HebCelt Festival

We are off to the Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway for the next few nights.

The festival website says
“The reputation of Hebcelt is now legendary; a unique location, fabulous music, and a fantastically warm and enthusiastic audience who welcome ‘home’ all guarantees this event is one of the biggest homecoming parties of the year! “

we’re looking forward to it: Julie Fowlis band, four men and a dog and red hot chilli pipers is tonights line up in the Lews Castle grounds

 

Great big skies

it sounds so cliche but the skies on the island are BIG, and even when the weather is not good - and lately we have had the rain that the island is so famous for - the skies are still fascinating to me.
I am sure if I had paid attention in my geography lessons I would be able to name all the cloud formations, but I didn’t, but none the less I still find it beautiful; whether it is storm clouds and torrential raining heading towards across the moors or the panoramic blue of gloriously sunny days, or the little grey clouds skidding across the scene as the night comes - it is all beautiful.

The last few weeks I have managed to catch some of the more beautiful ’sky moments’ from our back garden.

more big lewis skies on the flickr site

 

Now this is Island living!

Some if you think we are remote and slightly mad for moving to the Western Isles but this guy (Stuart HIll) lives on an island off the Shetland Islands in a tent!

He has just declared the Island of Forvik independent from the UK! see his website for more info
What i am most impressed about is the fact he has internet - how is that possible? wonder if he has a mobile phone signal and sky TV - if so he is doing better than us!

(picture from shetland conversation website)

 

The longest day

Last night we head down to Callanish Stones in the hope to watch the night pass without it getting dark on the longest day.
Unfortunately the weather was not great and the cloud cover meant we didn’t really get the impressive spectical we had hoped for.

Whilst we were there we overheard a conversation between 2 girls saying that there was an old story that goes - on the longest day people come out of the stones. We laughed at them until we got home and downloaded our pictures!

 

Washing

I never thought i would find doing the washing in anyway satisfying BUT I seem to have found that I do!!
One of the great things about living on the island is the wind drying your washing. Today I put this load of washing out and it was dry within an hour! There is something about seeing every ones washing on the line dancing around in the wind that is very satisfying and almost makes you want to wax lyrical.

Of course, because it is the Isle of Lewis, there are some things that you need to know about doing your washing:

1. You need special pegs or it will blow away and you will find the cow in the field next door wearing your husbands underpants.

you need cyclone pegs - which I had never heard of before I came to Lewis - but was assured i needed them by friends, and right enough when we use ‘normal’ pegs the washing comes off the line!

2. Never (ever) hang your washing out (or even do washing) on a Sunday.

3. Unfortunately it is not always dry enough to hang your washing out, but it is usually dry on a Sunday.

 

Greenbelt

you might be interested in the challenge that Greenbelt has laid down for people this year to get involved pre-festival with some art etc, so take up the challenge!

here comes the sun …

 

a golden eagle in the back garden and a trip to Harris

We’ve had some friends to stay over the last couple of days and by special request we organised for a golden eagle to come to the back garden! Andy managed to capture this picture

Though eagles are fairly common place on the island this is the first one we have seen this near the house. it was obviously a young one and had caught a rabbit for its tea.

Yesterday we headed down to the Isle of Harris, where the beaches are stunning and landscape very different to Lewis. We headed right down to the south to Rodel where there is a beautiful medieval church - St Clements. lots of photos on flickr

 

Eat your heart out Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

well what a day - out on a boat with the Stornoway Sea Angling club.

i caught 3 pollock, 2 cod and about 12 mackerel and 2 garfish

When i got them home it was time to gut them and then fillet them - well Gayle did. All new to both of us! we shared some with our neighbours and landlord as we had far too much fish.

so this is what island living is about…

 

Steve’s gone sea angling

wonder what he’ll bring home for tea tonight…

 

Trump comes to the island

Well the excitement on the island this week is that Donald Trump visited his mothers croft on the island, then gave a press conference and was presented with the Council’s (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) strategic plan for investment in Stornoway’s historic Lews Castle,

it was the windiest day we have had yet!

Silversprite (blogger on Uist - even more remote than us!) has given a great round up of all the coverage the visit received though I have 2 personal favourites:

The Anorak News with some disgruntled residents

and the paragraph in the Scotsman “There was no welcoming party from the neighbours, the only figure other than the massed media waiting for his arrival being a council workman cutting the grass verge.”

I can’t wait for the Stornoway Gazette’s coverage tomorrow!!