Totaig

CyclopsJnr got his own breakfast (toasted crumpet) this morning before I was even properly out of bed!
 
After breakfast we "repaired" the broken front window.  This was not straightforward.  The glass was held into a metal frame with putty which had gone hard over the decades it was there.  Far harder than the rusting frame.  It proved impossible to properly remove the putty to get the new pane in without completely destroying the frame.  As a compromise we decided to use fresh putty to secure the new glass even though we couldn't fit it snugly.  It then turned out the putty we had bought had been sitting on the shelf in the shop for years and had mostly dried out.  Some was salvageable, but very difficult to work especially on a disintegrating frame.  So it ended up a real bodge.  Looks horrible, but keeps the wind out.  We'll see if it lasts.  We do have new window frames ready to fit, but that's a big job that will need a few adults to manage.  We'll need to get that planned.
 
After the hard work of "repairing" the window we made ourselves a picnic lunch and set out for a walk along the coast, to a spot where a lovely little stream meets the rocky coast and there is the ruins of an old mill (complete with millstones, old dams, and a lade).
 
We sat on the rocks for our lunch at a spot that the family has used for generations.  We always used to have a driftwood fire there, but there's no wood on the beaches these days.  The rocks are still visibly split where they have been heated by our fires, the cooled rapidly when we doused the flames in water before leaving.  While we were sitting there an Otter suddenly appeared over the rocks about 3m away.  It paused, clearly as surprised to see us as we were to see it, then dashed off up the stream.  It was dripping wet, so I presume it was returning from hunting in the sea.
 
After we finished lunch we followed the stream up to the loch it comes from, enjoying how it's character changed with the terrain.  Meandering slowly in places, occasional deep pools, burbling spots where it races round and over rocks.  We spotted a frog next to the stream just as we got to the loch, and watched it hop off into the water.  We then turned back to the house over the hills, recording another video message for MrsCyclops at a high spot with a good signal.  As we walked, CyclopsJnr planned out a book he wanted to write.

While I attacked the leaky back window with sealant, CyclopsJnr wrote some of his book then read some more.  He prepared the dinner too!  We had a couple of games of Monopoly (Junior) while dinner cooked, and he won both.  The first was the fastest win I have ever seen!
 
He was enjoying his book so much he read through dinner.  

We had a game of pass the pigs before bed, and he won that too!