A month ago, on 25th February, we heard the first territorial music from a song-thrush, high in a spruce tree near Achranich. The next day a pied wagtail scurried along the parapet of Ivy Bridge. The first Monday morning in March the woodpecker started his drumming practice. Then last week the doos were cooing (or wood pigeons, to be exact). Spring is now definitely and gloriously here – the whole place having a good stretch and yawn. Time for the Ardtornish spring newsletter.

The winter just gone was our busiest ever. The New Year came with a tremendous ceilidh in Ardtornish House (pipers, fiddlers, the lot), and a few days later we had a wonderful wedding with guests from three continents. February saw a four-day birthday celebration, and March another cosmopolitan wedding quickly followed by a 40-head seminar by a local charitable trust about enterprise in the West Highlands.

We love to see the House being used in this way, and guest feedback tells us it’s a very special and memorable place to gather for any type of celebration.

Here’s a picture of me after re-fuelling the house with logs, with our new toy - a 50-year old Massey Ferguson 35 – and Peanut the dog, sharing the steering. More information about events here can be found on our very new website - www.ardtornish-events.co.uk

Not that we’ve been idle with winter renovations.

We’ve put free wi-fi broadband internet access in every property. The signal to the cottages comes in by wire to Kinlochaline Castle and is beamed out over river to Craigendarroch and Rose Cottage, and across the loch to the Boathouse. From there, it’s bounced back across the loch to Castle Cottage. Achranich has its own connection from the estate office, and Ardtornish House is a hub of its own.

There’s been a good deal of redecoration, with the Boathouse interior completely repainted, and the living rooms in Craigendarroch 1 & 2, the Annexe and kitchen in Achranich, and several rooms in Castle Cottage. The local carpet cleaner has been hard at it, and we’ve replaced the sauna in the Billiard Room Flat. We’ve also hung many new pictures and mirrors, and rearranged and added new furniture to improve the feel of some of the rooms.

Bookings for 2011 are coming in fast and it looks like we’ll be very busy again this year. If you are planning to visit in 2010, please contact me by email - stay@ardtornish.co.uk or telephone - 01967 421 288 for enquiries on availability or to make a booking.

I look forward to meeting all of our booked guests soon.

The new Loch Tearnait scheme is progressing well. We were delayed by extreme cold weather and very short days before and over Christmas, but we’ve caught up. The turbine is due to arrive in mid April and we hope to be up and running by the end of May. Doubtless we’ll have some teething problems and there’s tidying up to be done over the summer, but we’re very excited about flicking the switch.

We’ve decided that as soon as Tearnait is operational, we’ll press on and build the new Rannoch Dam. The old Rannoch scheme will be decommissioned and the site redeveloped, with the storage dam creating a mill pond above the existing intake. There’ll be a new intake and pipeline (all buried this time), leading to a new power house and turbine. If all goes well it should be complete and working around January 2011. The combined output of the Tearnait and Rannoch schemes will be around two megawatts.

Thinking further into the future, we’re considering building a third scheme at Uileann (in the White Glen) - which is currently in the planning stage. We’re also funding a feasibility study on behalf of the local community development company into smaller schemes around Lochaline village – in the hope that we can help develop them into viable community-owned renewable projects.

In more than five years of tramping around Morvern I’d never seen a short eared owl, until this spring’s annual deer count. Descending Meall Damh in warm bright sunshine, I very nearly stepped on one. It burst from beneath my feet, broke into its characteristic wavering flight and then, rather surprisingly, alighted on a lone rock some 50 metres away. I’m not sure which of us was more startled - the sleeping owl or me. I sat down and watched it for fully ten minutes through my telescope, marveling at the intricate plumage and brilliant blinking eyes.

Just as I thought I’d better get on with the job in hand, the bird leaned forward and regurgitated a shiny black pellet. It’s drying in the byre awaiting dissection in front of my curious children.

Two other species of owl are reasonably common at Ardtornish. Barn owls sometimes breed in one of the turrets of Kinlochaline Castle, where their ghostly flight can be seen at twilight around the Aline estuary. Hugh and Jane occasionally catch sight of them through their bedroom window having an evening stroll along the parapet. Tawny owls are here too. Their classic to-whit to-whoo is often heard around the head of the loch, particularly on autumn nights, and for many years one was often to be seen in a cruck in the old (and now gone) ruin of Lochaline house, staring intently at impudent visitors.

The main winter work has been making and renewing paths. Ian spent many hours chipping the gale-torn branches and lining out paths to open vistas new. Secret corners can now be seen from unexpected angles. Where slopes are uncomfortably steep, he reinforces with stone blocks, searching out flat rocks to use as steps.

We were cheered by an inspector’s visit telling us the garden is free of Californian Sudden Oak Death - now attacking other gardens in Argyll.

The control of Rhododendron ponticum continues. Horticultural writer Kieran Cooke has been in touch for advice on our experience to help him write about ponticum, whether and where it has hybridized, where it comes from, and how it’s controlled. He visits Ardtornish this month, and we’ve sent him the article Angus wrote about our control programme here, and another by Morvern neighbours, Gordon French and Donald Kennedy, about their Lever and Mulch method - which avoids the use of weedkiller. It reminds us that here in Morvern we’ve led the UK in control of one of the commonest invasive plants.

Many of the rhododendrons we treasure rather than destroy are now coming into flower – like R. rirei to the left of the Front Drive, and R. cilpinense and oreodoxa near the Glen. The snowdrops have made a good show and have been followed by Crocus tommasinianus. Sheets of daffodils are coming out now, alongside R. rubiginosum in April.

If you’re having a garden walk, why not buy a copy of my book about the garden from the estate information centre to act as your guide?

We’re all set for the season with a line-up change at the Whitehouse. Rachel, who looked after the restaurant last year, has taken on our catering side (she and the Whitehouse team have cooked for three events, all mentioned above, so far this year - to great acclaim). We have a busy year ahead, with weddings and other gatherings, and have a really first class team under Rachel.

Mike Burgoyne and Lee Myers are joining us from the famous Tickell Arms outside Cambridge. Both have a great track record, and an enthusiasm for local produce that matches our own. They’ll work together in the kitchen, and Mike will look after the front of house. We’re thrilled they’re coming.

We feature again in the Michelin Guide this year – the fifth in a row.

On a less happy note, Charlie, the magnificent cockerel, didn’t make it through the winter, so Lesley’s on the look out for another bird to equal Charlie’s bad temper and jealous protectiveness of his harem. Sarah’s son Archie (aged 5) now has his own flock to rival his grandmother’s, so we’ve got healthy competition in the hen’s egg market.

Quail’s eggs will also still appear, and this year we hope they’ll be joined by the odd bird. There are pigs in the peninsula (Morvern Fine Pigs, to be precise - just outside the village), so we hope to feature them too.

We’re expanding our frozen food range, so you can have a ready meal waiting in your accommodation on arrival - including Ardtornish beef lasagna, and various puddings including sticky toffee pudding and apple crumble.

We open on 8th April. Please do drop in and see us.