The jam did work ... it's a lovely flobberly jelly with a delicate flavour. A bit too delicate for toast, but I think it would be delicious spooned on to something bland like rice pudding. I would make more, but I've run out of jars.

Yesterday I went to the DIY shop in search of screws for the light switch in the kitchen -- the depth of the tiles made the existing screws too short. The only faceplate screws they had were extra-long, so when I got home I hunted out my vice and clamped the screws to the table (with a cork tablemat for protection) and hacksawed them down. Screwed the faceplate on, to discover that the tiler hadn't cut accurately and there's a biggish gap down the side of the switch. Groan. I hadn't bought any grout (to fill in some gaps where the tiles hit the worksurface) because the only waterproof one said it wasn't suitable for worktops. I had Bertie with me and he was fussing and fretting so I didn't go scouting around for sealant, which is probably what I want.

I'm also starting to think -- with a sinking feeling (hah!) -- that the grout the tiler used isn't waterproof. OK so I didn't specify, but wouldn't you think if you're tiling behind a kitchen sink ... gah. I give up. Anyway most of it is great, so I'm not complaining. Much.

Once again, after a busy day of shopping, dogwalking, DIY and housework, I was too knackered to go out. I'm determined to see Moulin Rouge in a cinema, not on video, so I really must make an effort. Thursday is my next day off. I should just go and book a ticket, force myself to go.

I ordered three records from Amazon (Vespertine by Bjork, Folk by Howie B and Creatures of Light and Dark by Jackie Leven), and the plan is to purchase and install a cheapo CD player in my car so I can listen to the new stuff en route to Polbain. I'm sick of playing tapes -- the quality is pish and you can't get a whole CD on a 90 minute tape. I'm not sure if I can copy audio CDs on my computer -- if so that'll be ideal, because I'll be able to copy loads and just leave them in the car.

Big musical trauma for Bertie this morning: SQ was hosting an all-day pipe band competition. Cue panic -- what is that NOISE? Is someone torturing hundreds of small animals? And the drums, the damned drums, will they never stop? There were bands everywhere, practising, performing, marching -- on the corner of our street next to the library, at the Binks, in the churchyard, in the supermarket car park, in the main street. Around every corner was a fresh horror, culminating in the worst imaginable: children playing bagpipes.

Then in the afternoon a shock for me. "I hear Bertie's been in trouble," said Sandy, one of the regular dog-walkers. I had visions of Bertie waiting until the sound of my car had died away before unlocking the door with the spare keys and heading out for some fun. Turns out that an old lady told Alan, another regular, that Bertie had "stood on" her Westie. And I did remember then one day meeting a woman with a Westie who snapped at me that I should have Bertie on a lead. It was a strange encounter because she never actually looked at me, just dragged her dog away. Poor Bertie, he loves making friends with other dogs, but mostly he somehow manages to offend either the dog or the owner or both.

Today he really excelled himself, barking manically at two (thankfully leashed) dogs, which Sandy told me in hushed tones were staffy-pitbull crosses. Oo er! Be nice, Bertie, there's a good boy. The dogs nearly pulled their owner off his feet trying get at Bertie.

I didn't mean yesterday's entry to be so brief ... I was called off to do something and never got back to the blog. Not that there is much else to report. Work: crazy. Home: busy doing mundane things like mowing the lawn, cleaning up after the tiler and making jam.

I picked a whole lot of blackberries and boiled them up with sugar. I couldn't find a recipe so I winged it. Halfway through I decided there were too many pips, so I tried straining them out. Not a huge success -- a lot of pulp got strained out too. I should have strained before adding the sugar, I think. Anyway the fruit was free, so no biggie if it doesn't work.

There's a bumper crop of blackberries this year, but the flavour isn't that good -- maybe there's been too much rain and not enough sun. They look lovely on the bush, gleaming in great bunches. Bertie got very bored during my picking session, kicking his heels. You would expect him to go off exploring on his own, but he sticks pretty close.

Tim at work brought me a couple of choice souvenirs from his trip to the Falklands, via Buenos Aires: a copy of Hola! (13 Sept issue so full of the Norwegian wedding; it went to press before the atrocities) and a Malvinas badge -- the Argentine flag with a map of the islands on it in gold.

