An osprey wheeled above us on the tree line topping the hill

That was me told.

We are staying with friends in Perthshire on our way even further north to see a game of shinty ( a blood sport masquerading as a hockey match), visit Handa Island to see the puffins and then catch some of Cal Mac's wonderful ferries to get to North Uist for a few days.

Back home the ducklings and farm and dogs are all being cared for by house sitters and my brother-in-law, so we can relax after what has been a long, hard winter.

But up here the winter has been even longer and harder. As we walked up the hill behind our friends house a log stack, fifty yards long and two yards high and deep, every log fitted into an intricate jigsaw, greeted us. Well not greeted us, logs can't speak, but it was the first thing we saw.

"Five beech trees came down this winter" Nick told us. "The snow was so heavy on the top braches that it's weight toppled the trees. It kept us warm by me sawing them up and Caroline stacking them. We're not going to freeze at home next winter with the stack we've got already drying out and there's plenty more still to do."

There certainly is. Four giant trees lay toppled ahead of us. That huge stack was only one tree.

"Look there she is "Caroline pointed.

An Osprey wheeled above us on the tree line topping the hill.

"They knew we'd had a hard winter. She came back later this year from North Africa."

I could just make out the nest in a tree top. Caroline explained that the female lays an egg almost immediately on arrival back at the old nest. Then another egg a day or two later. The new nest is patched up around the eggs and almost within a week the female has started to sit. The chicks hatch out sequentially, so, if you are the last chick out and the food source is dodgy, I'm afraid the last and smallest chick may figure on the menu.

Tonight however our menu, a delicious meal of home produced lamb, home grown new potatoes and asparagus kale (a vegetable which I had never even heard of and which is delicious beyond belief with a knob of butter), was to climax with home grown strawberries.

That is if I could hold the torch steady enough to let Nick pick them in the dark.

When you live in a place as remote as our friends, in a climate that can be as harsh as this one can, you fill every poly tunnel, greenhouse, porch and conservatory you possess with crops.

So, if the lights do start to go out in this new coalition United Kingdom, this is the place to head for.