Kerrera, followed by tacos

This was the forecast for Oban for the entire week last week:


I was stuck indoors working on an editing project for most of the week, but Saturday was hot and sunny and Andy and I spent most of it out in the garden. We trimmed grass, weeded the flower beds, watered and planned out a cold frame design built out of some scrap windows we got from a friend.

We were hosting a dinner party on Sunday evening, so we prepared the salsa ahead of time so that we'd have time to get out a bit on Sunday and not spend all day around the house.

After a lazy Sunday morning and a bit of housecleaning, we caught the 12:30 ferry to Kerrera--really just about a five minute ride across the Sound of Kerrera from south Oban. By the way, you can find all these places I've been mentioning on Google Maps. The map of Kerrera appears to have a bridge across to the island, but no such bridge exists.

We took our bikes (my bike is borrowed from our friend Ellie) and rode around to the south part of the island, stopping to photograph potential orienteering sites.


We saw lots of wildflowers--campion, yellow iris, dog roses, ragged robin, clover. The biking was fun and hilly on a rough gravel road with some scary steep bits.




And what do you know, we ended up at the Kerrera Tea Garden, the closest approximation to heaven on earth as you ever get. There is something completely unique and magical about the tea garden set in a little cleft above the path leading out to Gylen Castle. Tables with umbrellas laid out in the garden surrounded by flowers and trees, with the vegetable garden behind the old croft house and chickens running around.

Also at the tea garden is the cosy byre--a long narrow building made of stone with triangular windows made of slabs of stone set at angles. Inside there are couches, rugs on the rough stone floor, a giant fireplace, and windows looking out toward the ruined castle. Apparently you can rent out this room in the evening for parties. I was thinking it would be a fun place for a birthday party. There are some pictures of the byre and the tea garden on the Kerrera bunkhouse website.

When we got home we prepared the tacos and waited for our friends to arrive. Ellie, Sheila and her friend Emma from Edinburgh, Michele, and Dan came, bringing wine and chocolate with them, even though we had specified that guests didn't need to bring anything. But we opened the wine and all made a mess with our yummy tofu and fish tacos with fresh salsa... mmmm. I'm looking forward to some good Mexican food in California--where I'll be next week!