A Day in the Life of Eriska

Somethings take longer than others to recover from and whilst I am sure the Scottish Rugby team are still licking their wounds from the game last Sunday at Murrayfield there is a stage where you have to put the result into the past and move on. So I told myself when I had to face my French wine distributor, Philippe Larue, of L'art du Vin on Sunday Afternoon. To be fair he was an excellent victor and hardly mentioned the result- his look was enough to remind me- as we sat and discussed our special wine event which takes place in two weeks time. Back in the autumn last year when we had proposed and Olympic theme to celebrate the games later in the year we were both so pleased with the concept that neither of us actually wriote down the wines or menu. Anyway last week Simon put pen to paper and wrote a wonderful gastronomic menu for Philippe to match wines with....

When we sit here complaining about the fact that it rained yesterday we forget that Friday was stunning with lots of sunshine, that the temperature last week was never really below 10 C and more importantly this time last year we were surrounded by ice with snow on the hills. One of the wonders, so we tell visitors, about the west coast of scotland is the ever changing weather and then scenery and the last 12 months has certainly sent us a fair mixture of unpredictability. Anyway surely the seasons cannot be so confused, although with snowdrops nearly over and daffodils starting to bud I am not sure that anyone told nature that we are still in February! So what is ahead next week? Today:  Early bright spells may be deceptive with cloud thickening and outbreaks of rain developing through the morning then more persistent later. Monday: Cloudy with hill fog and some light rain or drizzle this turning heavier later. Strengthening southwesterly winds, summit gales. Tuesday: Strong winds and rain with the rain heavy across higher ground...

Last summer we had a call from a local wood merchant asking if we would be interested in a load of timber for our fires. It was all form fallen trees at the head of Loch Creran making haulage very cheap and delivery very easy! Back then they assured us that it was ideal for our fires being "dry" and was in 5m legnths and simple to cut and burn. This was all too tempting as our pile of logs was becoming depleted and we readily accepted.   Needless to say the merchant disappeared and as the wind howled and rain poured through the winter our log pile became replenished and grew from all the fallen trees and debris lying around the island. Indeed only this week we had to clear two trees from the path to the heronry and they alone filled four loads of the trailer so by today we are nearly back to 100% stock levels again. So it was with some surprise this morning when I received a call from the haulier who was letting me know not only was his brand new lorry loaded and on its way with a big load but that he had...

Yesterday i began trying to explain to those around me how the hotels services were organised. I drew up plans of the electricity grid, the hot water system and the telephone and internet web. It all started  out looking so simple and easy to explain but soon became a complicated sketch which might have needed the creator of the London Underground Tube map to decipher. So today in class 2 I have decided to take a different approach and hope that it will prove more logical. If for no other reason than it might help me understand why we have got to where we are - I am going to start back in 1973. The new approach will see me explain where the initial logical approach to services came from and how by adding and altering these plans we have ended up where we are today. In short you would never have designed the system if you had started with a blank canvass this way but it does help me at least and hopefully others understand how we have ended up with so many boxes, wires and outlets throughout the property. My...

Back in September we set in place plans to rebuild our driving range on the golf course. In effect we had only cut the grass initially in front of the range with the intention of collecting any used balls by hand but over the years it has become much more popular and our patience at collecting balls has only been helped by my mothers dogs willingness to do the hard work for us under the pretence of gundog training. Anyway to cut a long story short we agreed in september to do the work when the frost came and the ground was hard enough to run machines on without damage, and today we have had tos helve the plan as as yet no work has been carried out as no frost has been seen on Eriska since last February. i say this cautiously as this decison to start the work without frost and with flotation tyres will probably mean we are going to head for a cold spell but what is ahead for the next week in terms of weather? Today: After a dry and sunny start it will begin to cloud over with heavy rain overnight Monday: A...

