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I have spent the last 2 days at Touch House near Stirling helping my friends from Red Kite Yurts put up their 42ft yurt. If you want to see it head down after Tuesday. It’s the largest yurt in Scotland (until their elongated 30 x 60 ft yurt is ready in April) and has easily the most complicated and specialised erection process (for want of a better phrase) of any marquee I have ever seen. We are using it for a wedding at Inshriach in May and I’m trying hard to justify having it for the Insider.

Were never going to go out quietly. From Wednesday there has built a crescendo of food and music as some of the attention, effort, love and entertainment that Ross and Polly Cameron have put into their business and the people around them came winging right back at them.

Lau and Admiral Fallow played Sundays grand finale in the restaurant, then there was a bus and Inshriach became a Who’s Who of Scotland finest musicians. Gathered under one roof – Aidan O’Rourke, Kris Drever and Martin Green, Charlie McKerron, Louis Abbot, Tom Stearns and the rest of Admiral Fallow, Colin McLeod (aka the Boy Who Trapped the Sun), John Langan, Ali Caplin and Hazen Metro, Roberta and the Calums from the Banana Sessions and Gillian and Tom Caldwell, all ducking and dancing, strumming, singing and fiddling through the night (and the next night), with another 50 odd friends and well wishers along for the ride. Absolutely amazing and before anyone asks, no, under no circumstances would we allow it again.

Ord Ban lives on, just in a different form. They are off on holiday for a month and by the time they get back the Insider will be very much in the pipeline, and Lau have kindly agreed to curate our folkish Sunday line up…

It’s on.

With the help of Kyle (who moved here last year as our permanent mechanic) we have the latest yurt taxi up and running. JJS425 is a 1958 Landrover that has spent the last 50 years on a nearby estate but wasn’t getting used now comfort and reliability win over pure pipe smoking manliness. Anything hydraulic was knackered, brakes, seals, cylinders, bearings and so on and we will carry on tidying up the chassis and doing bits and bobs over the next year.

That has spurred us on to make some space and prioritise some projects. In the very unlikely event that anyone who reads this wants a 1994 Mini, a 1971 MGB Roadster, or a 1972 MGB Roadster, click on the links and give me a bell.

Otters must have had this monster Salmon found on the bank of the pylon pool this week (Ben’s phone is the size of a brick). Any estimates as to the weight of the rest of it?

The yurt last night was the scene of our first successful proposal of 2011, I wont say who they are in case nobody else knows but big congratulations to them anyway.

Thanks to those who cancelled their bookings and to everyone who joined us at short notice for demonstrating to us that renting out Inshriach over Hogmanay is pure foolish. There are more important things than the money in the bank. Thanks also to the Old Bridge Inn and the John Langan Band for a storming party on New Years Eve, to our friends at Pityoulish for being a lovely bunch of coconuts, and to whoever left that deer on our doorstep on the 30th for sorting the Lords from the Flies and keeping us in stew.

And so to 2011. The next 2 weeks are all about Ord Ban. Three years of fine food, music and film building to a beautiful crescendo before Ross and Polly move onto new and exciting things, if you are in Aviemore the next few weeks do yourself a favour and see if there is space.

The year is peppered with repeat bookings and friendly faces. There are 6 weddings in the book, 3 in May alone, and the snow has cleared before the guests so today might be the day for turfing the henhouse field. By February the improvements to the bothy ought to be done and we can get planning permission in for the barn. A second yurt is on its way, a few of the classic cars are near done and it’s about the time of year we (not to mention the press, musicians and everyone else) start talking Insider.

This photo from Hogmanay 2009 is by Helen Abraham. We were just as well behaved this time but the photos weren’t so good.

Due to the New Year cancellation we are running an offbeat B&B at Inshriach from the 26th December to the first full booking towards the end of January. It is £70 per night for a double or £40 for a single over a minimum of two nights. For a few days either side of Hogmanay you can expect breakfast to be late / self serviced and there may be a certain amount of compulsory / unavoidable party involvement so don’t even ask to stay if that’s not your bag. The house is as good as full for those 4 days anyway (unless I know you well in which case I will probably squeeze you in somewhere), even the yurt is already booked out. We are going to the Old Bridge Inn to see Insider favourites the John Langan band stomping their way to the bells.

In January the slopes will be empty of the holiday crowd and it could look like it did yesterday…

I can only take bookings pretty late in case the whole house rents out and I like to talk to people on the phone. Please look at the website – if you expect mini tea and biscuit facilities in your bedroom you are in the wrong place. If you want a quirky, creative, relaxed and atmospheric apres ski, give us a call.

Or if you have finished digesting your Christmas enough to marshall your family and friends you could take the whole house for a long weekend in January for £1500 (plus a chef if you want to keep the festive indulgence rolling).

With only a fortnight to go we have had another New Year Cancellation, concerns about snowy travelling conditions from the far end of the country being cited this time. If we don’t get a full week rented out by the end of this week (the 20th) we will have our own private B&B party. The Inshriach New Year parties have become the stuff of legend, we just fancied a year off to go to the Old Bridge Inn…

Due to popular demand we have continued renting the yurt into November (and beyond, it’s already taken for New Year and the start of January). The snow came in hard yesterday with the best part of a foot falling during the day, then the temperature dropped to minus 8 overnight. Last year this sort of weather didn’t arrive until well into December. The yurters who arrived 2 nights ago weren’t expecting it, not a thread of goretex did they have and yet they assure me that with the woodburner going and the candles lit it was a cosy mini adventure, insulated by snow and wine.

Meanwhile Davie Cameron at the smithy has run up a new snowplough for our ancient Massey Ferguson. The plough happened to be ready yesterday morning and it already looks like I might spend a lot this winter trundling around the place backwards.