The thing I like about Hola! is that it has great spreads on people I've never heard of. "ALESSANDRO LEQUIO Y MARIA PALACIOS bano de barro terapeutico en Mallorca". Pictures of in-love couple smearing each other with mud on a stony beach. There's one story I must get Andrew to translate, I can't understand it from the pictures, which include one of a woman, SARA MONTIEL, sitting on a sofa with a blanket over her head. Then there are the up-and-coming celebs you know you're going to hear more of: Enrique Iglesias, for example, "uno de los cantantes mas atractivos del mundo", woof woof.

The tiling is done, whew. It looks great, very shiny and clean.

OK tomorrow is now tiling day. The tiler was most apologetic - he assumed the woman at the shop had phoned me. He was going to come yesterday, but I had to change that because of Events. Also had to cancel a craniosacral therapy session, grizzle. This was because my boss finally took some time off & as his deputy wasn't back from New York yet I was doing his job Sunday and Monday, 11:30am to 10pm without a break. Now the deputy has come down with some ghastly flu that's going round New York - as if people there don't have enough grief and pain! - and I may have to work longer hours on Thursday and Friday.

This morning I had my hair done, and because I'd been getting up early for a couple of days I had no trouble getting up early today -- but now I'm starting to flag. I can sleep in a bit tomorrow, the tiler's not coming until 3pm.

Hah. I went mad recently and churned out rotas for our section for up to Christmas. We don't publish on Christmas Day so we get Christmas Eve off every year. According to my calculations, Christmas fell on a Saturday, which we always have off, so hurrah! we all got a nice long weekend. Sigh. No, don't all rush to tell me - Christmas Day is actually on a Tuesday this year.

I'm not very good at rotas.

I'm good at fencing though! I don't know if I mentioned that the firm came through with a quote: £890. Eight hundred and ninety pounds sterling for a fence measuring 30ft by 5ft. Aiiieeee! So on Saturday I drove out on a mission to find something cheaper, much much cheaper. The solution turned out to be bamboo screening. Two rolls, each 16ft long by 5ft high, £100 total. I was pretty exhausted once I'd gotten the rolls home, but I pushed myself to get it erected -- wiring it to the existing 3ft high fenceposts. (Interesting aside: galvanised wire is very difficult to find. DIY shops don't stock it. No wonder Britain's in such a mess! You can't fix anything properly without No.8 fencing wire. I finally found some in a small garden shop - which didn't have bamboo screening, however.) It was a tricky operation, the screening kept falling over and it was hard to get it taut. I finished the last corner just as it was getting dark, not a moment too soon.

The second section is a bit wobbly because it goes uphill and over tree roots (I might go back and rewire it), and the whole thing waves around a bit in the wind. But it's dog proof. Bertie came out to see what I was doing and actually cried when he saw it. Heh. But it means I can let him outside at night without him going awol. And I'll be able to grown sweet peas on it. Now that I've cut down the elder tree and pruned the rowan, my next DIY project is to make a bird feeder.

It's autumn already! Trees are going gold and leaves are falling, blackberries are ripening.

My days off turned out to be just about as stressful as working days! Monday I got up at 8am ready for the tiler.

He didn't show up.

I phoned both his numbers and phoned the shop, without success. While waiting, between phone calls, I hunted out Faye's suitcase and got out the stuff she wanted me to send her, packed it up, wrote her a note and addressed the parcel. Trudged round to the post office, only to discover it was closed - it was a bank holiday. Pah!

Back home I found that the woman at the shop had called in my absence to say she'd realised that my tiles weren't arriving until the next day -- she'd told the tiler that last week, but neither of them had thought to tell me.

I was sooooooo tired I tried to have a nap, but couldn't settle -- there was too much to do! In the end I did a lot of boring chore stuff (including putting everything back on the benches), watched some TV and went to bed early.

Next day was an earlyish start -- I'd offered to collect Pip from the railway station (after posting Faye's parcel of course!). I took Bertie along and it was a good move. He was freaked out of course, though it wasn't his first time there. It's noisy, and the noise is coming from all directions: rumbling engines, cars, floods of people, suitcases with wheels, tannoy announcements, beeping electric vehicles, whistles, it's a cacophony. But the magical effect was that when we went back out on to the street he was much, much calmer. By contrast with the station, it was easy to comprehend: cars, people, no sweat.

