First of many

Well we have finally managed to open the B & B after many delays. We have been surprised by how busy it's been already, with guests in virtually all week and a few advance booking by phone. Considering we have not advertised - apart from the signs at the top of the road and on the fence - we seem to be going along quite nicely. We should be on the Visit Scotland website shortly and are trying to make our website more appealing to search engines (any tips welcome). Allison has also set up a page on Facebook and as you are probably aware the web site adress is www.theoldfishingstation.co.uk. Here are a couple of pictures of the two rooms which are finished.

Bell Rock

Tod Head

So we have seen our first guests from three different nationalities (none of them British) and all very friendly indeed. We have served our first breakfasts and managed to process a card transaction for the first time. I dare say there will be many more firsts in the weeks to come!

Stoatally Different

For the last few weeks we have seen a family of three stoats playing in the garden from time to time. We assume due mainly to the proliferation of rabbits we seem to have. Quite amazing how nature does its job. Last night we actually saw one of the stoats chasing a rabbit although unsuccessfully. Sorry about the poor picture quality but they move rather fast!

More delays...

In all reality it looks like we will not be able to open before Monday 18th July. Whilst two bedrooms are almost completed (a little bit of dressing left to do) slow progress is being made with the breakfast room. The mucky building work is now complete but we have to re-decorate part of the kitchen and the new breakfast room. We plan to use our dining room as the breakfast room for the short term. The location will not detract from the quality of the food!!

Opening Day Delayed

Due to circumstances beyond our control (a huge hole in the ceiling!) we have had to put back our opening day until Thursday 14th July. We are having to replace lintels between the kitchen and what will eventually be the breakfast room. We are on the last day of the building work today so fingers crossed all goes well!

Reducing the Fleet

We decided when we moved in that we would sell one of the cars. This was for a few reasons but the main ones were that we don't have a garage at the moment and we really don't have any time to drive about the countryside on a sunny afternoon with the wind in our hair. So yesterday we sold the Audi TT to a nice couple from Balmedie. We will be sad to see it go but you never know what the future holds!!!

The fleet is now down to three. How will we manage?

House Martins and friends

Obviously as we are bounded by the St Cyrus National Nature Reserve there are plenty of wildlife goings on in the garden. We are intending to report here the various animals and insects we find. This will be a learning experience for us as well so any pictures that people think have been wrongly identified please let us know.

At the moment we  are in a quandary about the House Martins which we are sure have been nesting above our windows for generations. If we let them carry on building their nests we will not be able to open any windows.  Any suggestions would be welcome!

When we first moved in amongst all the other goodies the previous incumbents had left was a piece of stale bread sitting on the kitchen table. There was a note next to it which said "Please feed the duck". We thought it was a joke. A couple of days later there was a knock at the door. It was Fuzzy.

Fuzzy has now gone to a new home, honestly. A lady from the nature reserve has given her a place in her garden where she will have other animal friends.

Before and After

Back to painting today so I thought I would post a couple of before and after shots.

Miles' room to be just after starting. For some reason there were no wardrobe doors when we moved in.

Nearly finished now with new wardrobe doors and ply down over the old floor boards. New skirting boards and blinds fitted. Just the carpet and new radiator to go.

The Big Storm

  Decorating was temporarily postponed last week after the unseasonably high winds hit Scotland and Northern England. We had gusts of over 80 mph on the East coast. All of the railways and high bridges were closed for a period of time with many of the roads blocked by fallen trees. As you can imagine the electricity network took a battering and so a few late nights had to be worked at my day job - if that makes sense.

  The Old Fishing Station also lost a few slates off the roof, a fence panel blew down, some guttering came down for the second time and the green house which Allison had been intending on refurbishing is in the picture. Probably fair to say it's past refurbishing!!!

Painting and deer

Well, after spotting two deer this morning in front of the house on the old river bed it has been back to the mammoth task which is painting. The whole house was in need of major redecoration amongst other things and we are slowly but surely making progress. The previous owners obviously liked blue emulsion, which we don't and white gloss, which we don't. We took the decision early on that we would replace all the skirting boards with the new ones being varnished rather than painted and that we would paint the walls in each room in turn. Today we are finishing off the feature red wall in Miles' room and starting the first of the letting rooms.

The Old Fishing Station

We hope to be able to keep this blog of the happenings at The Old Fishing Station. As the name suggests the building was used as a base for fishermen. There was a bothy where they would sleep, rooms for preparing the fish for onward travel and areas for repair / storage of the nets. We will endeavour to give more information on all this in due course. The building was converted to a house in the early nineties and we purchased it at the end of October last year. The house is situated on the edge of St Cyrus National Nature Reserve and a two minute walk from a long sandy beach.