Eve MacFarlane had had enough of city living and so she headed to the family cottage in Portavadie, near Tighnabruaich. It was small, damp and run-down but she had been going there for holidays since she was little and she wanted to live off the land for a while, to write. Her plans were vague. She swam in the sea, escaped the midges by rowing a boat far enough from the shore where she could fish, she foraged for mushrooms, got some hens and she read books by the fire when
