There is a colourful glow around the Torridon at the moment, it has hit the kitchen in a big way and that colour is red. We have had a mini heat wave; good for cooking you say, save on the energy bills. The gardeners have been travelling, red-faced up from the harvest beds with strawberries in punnets, along a well- beaten track which is heady with the scent of summer. Twenty pounds a day. No, not daily weight increase of the head gardener who is not averse to keeping up with his five a day of fresh fruit and veg. Charlie came up with a good quip; his mother used to get him to help harvest fruit from the croft and knew that he had a habit of one for the larder and two for the wee loon. She told him he could help but wasn’t to stop whistling while he worked. A bit like the tale of the squeaky barrow wheel that always indicated the speed of work of the garden apprentice until it was oiled. Oh well, red sky at night and all that. We could also do with some red sky in the morning though and a wee drop of the wet stuff for the garden.