Tag Archives: sgath an tighe

Pine Marten on the prowl…

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This morning, around 5AM Emily came into our room to say that the chickens were making a fearful row in the back garden.

Yesterday we got two new Chickens that we introduced to the hen house overnight. They often fight at first, until they have established their pecking order, but they have next to no sight in poor light, so it is very unusual for them to be active when it is still dark.

I confess I turned over and tried to sleep, while Michaela and Emily went to investigate.

They found the new pair of chickens still in the roosting box, but the two older ones out in the garden shouting their beaks off.

Then they saw a sleek shape move easily over the ground, up onto the wall where it trotted off along the lane. There is a streetlight on the lane, and so they had a good view of the animal against the light.

As far as they can see with research, it was a Pine Marten. The other options- Stoat, Polecat or Mink were all discounted by the intrepid pair as a result of being too small, too short of tail, too dark of face.

Now we have a bit of a dilemma. It is so exciting to have such a lovely wild and rare creature in the garden.

But we also know that they are perfectly capable of taking chickens. And we love our chickens.

For now, all we can do is shut them up at night (we have been letting them go to bed when they are ready and not shutting them in as we have never had any problems before.)

Events and stuff up and coming at Sgath an Tighe…

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Forgive the commercial, but I thought it might be worth mentioning some of the things that we have been developing around our lovely old house…

Sgath an Tighe is a lovely Victorian house with stunning views out over the Clyde estuary. It is used as a base for a number of different activities, including a working pottery, a place of spiritual retreat (including wilderness retreats) and craft workshops. We can also arrange guided mountain bike tours, individually led outdoor activities and life-coaching (via our friend Nick,) or maybe you would just like to rest and enjoy the tranquillity of the house, and this beautiful area.

There are shops and restaurants locally, and the town of Dunoon is within easy reach. Take a steamer cruise and explore the unspoilt hills and lochs of the Cowal Peninsula. Outdoor activities are on offer in the area with sailing, kayaking, sea fishing, quad bikes, clay shooting and more. Located at the edge of Loch Lomond National Park, the area is ideal for walkers and cyclists and boasts magnificent scenery.

Attached to the house is a delightful cottage. On the ground floor it has a living room, kitchen and a bathroom with shower. Upstairs there are two bedrooms: one light and spacious double, and one twin room with sea views. There is an open fire in the living room, (initial fuel included, further logs available), gas central heating (£25pw Oct-Apr), electricity and bed linen included, freeview TV, DVD player, CD player, and the kitchen is equipped with a cooker, microwave, washing machine and freezer. Wi-fi The cottage leads onto a shared, enclosed lawned garden with a sitting-out area and furniture, vegetable gardens and free-range chickens. Parking is available, and a cycle store. Guests are greeted with a welcome tray. No smoking.

Prices range from £263 to £558.

Website: www.sgathantighe.co.uk

Email: michaela.goan@fsmail.net

There it is!

Over the next few months, the plan is also to develop part of the house for bed and breakfast, which will then allow us to have more space available for planned retreats, which is what we are both passionate about.

So if you are looking for a holiday up amongst the mountains and lochs, then get in touch!

 

New Year, 2012…

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It is here.

As ever the speed of it all comes as a surprise.

Last night, we had a house full of friends and sang and played music for hours. This morning my fingers are almost too sore to type! At some point we had three guitars, bouzouki, piano, violin and bodhran. I have not enjoyed music as much for ages.

I was relatively early to bed- Michaela came up around 4.00.

As further evidence for the advancement of years, last night our kids were all busy in new and different ways (even though they were all part of joint celebrations too.) Emily had a ‘Launch Pad‘ for Christmas, and so we set up the study so she could do some mixing/dancing.

William and his friends practised for their own performance of a song.

Later we all sat and played cards.

It was simply lovely to spend time with these wonderful young people, with all their talents and potential.