After meeting Pip, putting her bag in the car and setting her loose in the city, I took Bertie for a ramble in Holyrood Park, did some shopping and then popped round to see Anthea, who's back from Oslo for a few months. Bertie scored a neat present, a wind-up hamster formerly owned by Jessie, Anthea's cat. The mechanism is all contained inside a furry ball, and apparently it feels incredible when you pick it up in your mouth. I wouldn't know.

More shopping on the way home, this time at Pets At Home (dog food). Pip was already back, we had a glass of wine and a long natter. She spent all day yesterday exploring Edinburgh and left this morning for Stirling.

Now I'm back at work, more stress, more complications, more uncertainty. I try to stay positive but it's a bad atmosphere.

More work-related stress. I've got the next two days off, but they'll both be busy. The tiler's coming at sparrow fart tomorrow - I've already cleared the decks in the kitchen ready for him to get to work - and Anthea's back from Oslo and Pip's coming on Tuesday to stay for two nights. Then my boss is having Thursday, Friday and next Sunday off (having worked on his days off last week and tonight), so I'll be working long hours doing his job.

Still, ony a couple more weeks to go and I'm on holiday for a lovely week. Andrew is coming down the weekend my holiday starts and may come up to the cottage for a couple of nights. I'll run him home from there, it's only a couple of hours' drive.

Another hectic night. Spent a mad half hour or so frantically scouring the internet for logos for a huge last-minute graphic on terrorist groups around the world. Hezbollah has a very whizzy website, Abu Sayyaf has nothing at all.

Nearly time to go home. I'm pretty exhausted, but otherwise ok. I've behind on nearly everything -- it's mainly work and dog-walking at the moment -- but this afternoon I got stuck in to shifting stuff up to the loft, boxes and so forth, and moved Faye's big suitcase into the cupboard at the top of the stairs. In the process of this grubby, sweaty work I found a box full of pictures I'd been half-heartedly looking for for ages, plus another box with a lot of lightbulbs in it. It's great having a big house, but it's ridiculously easy to lose stuff in it.

Busy busy busy at work. Long hours, chaotic scenes, much frustration. Bertie is confused of course, but how do you explain to a dog? "Listen, I have to go into work early and stay late because in a far-off country some terrorists crashed planes into some buildings and many, many people died. OK?"

Looking at the pictures and reading all the coverage is overwhelming. So many stories, so many angles and updates and complications; and the fear, pain, grief, anger. It's exciting to work in a newspaper office when a big story is breaking - and they don't come bigger than this - but it's exhausting too.

Very productive weekend so far. The cold slowed me down a wee bit, but I'm nearly 100% again -- it didn't go to my chest, phew. Thursday morning the fence guy came and measured up. I'm still waiting to hear from him with a quote, but I'll go ahead if it's not too outrageously expensive. His plan is to cut off the existing concrete fenceposts, which are too short, and put in taller timber ones. There will be slats about 3ft high, then trellis to 5ft, so it'll be strong but have an open feel. They have to do something fancy at the top end where the land slopes; he drew me a little picture.

Friday the tiler finally turned up, hurrah, and gave me a quote. He's going to do the tiling on the 17th. I rushed straight off to Linlithgow and chose some tiles -- which were so hot off the press the samples had only arrived that morning. Then Bertie and I went for a walk to Blackness. It was ferociously windy, really wild. On a whim I went for a tour of Blackness Castle, which turned out to be much better than I'd imagined. I'd like to live there! I'm going back with my camera next time. Back home and feeling quite energetic, I attacked the elder tree with the saw, got half of it down. It has to go - scruffy, ailing, and in the way of the new fence.

I finished that today. Sawed and sawed and sawed. It's astonishing how much bigger the tree looked lying on the lawn. Uh, and then I had to cut it up into bits and carry all the bits out to the car. Sweat, sweat, sweat. Meanwhile Jim next door was trimming hedges, we both had our cars brim full of vegetation. Off to the tip, more sweating, then home for a final cleanup before having a much needed shower. At this point I had a bit of a relapse, got a headache that just wouldn't go away and felt blech, even after a quiet walk and some ibuprofen. So I've been blobbing out, and now I'm off to bed.

