Screaming!

It has been pouring with rain in Tollie during the last few days, in fact Monday was so miserable that Claudia & Jon spent the day in the office doing paperwork. Despite a drop off in temperature, the grass is still growing strongly and is quite difficult to mow when wet. Very frustrating and it brought to mind the sculpture pictured left. This was carved into a tree stump by expert woodsman Willie when he visited at Easter and reminds us of Munch's picture The Scream.

To remind everybody of the lovely summer months, the second picture is of teabreak time. We had been giving the fifth green its second cut having first raked off the cuttings from the previous mowing.

Lots of jobs done

These are pictures of the fifth green looking back down the fairway towards the tee position and fourth green. In the top photo the grass seed was just starting to grow and in the second, it is established and has had a couple of cuts. When Jon & Claudia first started work, the gap between the trees did not exist and it was impossible to walk through. They have worked very hard to clear away all the gorse and scrub etc revealing a burn in the process. Foundations for a bridge to cross this have just been laid. Elsewhere, drainage has been put in at the back of the sixth green to take away some standing water and Jon has been busy with the hired mower although the original one was whisked off to Musselburgh Race Course as theirs had broken.

The greens have all had their first top dressing of sand which is part of the process of making the playing surface even.

Still Growing, Still Mowing

Just a quick post. As the title suggests mowing the course is still taking up quite a bit of time. Jon & Claudia presently have a semi-rough mower on loan which is being used to deal with some of the stubborn tufty bits of grass on the fairways which the regular fairway mower would take a while to cut down. Jon has also been working on the area around the fourth green and fifth fairway with some help from his friend John, a golf course architect who has been staying recently. Claudia and Jon have also enjoyed having some guests to stay and Claudia has been perfecting her Scottish breakfasts.

The picture shows a view across several of the fairways on the lower part of the course. Claudia is on the mower and Jon is driving the Cushman truck.