Bothy Fun
There is another burst of bothy-related activity, instigated by the Gamekeeper, who is a bit short of work in this dodgy weather — it’s beautiful today in fact, but it has not been exactly suitable for shinning up trees for quite a while, and various of his other avocations seem to be seasonally fallow. He is installing the stove — in fact he is at this precise moment on his way to Keith (a town, not an individual) to pick up another bit of pipe because what we have isn’t quite long enough, taking with him the Northern Gentleman, who returned from California with the worst case of jet-lag he has ever had, and really hasn’t been like himself at all for the last three days. The best cure for jet-lag is getting out in the sun and convincing your body-clock to re-set itself, so I hope pootling up the Spey does for the last of it. The thing is, once the stove is in and working, a whole lot of other things can happen. Once it has been going for a few days, the walls will be warm and dry enough to attach framing to for panelling, so then the joiner’s work can start. It will also, of course, become infinitely nicer to work in the bothy, but that is a by-product, albeit a welcome one. Meanwhile, I have done my little bit to help by sniping some rugs off Ebay, despite Miss Kit — by the time they arrive we may be a bit nearer to having a floor to put them on.