Lochs - Living the Dream

I know, I know….what’s the use of raving about our adventure on the moor today, when I forgot my camera and have no photos.  It doesn’t come naturally to me to carry my camera around, and I would have got some great shots today, so must do better

When we woke up this morning it was raining/hailing/snowing and stayed like that until late morning, so we had a lazy couple of hours pottering around the house.  N was keen to help our neighbour, D with his sheep, so we went to see if he was by the pen……he was…but it was snowing!  So I left them to it for half an hour and went for a cuppa further up the village.  When I got back they were working with last years lambs - painting their bums, vaccinating against bluetongue, putting some stuff on to get rid of ticks and giving them worm medicine.  N was learning how to catch the sheep, hold their horns and sit on their shoulders to keep them under control……wow…..he was really enjoying it and it was nothing to do with X-Box

Once all the work was done on the lambs, we set off across the moor with them, and to see if we could find any sheep to bring back ready for lambing.  It was a fabulous walk….blue skies, clear air, absolute quiet and a good guide (D from next door).  All in all a really good day

PS - this was written on the day of the walk….but posted on Tuesday!

Tags: Grimshader Moor, sheep

Just a quick update on things happening in our life

1. N saw first bumble bee of the spring in the front garden tonight, so he took a photo

2. I found out a couple of days ago that I am related (although distantly) to the person who built this house.  The last Macaulay to live here only had one leg, and they called him Murdo “Mac-crutches”…..you couldn’t make this stuff up

3. The family renting my house in Cheshire have had a new baby.  Baby Annabelle was born in the en suite bathroom attached to my bedroom.  Mum never made it to hospital - both are doing well.  How fantastic is that?!

4. Promised several people some more photos, so here’s a few more

The road into Grimshader - our house is hiding behind the road signs

Our wee hoos, front and back

We climbed a hill near the house tonight, trying to get a view of the sunset.  Found a lovely still small loch, catching the last of the light.  Shame I am not a camera buff with a wide lens as the light just off to the right of this shot was beautiful

Goodnight for now!

Here’s the proof……isn’t he gorgeous?  Elvis isn’t too bad either.  Many thanks to my friends J&L for providing me with their pictures of Elvis on the moor.  This is Elvis with J&L, my lovely friends from Cheshire, and my boy N

I await the flood of apologies from those of you who doubted me….how could you….you have known me for so long!

Having set this blog up to record what I am up to “up here” for my friends and family “down souf” I have felt the need to share this story with you all - some of you were there, others have heard it already.  This was certainly one of the most surreal experiences I have had……just a lovely giggle

During Summer 08 N and I were staying on holiday in Achmor with friends.  By a bizarre coincidence we were staying in the house where X333XXX has been staying for the winter - but that’s another stalking story

One lovely sunny day, we decided to go into Stornoway across the moor road, from Achmor, to join the Pentland Road .  We set off in convoy with our friends J&L.  Just about half a mile before the junction with the Pentland Road we could see a bit of a commotion up ahead - lots of people and vehicles and those big long poles with lights on the end that you see on film sets.  We pulled up next to a man who waved us down.  He explained they were filming for the new BBC Alba channel - they were moving a truck off the road and hoped not to keep us waiting for too long.  Being naturally nosy, I asked what they were filming - “A comedy about Elvis…well Eilbheas actually; that’s Gaelic for Elvis” (I think he was showing off!)

“So, is he here?” I asked……”yup, just down there by the peat bank” the talented traffic diverter advised.  Having never see Elvis in the flesh (far too young) I leaped out of the car for a gawp.  And there he was - just below the level of the road, sitting in a directors chair, big quiff, shades and full-on Las Vegas, white, all-in-one trouser suit.  Strangely he had a Scottish accent (must have been here a long time), but he posed for photos and was generally very pleasant.  We didn’t hear him sing though.

We continued our journey, with that “did that really happen” kind of feeling, trailing behind us for most of the day.  Now the next thing I planned to say was…happily though we had the photographic evidence.  Although I know there are pictures, I can not find them anywhere, so will have to go back to J&L to pinch theirs.  However as I have really hyped up my entry for today will have to post this without the pictures, and will add them when I can. 

You will get used to my total muppetry - if you are a patient sort of person

Tags: Elvis, Pentland Road

I am impressed!  Les has worked a miracle and transferred my blog across from Blogger to IB - X333xxx, please note, this was NOT magic, but pure mastery by the man I think we should all refer to as His Les-ness from now on.   I didn’t really believe this could work……but it does.  Thank You Guru!

Tags: Guru, transfer blog

I changed my mind!

