Ravencroft Skye

The day that we’d been anticipating for weeks arrived today. We drove to Inverness to pick up our new croft kittens, Fergus and Freya.

They’re so small! They’re eight weeks old and fully weaned, but no photos quite prepare you for the size and fragility of these little creatures. Our hearts melted as soon as we saw them.

They spent the long journey in their carrier in the back of the car singing the song of their people. Clearly confused and frightened by their new environment and being away from their mother for the first time.

Poor Fergus was trembling, and Freya – the loud, more confident of the pair – was squeaking volubly. We got them home and they shot into the gap between the dryer and the cupboard units in the utility room to hide.

Husband found them wedged in behind the dryer. Clearly plan A, which was to house them in the utility room for a bit until they were used to us was not going to work until we’d managed to cat-proof it a little better, so we moved them into the boot room with their food, toys and kitty litter.

We want them to be used to being handled, so we bundled them up in their blankets and cradled them until they slept. Still babies, the warmth of another being was what they needed, and we got raspy-tonged little cat licks and a brief purr before bedtime. They slowly relaxed and eyes gradually closed until they were curled up and asleep.

Sleep lasted only about ten minutes until they awoke again and started play fighting. It’s good that they have each other for familiarity and company.

We’ve loved our first few hours with them.

We’re sitting with a mug of coffee and the patio door thrown open to the early morning sun, listening to the birds squabbling over the seeds in the feeder.

It’s so peaceful. There is no sound other than the birds and the insects, and it’s warm already.

Looking back at the photos of my vegetable beds at this point last year, everything is so much further ahead this year as it’s been a comparatively warm spring. May has been a fabulous month for sunshine, and the long summer days stretch deep into the evening now. It’s only starting to get dark around eleven pm now, and it’s light by 4.00 am.

We cleared the front of the house of building rubbish some weeks ago and put out some garden chairs to enjoy the sunshine. The terrace will be properly built later this summer, but for now we’re happy to sit on the hardcore chippings and watch the sea.

We harvested our first pot of potatoes from the polycrub yesterday! I thought that this particular plant had signs of blight and so we took it out, disposed of the greenery and harvested the potatoes just in case. An online expert subsequently told me it wasn’t blight, so I’m relieved. This was an early crop of potatoes (variety Rocket) grown in the second week of April: probably too small by a couple of weeks yet, but tender and delicious for supper last night along with lettuce and strawberries from the croft too.

I still get a thrill from eating our own home-grown vegetables. We’re cutting a large bowlful of lettuce just about every day now, and I’ve just sown another tray for when this first flush is done. Although I have to say, we’ve been harvesting for several weeks now and it’s not showing any sign of expiring.

And husband has caught the first mackerel of the season! We’re grilling them on the firepit and I’ve made mackerel pate and frozen some for other days. We love this about living so close to the sea.

The strawberries continue to give us a handful every day, which we eat with great delight on our breakfast muesli or in desserts. I must grow more next year! You can never have too many strawberries.

In all, these summer days of plenty are a pleasure.

It’s a few more weeks until we can collect the kittens from the rescue centre, but we’re getting regular updates on their progress from the owner.

After much hilarity, deliberation and discarded lists we’ve chosen to call them Fergus and Freya. Sort of a Scottish/Nordic mix that we felt was appropriate for a couple of croft cats on the island.

Freya looks unbelievably cute in the photos that we’ve been sent. Her tabby markings are very symmetrical and she has the sweetest face. We’ll probably discover that she’s the evil one of the pair and that her calm expression hides the demeanour of a demon.

Fergus on the other hand, as my oldest friend says, looks a bit like a git in waiting. His markings are more random and he has a slight dark splodge on his face, which is a good thing, as otherwise they would be very difficult to tell apart . He definitely has a more mischievous face.

Whatever their personalities end up being, we’ll love them as they are.

A kind neighbour who recently lost their cat donated lots of food bowls, kitty litter etc, so we haven’t had to buy much. A few toys, a couple of kitten collars, and my latest purchase, some pots of catmint..😊 which may not be a wise idea, but we’ll see.

It’s a bit of a grey, drizzly day here on the island. With enough of a breeze to keep the midges away though, for which I’m thankful.

I’ve been pottering in the polycrub with a mug of tea and a harvesting basket. I say basket, today it’s actually an old waxed paper bag into which I pop ripe strawberries, lettuce and herbs for todays dinner as I browse through the growings.

It’s peaceful here sitting amongst the green. I’m surrounded by plants and insects all doing their thing and if I look up and out of the polycrub window I see the grey clouds scudding across the skyline of the hills at the back of the croft.

May sees an absolute explosion of growth this far north. It’s almost as if all that pent-up energy has been released once we get to continual temperatures above 8°C. That may sound cold to most of you, but as long as the overnight temperature here doesn’t go below that, most things will thrive. Daytime temperatures here are around 15-18°C at max. The polycrub adds 10-20°C to that on sunny days.

