The bridge to nowhere.

The production of the swede coincided with a lift in the weather so, between duties on Centurion, the in house prop department got busy refashioning some of the left overs from last year. I'm particularly pleased with this Japanese looking bridge whipped up from Raven props and we have the ingredients for another to be placed somewhere equally pointless.

The Family Light.

The long awaited half term of the extended Light family brought 3 generations, 14 adults and no less than 11 children, the eldest being just 8. The holiday was organised by an old friend, Dan Light, and you can read his take on it on his blog. The snow held for a final day of sledging then Dan, hot on the heels of the Watchmen marketing campaign, set about producing the first Inshriach swede. A swede is a remake of a popular movie using a camcorder and a limited budget and, in this case, a predictably child heavy cast. Four days of filming took place with Oscar worthy performances (especially Ben as Gollum), we borrowed a working projector (on our third attempt) and the Sweded Lord of the Rings premiered in the Cine Barn on Friday night.

The Cine barn.

Its now common knowledge that Neil Marshall is shortly to be filming his Centurion film around Aviemore, to star Michael Fassbender and Olga Kurylenko, there are adverts in the papers looking for extras. Here the crew are heading into Glen Feshie for another recce.



Hannah has once again come up with the goods by producing this model for our proposed barn conversion. Until work gets underway the building has gained row upon row of sofas for the Light family's film festival. Unfortunately the projector is now not cooperating, probably as a result of being stored in the cold.

Ord Ban birthday weekend.

The weather forecast for Friday said deep snow in the west country and in the far north of Scotland, apparently leaving a corridor up the west coast wide enough to get back for Ord Ban's birthday party. They laid on 7 courses in the restaurant on Saturday night, then a spit roasted hogget with mulled cider and live music on Sunday night. Everyone stayed at Inshriach and went out snowboarding or sledging during the day. We made some excellent connections which mean that later this week we will be exploring whisky tasting weekends and looking into using the house as a recording studio.

It has been as low as minus 15 again and there is a foot of snow round the house with the prospect of more this week. By Saturday morning the van and boat were well and truly stuck (thankfully in the farmyard and not by the A9) and even the landrover is now stranded in a hollow. No sailing until the spring.

Winter Sports.

Thanks to Hannah we are the custodians of 'Spray', a really pretty sailing boat now destined for the lochs and coasts of Scotland. Trust me to pick the snowiest week in memory to bring it north, all the way from Southampton. So far we have reached London, been stuck in an urban snowdrift for two days, and with inevitable delays to the schedule for the Watchmen films, she is now an unusual sight round East London as we wait for the next leg.



Making the most of the weather was Dan Craig, a good friend of Inshriach. Not being just round the corner from Aviemore we went skiing on Hampstead Heath.