I had set up my blog and and was happy with it, until I found out about the world of Island Blogging, which somehow managed to pass me by until a couple of weeks ago

Hopefully with Les’ help, I can move over all my old posts from Blogger and continue my blog as part of big happy cuddly network of other bloggers on Scottish Islands.  So, if this all works I can post tomorrow and tell you all about how N and I met Elvis on the Pentland Road……OK sad attempt to attract interest……but that’s me, attention seeking!

Tags: Elvis, new blog, Pentland Road

I know that you can buy postcards of Highland Cows, but somehow, when you have taken the picture yourself from the car window, the cow looks even prettier! Look at this one

I have been asked to post more pictures of the house and the village we live in. Every time I have my camera the weather is awful and yesterday, when the weather was beautiful my camera was at home…..but I have a couple taken from the road between Grimshader and Ranish. As the road winds between the hills there are a couple of places where you can see the house through the gaps.

Hard to see when the picture is that small, but our house is just above the silvery patch of water just to the right of centre of the shot. Hmmm, that didn’t really work did it? Sorry Dad!

We are working hard again today at observing a traditional Lewis Sabbath. I am getting a bit better at doing very little, but need to try harder again next week. N and I went to church today in Leurbost - N happily pointed out that he knew far more people than I did, which was horribly true! Even the minister recognised him from a visit to the school. I enjoyed the calm atmosphere and the singing - especially the singing.

Did some more work on the family tree with “The Elder” yesterday - we now have around 350 names on it and still growing. Starting to pull a few reports from the data and finding the best way of looking at it. Not bumped into any new relations this week, although we talked, quite by chance yesterday to some one whose blog I have been watching for a few months. Strange how small this place really is!

Swimming, climbing and football are still the mainstays of N’s out of school activities. He is playing for Lochs U12s and is in a tournament which runs every Tuesday night for another 4 weeks. The tournament is indoor and 5-a-side, so very fast and exciting to watch. We are trying to swim twice a week to get him good enough for canoe club, not sure if we are progressing or not. As for the climbing….that is great. We had an induction on the climbing wall in the Sports Centre, and that means we can go as often as we like - with me doing the belaying, rope thang. We went on our own for the first time yesterday, and fumbled our wya through the knot tying (with a bit of timely intervention from a climber just when we needed it!). N made it to the top via 3 different routes, each harder than the last - he is a bit of a natural.

This week the mobile library comes, so off to try and finish my books - although you can have as many as you like and there are no late fines, so if I don’t finish it doesn’t really matter! What a place

….not sure of HouseWarming is one word or two, but quite like it with a capital in the middle, so will leave it like that

One of my friends, Iain, told me in January that he didn’t think I’d manage to keep my blog going past the end of March. Obviously I am determined to prove him wrong, purely out of spite. I must say, however, that I do struggle to update as regularly as I would like to. I have just been reading another blog (some porn star or other, over in Achmor). His blog has not been going much longer than mine, but he gets LOADS of comments. Maybe it is just that he is naturally wittier than me, or maybe he writes all the comments himself? Whichever it is, I’ll need to find out. Having said that, lots of the blogs I read do have some “clever” content - some social comment, something educational about the Island or political undertones - whereas mine is just about what N and I have been up to and what we have had for tea. While that is interesting to my parents and some friends, I suppose my subject matter is not as “public” as some others. I am going to try adding some labels to the this post, which may mean I get more “passing traffic”….let’s see!

The last 2 weeks have been eventful. N had his 9th Birthday, his Dad came to visit for the weekend and I moved out to Lochganvich for a couple of days (to give them “boy time”). N enjoyed himself and had a gaggle of boys over for a “Rock Band” party on Saturday night. I had a lovely peaceful weekend learning a few bits of Gaelic with my cousin and having a ride in a Porsche on Saturday night

I went to the mainland for 2 days last week - first crossing of the Minch since our big move in January. I flew over, and we STILL managed to find a bumpy bit in the middle, even being up in the air instead of on the surface of the water. Hung on to breakfast, but the Hostie had to sit on the floor of the plane for a few minutes, trying to hold on to her coffee pot. We all smiled and tried not to look nervous. I think I pulled it off and was glad to be “spared” to come back the next day

Last Saturday we had a wee gathering to warm our house. We invited everyone we have met in the village so far - but it was fairly last minute and several people couldn’t come. Mrs Bonfire made an extremely good lamb curry, I made a chicken curry and beef casserole……and there was loads of beer and wine. My house is not as Party-friendly as out house in Cheshire - consequently the men spent most of the evening in the kitchen and the girls grabbed the lounge and the children were all in N’s room. We all had a good time and at least a couple of people felt a bit jaded on Sunday, which I took as a good sign

I have promised Dad to put some pictures of the house on - so will do that at the weekend