So to old friends and new friends and still to become friends everywhere- may the year be one of blessing…

I took no photos at all last night- here are a few of Williams;

Wilderness retreats 2012…

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Here’s a bit of advance notice of a new thing we are doing next year. I would appreciate any help getting the message out there…

For many years now, along with a group of old friends, I have been escaping to wild places in order to recharge. Nothing unusual about that I suppose- but over the past few years, we have been ever more deliberate about the spiritual practice of retreat that can be experienced in wild places.

We have gathered ideas and activites, as well as developing lots of our own ideas, usually taking specific locations- caves, rivers, abseils down cliffs, mountain tops- and shaping thoughts, prayers and actions to the surroundings. We wanted to find ways to worship, and to wonder, and to share the depth of our experiences.

At least once a year we have tried to escape to a small deserted island- there is such a wonderful selection within reach of where we live in Argyll. Each one seems to have a different character and a different history. Many have ruins and remains left behind by the monastic gatherings of the Celtic missionary saints. We in Aoradh have been keen to share these experiences, and have already hosted a number of weekends with invited guests.

You can read about some of our previous trips here here and here.

However, in the spirit of seeking simple collaborative means to making a living, some of us are planning to organise a number of 3 day retreats on a slightly more commercial basis.

Two of these will be based at Sgath an Tighe– one of which will be more ‘adventure’ based, and the other for those of us who appreciate wild places in a more restful way.

The other two will involve wild camping on uninhabited inner Hebridean islands-  in one of the most beautiful places in the world. This kind of camping allows us to appreciate wild places in a much purer way, and also allows us to be in places that few people ever visit, let alone linger.

Over the next few weeks we will be working on final destinations, costs and dates. For the camping trips we will provide boat charter, organisation, activities and leadership.

So- next year, ditch the package tour to the Costa’s. Go somewhere where few people have been before.

If you are interested, then we would love to hear from you…

 

 

Autumn/Winter breaks at Sgath an Tighe…

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Thought it might be worth mentioning our holiday let again- If you are considering a wee break then you might like to think about a trip to Dunoon…

The Annexe has a double bedroom and twin bunks, an open fire and a DVD player for lots of late night films with a hot toddy. At £250 a week (or £45 a night) you are unlikely to find anything of better value.

It has been really lovely to have Graham and Victoria (along with Matthew and Ben) over the last week. Graham is a minister in North Yorkshire, and blogs here. After exchanging the occasional comment we met up for a pint when we were on holiday a couple of years ago- only to discover that Victoria and I used to work together in Bolton. It’s a small world.

If you want to know more (about the Annexe, rather than Graham and Victoria) then feel free to get in touch…

 

Home…

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M and I are off work this week- we are experiencing the strange luxury of a holiday at home.

A strange kind of holiday- as we are working really hard. The list of tasks is long- gardening, painting the outside of the house, and if it rains, there is some plumbing and decorating inside.

An old house like ours always demands time money and energy- which always begs the question as to whether we might do something better with all three. Whether we really should be spending so much time creating a space to live in, rather than just getting on with living.

There is slightly more to this though- we are trying to create spaces for hospitality and retreat, both as a means of making our living, and as a means of living with simple integrity. Whether this might ever be a means to fully sustain our family is unclear, but it is a path we are set on. (See here for more information on what we are about.)

It is an interesting point to be asking these questions- as I am also in the middle of trying to create some poetry for a Greenbelt Festival installation- on the theme of ‘Dreams of Home’. So far I have written a few poems and rejected most of them for the project- which involves the broadcasting of poetry at different points around the festival site.

