitterly cold again with temperatures down to -4 degrees overnight. He was working on the course on Tuesday for a couple of hours and couldn't feel his feet by the time he was done. However it was very worthwhile as one of the chaps from the estate helped with the fencing and showed him some tricks of the trade to make it cattle proof. The cattle are due back onto the adjacent land in the next few weeks so this is essential work.

Down at Gardener's Cottage, the snowdrops have been in bloom and have looked splendid. These are giving way now to daffodils. Jon & Claudia have been amazed by the amount of wildlife that is about and on Tuesday were watching a roe deer in their garden.

Going, Going, Gone

I am pleased to report that the old shower block that stood in the middle of the first fairway and was a blot on the landscape is no more. Jon had to obtain a special licence in order to demolish it as there was evidence that pipistrelle bats may have roosted there in the past. One of the conditions of the licence was that the local wildlife expert was present at the demolition to confirm that no bats were in residence. The first picture shows Jon and expert Steve inspecting prior to the roof coming off. The roof panels were in the main in good condition due to the 450 screws that had secured them into position...every crest and trough had one through it. Whilst this made removal slow going it does mean that they can be reused elsewhere on site. Likewise, the rubble heap that remains will be recycled as hard core later on. Fortunately the pottery had already been removed so there is no danger of that being recycled too! Wooden bat boxes have been placed in some of the trees as an alternative bat roost.

Elsewhere on the course, Jon has been hard at work preparing the greens ready for seeding and is on course to have this task finished by the end of the month. Claudia has just returned from her trip to Switzerland to see family and friends and not a moment too soon as there was another mouse incident at Gardener's Cottage whilst she was away...Jon returned home one evening to a horrible smell upstairs and couldn't work out at first what it was. He then remembered that some five days earlier he had been briefly awoken in the middle of the night by a trap going off in the loft. A few stomach churning minutes later, the source of the problem was located and dealt with.