Movie trivia.

This week was another movie recce. We were all over Rothiemurchus then up onto the plateau of Glen Feshie in this amazing articulated hagglund personnel carrier (at the same time as a deer count was happening from a very smart metallic burgundy helicopter) and up to the falls at Foyers.

The cinema in the barn is taking shape, I have repaired the floor using heraldic panels left over from the last series of Raven and we are reconstructing a sofa or two that didnt make it through New Year.

The source of the NBS Nightly News screen can finally be revealed with the launch of this piece we made for the movie 'Watchmen'. Its got some people baffled, created an amazing amount of hype and is in the process of setting a personal youtube record with over 110,000 people having watched it within 24 hours of its release.

Bath time.

Buoyed with confidence from a recent spate of bookings we have bitten the bullet and had two of the baths resurfaced by John from The Bath Business. What once was coarse now is smooth. And easy to clean. And a very nice fella to boot.

Thanks to last weeks group for the comments left under my last entry.

The start of the New Year.

The first rental of the New Year is in occupation and this is giving us a chance to test drive our latest collaboration. Ross and Polly run the highly respected Ord Ban restaurant in Aviemore and they have worked up a local, seasonal menu in advance. A huge table has taken residence in the hall and trout, venison, pheasant and beef are simmering away in the kitchen while Steve, whose 40th birthday is being celebrated, is out on a walk unawares. We can now also arrange a chef to do lunches and dinner in house, or arrange excellent pack lunches if you are planning a day out, or Allan, one of the chefs here today, has offered to arrange boxes of local produce for when guests arrive.

Go gourmet leftovers.

As a postscript to this entry I would like to thank Kit for organising this party, even though she couldn't be in attendance. It was a lovely, responsible and likeminded group of people who would be welcome any time. Among the group was Tracey Todhunter whose blog, Low Carbon Communities can be found here. Keep in touch.

Hogmanay.

Rather than renting the house out over Hogmanay we had a little fundraiser involving lots of friends and a party in the barn. It was well below minus 5 even during the day and as low as minus 15 by night so Inshriach became a winter wonderland, layer upon layer of frost grew on every branch and we got some curling in on the loch. On Hogmanay itself nearly 60 people danced reels in their coats to a backdrop of 1970s zombie movies. Thank you so much to everyone who made it north, you made it amazing fun and much better photos of all of the above, mostly courtesy of Helen, are on this flickr page.

Dan Light is an old friend and esteemed blogger, he was indirectly responsible for the cinema now installed in the barn and has written this lovely piece in anticipation of his family holiday here in February, I had better tidy up the barn before the Pixar marathon.

In the run up to Christmas we also had this little piece in the Evening Standard.