Two years ago we started along a road with one of our suppliers to qualify the team and increase their knowledge of wine and spirits. We had been approached by several of our suppliers to help develop our teams learning but I became  suspicious that these courses would simply raise the opportunity for suppliers to help promote the qualities of their products and not highlight the vast range of wines and spirits in the marketplace and therefore only offer a very narrow view of the subject. We were then approached by Nick Adams of First Glass Wine Service. Nick had worked for one of the suppliers until he decided to set out on his own and establish a new venture training individuals, companies and staff in food and drink matters. His position as a leading Master of Wine and wealth of knowledge of the industry made him an ideal person to deliver the course to the team here at Eriska. So last...

Wherever possible we try to continually evolve what we do at Eriska. We are always conscious that we do not want to impose revolution but rather gradual change and whilst we welcome many new guests to Eriska every year we also welcome many back from year to year and in reality if we had not changed we would never have been able to offer both old and new guests what they want. My father would always stress this when questioned and point out that if we had stayed in the 70's, nice though it was with our own dairy and eggs, endless sunshine and staff dressed in kilts we would also not have functioning central heating, choices on the menu and even TVs in the bedrooms, let alone the wealth of indoor facilities and the great team who now work here. In practice times change as do our tastes and we all need to move with the times but essentially must keep one hand on what was best about the past and try and combine and merge this into what is best about the future. So it seems with our suppliers, we have been using some of them for many years and a couple for as long as I remember, however often we have accepted what they do and how they do it when in reality that is now changing in society and we should be able to ask for what we want but should then be willing to work with them to get what is best for us in terms of product and best for them in terms of price. It all seems quite simple but it never is although recently we have opened up some new accounts and have found them refreshing in  terms of their assistance and willingness to work with us....

Sometimes we think of Eriska as living in its own little microclimate- we can watch the clouds and rain pass us by or stand here in a downpour as the land across the loch basks in sunshine. However it  is often the case that the west coast in general moves in a different environmental sphere from the rest of Scotland and this is clearly the case at the moment as the rest of Britain has ice and snow and we have had mild cloudless days- although today is a bit overcast! We do seem to be ahead of the country at the moment, our geese have arrived for their months holiday- normally March, the badgers are back from their winter sleep and the trees and plants have started to bud. In the gardens the snow drops are out and we have carpets of then under the heronry and my mother has even highlighted the primroses on the western seashore a clear month ahead of the last two years. Hopefully all this nature activity is a sign of the end of winter and not simply a trick to cactch us out with heavy snow and frost before Spring really emerges. ...

It is always interesting looking back a year and seeing what weather we had compared with today. Last year it was freezing conditions and snow and today it is mild and green outside. Whilst i am sure this has effects on our own demeanor I am certain it should play havoc with the  world outside but then again "Mother Nature" seems to be far more clever than us. As I sit at my desk this morning the sound of birds outside is amazing as if they are out to tell the world that winter is over- if only I was so confident. Our Badgers certainly seem to be less sure as they have not reemerged from their winter hibernation yet and normally they are pretty good judges of the start of spring so what is ahead for this week?  Today: Generally cloudy and murky with patchy rain although the dry start may get our hopes up!. Monday: Another cloudy day with outbreaks of rain these mainly over the hills. Quite a murky day with low cloud shrouding the hills with some fog patches on higher roads. Winds light.  Tuesday: Cloudy...

With Valentines just around the corner it is time for all lonely hearts to think of themselves and so it is here at Eriska with poor old Sandy. Sandy has been at Eriska for nearly 10 years and last year his old pal passed away. Jamie was 48 years old and whilst he had had a great life he had also enjoyed many experiences and had passed on endless tales to Jamie but these stories and memories are all he now has left and he would like to find a new friend and valentines day only makes him sad. Anyway we are trying to give him as much of a chance a s possible, last wee we bought him new bedding and a new food additive called Seniors which is full of nutrients and  vitamins to help stave off those senior moments, and given the speed he devours this new menu it is for to say he likes it, and this morning we had a visit from Malky the farrier who...