definitely summer

and I'm definitely not on the west coast. I'm down in the Cotswolds providing drawings for the renovation of a listed cottage and pig sty. The fields are alive with lavender (£2.50 to wander amongst it though) and the entire economy seems to revolve around cakes and classic cars. I've got a year's job up in Benbecula (which is a very, very long way from the Cotswolds in every sense) so I've got just over a month to tidy up bits of work, pack up my Glasgow possessions and head west. I'm going to make another attempt to set up an office at Drumbuidhe by moving my computer and reference books up there. I've tried this twice before but each time my dad got violent (and was detained by the police in 2009) so the architecture-studio-in-rural-isolation idea rather foundered. My dad is still making a determined attempt to use every spare surface at Drumbuidhe for laying out papers, computers, cameras, electrical equipment and bits of shellfish but I'm going to give it another go.

not quite October

It's not quite cold and not quite raining outside and I'm the only person for miles (7 miles strictly speaking) around. The drive from Glasgow was 4 hours (or 6 if you forget to take your bread out of the oven and have to drive back before the the fire brigade break the door down) not counting fish and chip stops and the Corran ferry. I'm still waking up to disparate tasks (haul seaweed up to the garden; clear the brambles away from the kiln; take the boat out to fetch mussels; own up to the planing department about mistakes in my latest submission ... maybe I'll have another cup of coffee before I get round to that one) but the first I'll get the fire lit and thus admit it's now officially autumn.