Tomorrow I've got to finish off all the boring things I've forgotten to do, laundry, work rotas, blah blah, and I may go and see Moulin Rouge in the evening. Work on Monday. How fast this weekend's gone!!

Sniffle, sneurk.

In today's mail I got a guide to the cottage I'm hiring in October. It's in Polbain, on the Coigach Peninsula in Wester Ross.


This is a view of the village of Achiltibuie from above Polbain. As you can see, it's pretty rural. The entire peninsula has two pubs and two shops. The fish van comes round on Fridays, as does the bank van. I'm going home on the Friday, so I'll probably miss all the excitement. I'll have to take my own fish and plenty of cash. Nothing at all is open on Sundays, so I'll also have to bring supplies for dinner that night.

There's a smokehouse in Altandhu, and Chad has recommended the restaurant at the Hydroponicum at Achiltibuie, so I won't go hungry.

I can't wait. It's my favourite part of Scotland, bar none.

I'm ill. Last week I went deaf (kind of) with an ear infection, and this week I've got a slight fever and a runny nose. I'm also soooo tired I could lay my head on my desk and go to sleep. Faye left at around 8am this morning. I offered to drive her to the station but she got the bus into town instead, the dear woman. I went back to bed but only got an hour or so actual extra sleep.

I did hardly anything else today. Raked the lawn with the new rake, not very effectively. Did a load of washing. Walked the dog twice. Went to work.

I'm going home early, I really don't feel well.

So Liz, you can send me a get-well card now!!!

It's official -- Bertie has ringworm, the hedgehog variety. Ewwww! Dirty Bertie! The kid no-one wants to play with!

I don't seem to have any spare time at the moment, I can barely keep up with stuff like laundry.

Yesterday though, Faye being here, it was time for an expedition. It was a toss-up between the Borders and the Highlands and Faye had no preference, so I plumped for the Highlands, a spin up round the Trossachs and back via Loch Lomondside. En route, however, after lunch in Callender, I changed my mind and we pushed on to do the Glen Coe loop. It was raining, and Glen Coe is fantastic whatever the weather.

Bertie enjoyed his romp in the glen -- he enjoyed the whole trip, despite the rain and despite spending so much time in the car. On the last leg -- in heavy rain, against the clock because of the fireworks concert -- he slept like a dead dog. When we arrived back home he leapt out of the car wagging his tail, thinking he was in yet another exciting new place. It was funny watching the realisation dawn: hey, that fence looks familiar ... and that bush ... HUH!

We were in time to catch the train to Edinburgh for the concert. It was drizzling a bit, but we had a good view -- no music, but them's the breaks. We left the house in such a rush I forgot the radio (the music is played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the Princes St Gardens, and broadcast on a local station). We watched from Waverley Bridge, right outside the station, and afterwards we just had to turn round and head back down. Long queue, long wait, but eventually we made it home.

This morning there was a gorgeous answering machine message from Cathy and Leighanne, calling from "far, far away": "We're looking for our mother. We heard she was at your house playing. Tell her to come home, because we miss her." Faye phoned them back: "Will you kids just leave me alone? I can't leave the country for FIVE MINUTES without you pestering me!" Shucks, they're so sweet you could eat them with a spoon.

Today's adventure was a trip to the continental farmers' market in town. It was a three-day affair, started on Friday. It was a reasonable facsimile of a continental market, complete with genuine foreigners, but smaller. The market, not the foreigners. Some of them were quite large. I bought a bag of plums, big plump delicious plums the like of which I've not seen in Britain. Faye bought bread and some Dutch ginger cake, and then we had crepes. Faye had a chorizo and cheese one, I had chocolate. We were eating them when I felt something on my hand. I looked down and there was sticky chocolate sauce all down my clean white shirt, all down my clean jeans and even spattered on my clean feet and clean sandals. Faye came to the rescue with a couple of (clean) hankies, but we had to roar back home in a hurry so I could change. She bought more chorizo at the supermarket and we had the bread with it for lunch, followed by ginger cake.

Now I'm at work, which was blissfully peaceful tonight. Friday night nearly did my head in, it was so stressful. I've got a few days off at the end of this week, and I'm determined to use them to get myself organised. Hah.