Here is one of the rejected ones- which I suppose is kind of apt-

Home is where the flowers grow

In neatly ordered style

Well betide the weed or slug

Who seeks to there defile

 

Home is castellated

All English men agree

From high suburban battlements

Old Empires can be seen

 

Home is lit by cathode rays

As the sofa eats the day

Home is when the door shuts tight

To keep the world away

 

Home is where we worship

The gods of DIY

With flat pack chipboard altars

Pastel paints to soothe the eye

 

Home is where the mortgage bill

Lands hard upon the soul

The shadow of satanic mills

Pulls us like a black holes

 

Home is where the children

Are heard but seldom seen

They play the X box all night long

Blasting aliens from the screen

 

Home is where the heart breaks

Where lies the empty bed

Home is where these memories

Are made but now lie dead

 

Home seems somewhere far away

We can’t get here from there

This pilgrim Diaspora

Are searching unaware

 

For home is like a twitch

In a phantom missing limb

Like a prophecy of silence

Before the birds begin to sing

 

Home is hidden low

By folding falling ground

It pulls me like a magnet

It’s a well I’m tumbling down

Cowal- listed as one of the worlds best under rated holiday destinations!

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…according to travel writer Nikki Bayley writing for yahoo travel.

Cowal is placed alongside The Azores, Newfoundland, the Falkland Islands and the West Coast of Australia. If this seems like a piece of Hyperbole- then you need to come and check us out.

And if you do- perhaps you might like to make use of our cosy annexe!

If you are looking for a great value summer holiday we still have some spaces- or if you are looking to organise something for later in the year- check out the calendar on the website here.

Here is a photo we took looking over towards Sgath an Tighe from the middle of the Clyde…

Boxes of photographs…

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Michaela and I spent some time clearing out a room adjoining Williams room today- which was, and will become again, an en suite shower room. At present it is a junk room- boxes, off cuts of carpet, toys.

In the process of doing so we opened up three boxes that were still more or less unopened from when we moved into the house- 8 years ago. I am sure there is some kind of rule of thumb about throwing out anything that has lain unopened for so long.

But these boxes contained photographs- you remember those- rectangles of shiny paper with images on. What we used before we all had laptops and i phones and flash drives. Which, when you think about it, is not very long ago at all- we got our first digital camera (actually, Emily was the first in our family to have one) around 6-7 years ago. These days my camera is never very far away.

Nothing brings to you the passing of time like a box of old photographs of the life you have lived- the people you knew and the babies now grown.

I need to scan some- but for the moment, the picture above will have to do- my lovely Michaela and little Will taken about 9-10 years ago. During a different life- when we were English.

There were also photographs of this old house– before all the renovations we have undertaken. Why on earth did we buy it?

Photographs make me sad

They make me proud

They make me wistful

And they make me grateful

New website for Sgath an Tighe…

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I have spent much of this weekend working on our new website for all things Sgath an Tighe. I hinted at a possible change of direction for the family recently- well here it is made real in cyber space!

Eventually this will be a portal for a number of different things happening in or around out house-

  • Self catering accommodation (already available)
  • B and B accommodation (still a work in progress)
  • Craft workshops (Blue Sky programme is on the website)
  • Crafts- woodworking, pottery, all sorts of other things
  • Retreats- both in the house and wilderness retreats
  • Photography
  • Writing
  • Information about our lovely area
The website is still under development, but there is a lot there already. I have used a wordpress platform, which has not been without the odd frustration, but is mostly OK, even to a relative novice like me.
Call by and let me know what you think!

Peace to you…

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She was back this morning- with both of the kids.

I know they are eating my plants (although, as you can see, the grass is overdue for cutting) but they are such beautiful creatures.

I am reminded of one of Justin’s lovely poems- circulated as part of our Aoradh daily meditations-

Peace to you. Peace with you.

You that sleep without resting

Wake without rising, Peace to you.

.

Peace with you.

You that have grown distant

From the sparrow, Peace to you.

.

Peace with you.

You that wait in some deep

Valley and know it not yet

.

As the beginning of a mountain.

May you be wholly and holy

Peaceful and makers thereof.

.

And while we are on the subject of peace- here is a picture of Michaela and our youngest guest- little Laurie whose parents are staying in the Annexe at the moment.