Map Reading!

About 20 years ago my parents asked the advice from one of our longstandiing guests who had over many years demonstrated that he could operate a large buisness. Working on the basis that if he could manage something large then advising a smaller business would be simple. The couple were asked by my parents how best to set Eriska aside and whether or not we should invest in further facilities. After some time they returned with their advice.

Firstly they believed that it was inevitable for Eriska to survive that we would have to invest in further facilities but their first step which caught my parents off guard, was to invest a small amount to start with by building a simple putting green and croquet lawn by the main house and secondly painting poles and setting up tracks around the island and once this had been done then produce a map so that we could encourage visitors to explore the island.

This advice has developed over the years and we now have many good tracks round the island and indeed have had to produce a map with several different grades of walks to help pick the wheat from the chaff!! However due to an oversight our map has become  slightly outdated firstly and secondly we have run out of the new improved map which is being reprinted as we speak. Anyway we have tried to offer maps to those who are intrepid explorers of the island and the slightly alter those to match the current trails. However despite this one or two guests have become slightly disorientated and even lost for a short while so I thought today I would try and retrace one of the paths to check if the posts had fallen over or if the path was overgrown or even if incompetence was involved.

At the same time I thought it would be a good oppportunity to walk the dogs especially since I have been entrusted with my mothers wee puppy that seems to have more energy than both the other dogs put togteher. So we set off and walked several of the trails and naturally, probably because I knew where I was going and what I was looking for I managed without getting lost but still the dogs seemed to have too much energy. However I then came up with a cunning plan to walk straight up one of the banks by Arnotts House where the bracken had recently wilted. The puppy could not simply walk over the bracken but had to pounce like a kangaroo to avoid being trapped and by the brow of the hill the task was complete. Three exhausted dogs, one tired explorer and hopefully one very quiet night!

Good news too that the new maps will be back in tomorrow!