The croft beds outside are full of potatoes, kale, cabbage, cauliflower and carrots.

The polycrub produce is still in sheep-lick tubs this year as we’re too busy finishing the house to build fixed raised beds. But nevertheless, we look as if we’ll have some crops despite the restricted growing space.

So far we have potatoes, spring onions, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, gigantes beans, rocket, peas, cucumbers, beetroot, carrots, chillies, lettuce, strawberries and celery growing in there.

We also grow lots of herbs in the polycrub – purple sage (for Beth’s sage puffs), coriander, parsley, basil, orange mint, rosemary, lemon balm, thyme, marjoram, lemon verbena, tarragon and blackcurrant sage.

There are three big half-barrels out by the croft beds too with mint, chives and lemon thyme growing in them. I love fresh herbs. Once the beds are extended I fully intend to grow more.

The hawthorn is blossoming and the trees are a vibrant green, full of sap and promise. The hedge around the vegetable area that we planted a month ago is also putting out tentative green shoots.

The aim is to eventually plant up an asparagus bed, a squash/pumpkin bed, a perennial vegetable bed and more. We’re getting there slowly!

Husband has an old family friend who came to stay last week. It was his first time on the island since early childhood and as is the way of these things we were keen to show him Skye at its best.

We managed to guide him away from advice given by well-meaning friends. The Fairy Pools are not the place to go now the season has started, and we explained that there were less busy places that he might enjoy more without having to battle through groups of tourists and queues for car parking.

We drove him around the south of the island on the single track roads, winding our way past Tarskavaig, Tokavaig and Ord. The beaches and the view of the Cuillin are both stunning there. And deserted.

We also took him to Applecross for the day, winding our way through the Bealach na Ba, a famously tortuous road that twists and turns through the mountains until eventually spitting you out in the green and sheltered bay of Applecross. The views from there back to Skye are stunning.

We had lunch at the Walled Garden Cafe there, and a wander around the lovely enclosed gardens of Applecross House. The solid stone walls shelter the plants from the worst of the Highland weather and create a lush and productive kitchen and cottage garden full of fruit, vegetables and flowers.

I can only imagine how thankful the residents would have been for this growing space in winter when the pass was often closed due to snow.

It was a short stay and once he had left we settled back into our normal routine. Or would have done if we hadn’t both been struck down by a flu bug almost immediately.

Of course the first thing we did was to test for Covid, as we all feel that we must do in these strange times. It was negative. Just a plain old bout of flu, with sore throats, headaches and colds. It’s never gone away, although of course Covid has taken precedence, and our contact with the wider world last week had clearly exposed us to something. I suspect after the relative seclusion of the croft over the past two years we haven’t got much resistance to such things any longer.

As such we’ve mooched about feeling rough, and I’ve insisted on a hot toddy at bedtime to help ease the symptoms. Even if it’s not a recognised medicinal cure, honey soothes sore throats, lemon juice adds much needed extra vitamin C and the whiskey just makes you feel better 😊.

There were a few slices of the Japanese milk bread left, so I decided to make French toast with it for breakfast this morning (or eggy bread as we used to call it as children).

I can confirm that just like brioche it makes fabulous French toast.

Served with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt, a few strawberries and a drizzle of maple syrup it made for a really good breakfast.

I definitely need to make this again. I’ll bet it makes fabulous bread and butter pudding too – although I suspect nobody ever has enough of it left over to have tried that!

I’ve been reading about Japanese milk bread on social media for ages. It’s a bit of a thing at the moment. Intrigued that people seemed prepared to pay $18 a loaf for this stuff in one particular New York bakery, I had to see what all the fuss was about.

And so Dear Reader, armed with a mixing bowl, a recipe and a pan, I set to work this morning to make my first loaf of Japanese milk bread.

To western bread makers, the process of making this bread does seem a bit bizarre.

You start by making what I can only describe as a roux, called the Tangzhong, with flour and water over gentle heat on the hob.

It’s said that this warming starts to activate the gluten in the flour before you mix it with the rest of the ingredients, which helps create the soft texture.

The rest of the ingredients and process are pretty similar to other breads :- flour, yeast, milk, melted butter, sugar, salt and egg, mixed and kneaded to a sticky dough. Very much like a brioche.

The dough is rested, proved for an hour, folded and rolled, then tucked in sections into loaf tins for a second proving before a thirty minute bake in a hot oven.

The taste and texture are lovely. Slightly sweet in taste, white, soft and pillowy in texture. It’s bread that children would love, or that you could use for anyone who doesn’t like their bread too chewy or textured.

I’m not sure that I’d pay $18 a loaf for this, but it’s a nice change from rustic sourdough and focaccia occasionally. And so much fun to add something completely different to the recipe collection.

For those of you who bake and want to give it a try, I used this recipe https://www.carolinescooking.com/japanese-milk-bread/

Definitely recommended.

