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The week of the baby.
Congratulations to Ben and Kristen on the birth of a baby boy, to Gus and Pippa on the announcement of their pregnancy and to the white mare outside the kitchen which looks much more comfortable after giving birth to a foal this morning. The foal popped right in front of a fisherman, Tim White, who was bowled over, it is all legs and no balance.
How to trout.
Jonny Page has returned. As with his last visit we hardly see him from dawn till dusk. Yesterday he caught 7 brown trout, returning all but the one he later stuffed with fresh ginger and baked. Today he caught 16, 3 of which were good eating size, before being joined by his godfather Tim and heading back out. The sun is now setting and while Helen, Matt and I are about to have a whisky and watch a movie, they are lurking at the pylon pool hoping for sea trout.
The orange in the background of this picture will form the basis of a later post.
Some more firsts for the year.
Climbed a mountain. Henry, Dee and I climbed into the northern corries of the Cairngorms with the sun shining and the last of the snow still sitting in the shadows. In a few weeks I’m going to try for the ridge above, between the vertiginously named Lurchers Crag and the Cairn Lochan, which will have amazing views both into the Spey Valley and into the great Glen, the Lairig Ghru.
After hours we (mostly Henry obviously) built the Inshriach website. Not a first for Henry but amazing nonetheless.
A weekend of firsts.
Adding to our firsts today we have had…
Swimming in the river, the Feshie in this case, filled with meltwater from the mountains and ohmygawd cold. Video to follow.
Squash, first attempt was wearing hiking boots because we happened to be walking past, then Henry and I returned today with more suitable attire. There are quite a few chunks falling out of the business wall of the court (the one that supposed to be flat) so every now and then the ball goes somewhere totally unpredictable. For the time being if you expect your squash to be competition standard I’m afraid I have to recommend you find alternative accommodation.
Classic Cars and unsuitable boats.
The Celtic Malts classic car rally came growling past the bottom of the drive on Saturday morning, everything from 1920s Bentleys and Lagondas, via old Mercs, BMWs and Austin Healeys to 1970s 911s and Escorts, 120 less any retirees. The Inshriach leg was on the last day of a 2000 mile event so there were a few drawn faces in the less forgiving machines. This has stirred me for getting the MG finished (I hear a sigh of resignation from those of you who know the full saga of heap).
We have visitors this week, Harry, Henry and Dee. Henry is doing stirling work getting the website ready and then all of us are taking in some Springtime. We took the boat from the loch, a comedy Norwegian rowing boat, borrowed an inflatable canoe, dropped them both in at Kincraig and paddled home along the Spey. Never have 2 such unsuitable vessels taken to the river but we covered the 4 miles with only one near death / drowning experience and sploshed and squelched our way back across the fields to the house.
Off the mark!
Finally, with a brown trout. There are unconfirmed rumours of a 22lb salmon caught yesterday just downstream from us. Gus says he will buy the warmest, most comfortable waders available to mankind if he catches a salmon at all, let alone a 22 pounder.
Also achieved the dining room, now Dutch Gold (yellow ochre, it works), shown here in transition from what even F&B could only describe as drab peach, then moved onto the sunroom, which is going to get a new red floor and a huge day bed for loafing with company and reading in, did some work on the next bed and started sorting the chaos upstairs in time for this weeks visitors.
Pig apparently is not ready yet. Its looking more and more likely to be alive.
Duty calls.
I keep being told that in order to attract a serious fishing crowd we need to be recording a stronger catch. Rumour has it that around 40 Salmon are caught each year around Loch Insh (just upstream), so our paltry single figure tally shows clear room for improvement.
Its a beautiful afternoon so once I finish sanding yet another bed I will take on the onerous task of trying to up the numbers…
The coo returns.
There is a long standing arrangement at Inshriach whereby Cameron puts the animals with the cutest young in the field visible from the kitchen. Today this big ginger highland cow, Clare, turned up with a tiny calf in tow.
Yesterday I took a look at the deed map to find our upper boundary on the Spey. I was told there was a marker on the opposite bank so I donned some waders and went exploring. The Feshie has plugged itself with gravel and spread over the years so its path is unclear, a fast, waist deep crossing then 200 yards of undergrowth on the banks brought me out at an excellent pool I had never seen, wide, deep and slower than the lower rods, wadable to the centre, with a dirty great black and white marker at its top, a good 400 yards above where i was expecting it. Hunting grounds afresh…
Re; The Pig.
Thanks to Jeremy for this reply to my earlier post, it’s so good I’m going to reproduce it in full;
Walt! First, cut its legs off. Then, you need lots of salt, for procuitto they add black pepper, coriander seeds, allspice and sometimes chili peppers.
For serrano the same but only pepper, then the next bit of equipment is a wooden vessel or plastic tub, a piece of plywood and a heavy weight, like a cinder block, covering the entire ham with the salt (your’re looking at at least 5-10lbs of Kosher salt) and spices.
Then after 3-6 months it needs to be air dried for 3-6 months, hanging in a draught free area, in Italy and Spain they hang them in their attics. In Andalucia they hang them in bars, pre-smoking ban, as the fag smoke also infused the ham…easy!
Getting out more.
The Cairngorm ski area is only 10 miles from Inshriach and I hadn’t been up for about 5 years so when our friend Gwennie made a surprise visit we phoned around, borrowed some kit and got ready to hit the slopes (I bottled the tweed because I expected to spend a lot of time on my backside).
Being a Tuesday there was hardly anyone out so we clocked half a day in lovely weather, didn’t queue or fall over and now my legs ache.
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