killing cars in the name of art

The artist Olivia Bliss came up to Drumbuidhe for a couple of days (She's a new graduate from Glasgow School of Art working mainly in prints). I'm still not sure how she could work up there ... I'm considering commissioning a portrait of Campbell as a way of getting him some babysitting but that seems very decadent. When I was driving her out of Drumbuidhe at 8am on Thursday I managed to reverse the landrover discovery off the track (admittedly just next to the garage) I got her to the bus stop using the mark 1 landrover (LHS 94) in perfect time to meet Rob who was having his own minor vehicle crisis (he turned up in his work truck instead of the bus) but I then had to head back and have a go at getting the discovery unstuck. It's a sign that you're quite remote when a couple came walking past and asked if they could help: the lady asked where the road to our house was so they could try and bring their four wheel drive vehicle over to help - I had to repeat twice that the road in to our house was the 5 miles of track they'd just walked over and I'm still not sure she believed me. I had two days (two winches, 1 completely bust wire cable, two jacks) trying to get the landrover out and I might almost have managed it if the clutch on the electric winch hadn't finally given up. In the end I called it a day and left it to Campbell who was arriving with the mad dutch couple as I left. I drove down south via Inverness (I know that doesn't make sense geographically but it does in an, um, emotional way) stopping to collect a great stack of mushrooms in the woods just north of ruthven barracks. I then spent Sunday at the Edinburgh Festival (Hemingway, Kit & the Widow, Baroque Opera) getting more and more stressed about the 45 degree discovery with the added complication that talk talk had cancelled the direct debit for my Glasgow phone which put me in arrears so they disconnected the service. hey ho. I called Campbell this morning and he was really quite jolly about the discovery and fixing the grass cutter although he angrily accused me of fretting when I said they'd put the grass cuttings in the wrong compost bin (I think "fretting" can be translated as "pointing out an error"). There are very few positive things to say about reversing a landrover discovery off the road but I did make a very nice summer risotto with green sauce to console myself: the risotto was made with a fresh handful of vegetables (beans, peas, courgette) from the garden, pinenuts and vegetable stock. When the rice was cooked I added parmesan sauce and served it with a green sauce made with parsley, basil, lime zest, lime juice, capers, anchovy puree and olive oil.