The polycrub is starting to fill up with various seedlings now, most of which have germinated successfully. I’m pleased that the season seems to be off to a good start. We’re already cropping lettuces every few days, which feels – and tastes – wonderful.

I advertised my spare seedlings on a local growers group and managed to give away my excess aubergines, tomatoes and cabbage plants to good homes on the island. I love this local exchange system. I scored some good cucumber plants in return, so I count that as success.

Now that the deer fence is up I’ve also started planting again in the outdoor raised beds. This bed contains cauliflower, pointy cabbage, red Russian, Cavalo Nero and Taunton Deane kales.

Midge season has just started.

Of course midge season has just started. It’s just as our last frost date approaches and we’re preparing to dig the perennial broccoli, celery, beetroot and squashes into the outdoor beds. They’ve timed it perfectly to feast on our flesh!

I tried some new citronella based woven bracelets in a surge of optimistic hope that they would repel insects, but all that’s happened so far is that they’ve leached colour all over my wrists. I should know better by now.

There are some small pleasures, though.

Like unpacking a bedding set that I’d bought for the house three years ago in a sale, and getting it on the bed in our new bedroom at long last. And better than that, still liking it!

I feel that I’ve broken my mojo of plain bedding recently. Every duvet cover that I previously owned was plain cotton or linen, and more often than not, white.

This is a bold step for me into the world of pattern, and the pleasure is all the more sweet for waiting three years to get it onto the bed. I know that my husband will be reading this in total incomprehension, poor man. I don’t think he notices for a microsecond what bedding goes onto the bed.

What an audacious devil I am. Patterns and everything. It may have taken me to early retirement to flourish, but it came out in the end!

We’ve known that we’ve had a vole in the polycrub for some weeks now, but it’s been an elusive wee thing. All we’ve had is glimpses as it scurried between the plants under leaf cover or heard the occasional outraged, high-pitched squeak.

Over the last few weeks it’s unfortunately taken to chewing through the stems of my vegetable seedlings, which is hugely annoying. It’s destroyed several aubergine and courgette plants, and some young kale.

This morning as I opened up the polycrub door the first thing I saw was that it had eaten it’s way through an entire line of lettuces. Shredded all the way down to the base. That was the final straw.

We suspected that it might have a nest somewhere, as it’s that time of the year. And the polycrub is after all a highly desirable piece of real estate if you’re a vole.

Warm, sheltered, protected from predators like hawks and stoats, and with a lush self-service salad bar on tap – what’s not to love?

We started the search amongst the grow tubs. Husband moved a pile of bubble wrap and vegetable fleece that had been piled up in the corner of the polycrub from the colder spring days, and there it was. Five baby field voles in a nest of chewed up bubble wrap.

They had to go.

The kittens can’t get here soon enough. Let’s hope that we haven’t acquired cats that prefer the good life! Cats are apex predators for field voles, so are our best chance of keeping the population under control.

We’ve been dog sitting Tigger again for a few days, a lab-spaniel cross belonging to friends. He’s a mad, crazy bundle of energy and love who rarely stops and wants to be involved in everything.

This little black dog makes me laugh, and I’d almost forgotten how much joy animals bring to us every day with their quirkiness and character. Tigger is so much fun.

We’re used to animals of course, and had our own dog Bertie up until two years ago when he died. The place was very empty for a long time without his pattering little footsteps following us everywhere. We still miss him.

We agreed that we would wait until the house build was over before we took any more animals into our lives on a permanent basis. A build site is chaotic enough without worrying about a dog getting caught up in the debris, plasterboard, metal offcuts and detritus that inevitably fills every inch of space.

However we’re nearly there with the build now. With the second skip being filled with the worst of the site rubbish, and scheduled to be taken away by the weekend, it suddenly feels a much less dangerous place for animals to be. And if the walls aren’t decorated yet or the terrace built, I’m sure animals won’t worry too much about that.

I tentatively contacted Inverness Cat Rescue a week ago just to see what they had, and by sheer chance a young litter of kittens had just been born a week previously. The cat mother was being re-homed, but the kittens would be available in June once fully weaned and inoculated. Would we like to reserve one?

We reserved two! A tabby male and a tabby female, both shown here on the left of the picture from the rescue centre.

So, soon we will have croft cats who can enjoy the space and hopefully keep the rodents down. Voles have recently taken up residence in my polycrub and have already started eating my vegetable seedlings so it’s not a moment too soon.

We’re hoping that these little creatures will develop into hunter-killer class mousers that will keep things in check. The buzzards, sparrow hawks and other birds of prey do a good job of keeping things in balance generally, but they can’t get into the polycrub to hunt, which is where the voles are sheltering. Sorry guys, but the Desirable Residence with on-tap salad bar is about to come to an end!

We’re so very excited to have cats in our lives again. Then dogs again next!