FBDO and FBNO!! **

Tomorrow we have goat sitters. Jussi will milk in the morning and then we'll head off leaving the goats in the capable hands of D&D.

We will go to Inverness and visit shops. This, coupled with all the traffic and the people and the noise and the smells will be a bit of a shock. We will eat in a restaurant - food cooked by someone else! We will stay in a hotel. It will be warm. We will drink in a pub and there will be more people, people who have no recollection of cave dwelling. We will breakfast in the hotel - eat vastly more than is necessary, visit more shops and drive back, stopping every 2 miles or so when Ailsa gets car sick. It will be an adventure. A swan song before the hatches get bolted and we hunker down for Autumn storms and winter toe dropping-off-with-the-cold.

Wow. Really not sure how I'll cope with all the thrills. Will Jussi be able to relax so far away from the goats? Will Ailsa be able to survive not seeing the first episode of the restart of Merlin? Will my veg be OK?

Tonight I'm cooking pasties for D&D - all veg from the garden. There'll be onions and garlic and parsnips and carrots and chard in the pasties and we'll eat them with THE CAULIFLOWER and maybe broad beans - if only I'd thought ahead could have used goat meat in the pasties.

But just now I can't think straight - the anticipation of a day out is killing!

**FBDO and FBNO - Fruit Bat Day Out, Fruit Bat Night Out. Don't ask! -

"Oh those yellow bats of Texas

They are not really bats

They're only imitation

And they wear yellow hats

You can tell they're phoney

Cos when they're on the wing

They make all the noises

They dance and shout and sing

eh eh eh eh eh eh eh

eh eh eh eh eh eh

eh eh eh eh eh eh eh

eh eh eh eh eh eh

eh eh eh eh eh eh

eh eh eh eh eh eh

eh eh eh eh eh eh eh

eh eh eh eh eh eh"