On Friday evening I went with some friends to see Skerryvore (who were preceded by an excellent group of young people – think there must of been about 30 of them on stage) at Barvas Community Centre.
It was a brilliant evening (if slightly warm in the hall!), but one of the things that my friend and I spent the evening commenting on was how you would never-ever see an event like this in England.

Now I am lucky as I am half Scottish and was bought up to enjoy a good ceilidh and know some Scottish dances (there is nothing like a good strip the willow for a good laugh and exercise!) – I even won competitions with a local Scottish Dancing club which I loved. And I know in England we have the good old barn dance which is usually a good laugh but somehow it is different here, really different.

The first noticeable difference is the spread in age at these type of events. Due to the nature of the event it wasn’t really a family event (under 18’s had to be accompanied) – so the youngest there were in their early teens, but there were people there right through the ages to ‘older people’ and everyone  seem to rub along together very nicely.

The second thing that I really notice is that EVERYONE seems to know the dances and wants to dance. It seems children and young people are taught these dances at school and ceilidhs are part of the fabric of life here. But even the ‘coolest’ young people, who in the same situation in England would be sat in a corner hiding, are up dancing. There is no ‘calling’ of the dances – as there would be at a barn dance or a ceilidh in England – but everyone seems to know what they are doing and seems to love doing it! No embarrassment – the pipes, fiddle and accordion draws the first cords of the tune and they are off.
There is a downside to this – if you don’t know the dance at the first cord you might feel you can’t join in and if you don’t know Scottish dances you might never feel able to join in – though last night it did feel even the novice dancer could have been on that dance floor!

The third thing was how people danced in general! Skerryvore didn’t just play Scottish dance music, they did a wide range of covers with a  bit of a Scottish twist and so the dance floor remained packed but again how people were dancing was very different to a comparable situation in England. People tended to dance in pairs, and in fairly ‘traditional’ ways – in a ballroom dance hold.

None of this is criticism it is merely observation, and in fact the sense of community is one of the reasons I wanted to move to a rural community. I also don’t want to over romanticise it all either, the issues that are faced with alcohol here are widely known  but that is not what this blog is about so we will pass over it!

Another hilarious observation was that on one particularly wild and overly packed rendition of strip-the-willow, two lads had paired up (this is very unusual) and the man who was on the ‘women’s’ side of the set was routinely ignored much to his annoyance. It is perfectly acceptable for females to be the male partner in the dances – in fact I made a new friend last night through this very type of pairing last night.

As I can’t possibly go a summer without being involved in a festival (honestly I come out in a rash if  don’t get my festival fix !) and as Greenbelt is not happening for me this year – I have got myself involved with the lovely lovely people at the Hebridean Celtic Festival.

The thing is the festival (as most festivals) relies on lovely volunteers to make  it all happen – and we are in need of some more stewards – Anyone fancy coming to volunteer? – there are some nice perks!

the festival runs from Thursday 16th July – sat 18th July. It is slightly different from most other festivals as it is not a residential festival – it is mainly just gigs in a big top in the evening (with some afternoon gigs in town and in out-lying areas of the island)

If you are interested in being a volunteer go to http://hebceltfest.com/getinvolved/volunteer/ to sign up.

If you don’t fancy volunteering there are still some tickets for sale and with a great line-up how better to spend a summers evening in Lewis!

2 weeks ago I had my very lovely friends Heather and Carfy to stay. Ideal few days between jobs and we had a lovely time.

Quite often you take visitors to the same places and though often the same place can look very different each time you visit, it is nice to find new things to do.
So we went to see the Soaplady – who was very lovely and her assistant showed us round the soap making area and explained how it all happened. The smell in there was absolutely divine. Soaplady has a lovely little workshop and shop – well worth a visit and will be added to my Westside tour through time (though it doesn’t fit with the history tour i do!).
I was particularly pleased as I was given a wee bar of the frankincense and myrrh soap by Heather and Carfy and a believe some was taken back down to the south west of England (along with Stag’s macaroni pies)

We also spent an absolutely gorgeous day in Uig – I do believe it is one of the most beautiful areas on the island. We pottered around in the rock pools for ages in Bhaltos, did a spot of bird watching and saw some lovely birds – oystercatchers (my favourite), gannets (another favourite and who were putting on a diving display for us), a golden eagle (we think) and redshanks. Dropped in at Bhaltos and Cnip – the sand was white and the sea turquoise – Island you sold yourself well!

Obviously the camera was out and there was lots of pictures taken but here a couple!

Yesterday the Stornoway Knit and Natter Group headed to join our equivalent in Harris – the Woolly Wags. They made us so welcome at the Harris Inn. The Woolly Wags (who include Sassy Gael and Calana Crafts) meet on a Thursday at 7pm in the community centre in Tarbert – anyone is welcome to join them (visitors or island dwellers alike) – the same is true for our Stornoway Knit and Natter Group (Wed 6pm at An Lannatir)

Calana Crafts bought some of her gorgeous hand-spun yarns for people to buy – I somehow resisted temptation – though Charminglochie and Cheesybabe succumb to their charms!

And a day spent knitting is never a wasted day!!

Saturday 13th June is World Wide Knit in Public Day – yes really!

Events take place all across the world and our Knit and Natter group are off to meet up with knitters in Harris for a day of knitting and chatting!

Some more information from the official WWKIP website:

World Wide Knit in Public Day was started in 2005 by Danielle Landes.  It began as a way for knitters to come together and enjoy each other’s company.  Knitting is such a solitary act that it’s easy to knit alone somewhere and sink into your work without thinking about all the other knitters out there.  Neighbors could spend all their lives never knowing that the other knits.  This a specific day to get out of your house and go to a local event
WWKiP Day is unique, in that it’s the largest knitter run event in the world.  Each local event is put together by a volunteer or a group of volunteers.  They each organize an event because they want to, not because they have to.
WWKiP Day is really about showing the general public that knitting can be a community activity in a very distinct way.  In some places there are many different knitting groups that never interact with each other, on WWKiP Day they come together in one place, making them hard to miss.
Over the years there have been local events in Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, United States… and so many more countries.

After a couple of weeks with finishing jobs and starting new ones and friends visiting (this is my excuse for non blogging and there are photos of travels across island to follow) knitting seems a perfect way to be spending my Saturday!

and just for Bruce – a picture of my latest creation, Frank mark II, made specially for my nephew.

It has been a busy week with hubby and family up since last Friday, last full week at work before changing jobs so apologies for lack of blogging.

The weather was rubbish for family’s visit (though has been incredible weather here the last 2 days with temperatures in the 20’s!) but we still made it out to the beach – shell hunting in the rain still can be fun – honestly!

We went to Coll beach – a beach i really like but don’t get to too often.
The pebbles at the south end of the beach were covered in a weird type of seaweed (or could be algae) that i have never encountered on the island before – it looked like a large spider had encased the pebbles in a web (over active imagination!)

Asgerd, Uig resident, local historian and fellow tweeter, has written a very informative and amusing post on some of the history of this small island in light of the debate that is continuing to be played out regarding ferries and when they should or shouldn’t sail. Would recommend going here!

Continuing from my previous post – it seems that the gloves are off and unsurprisingly the Lords Observance day Society are not taking the news of Sunday sailings lying down.

BBC Scotland reports (in a slightly less sensational way than Hebrides News)

Opponents of Sunday sailings between Lewis on the Western Isles and the mainland said they were preparing a legal challenge against the move.
The Lord’s Day Observance Society disputes claims Caledonian MacBrayne is in breach of European law by not running the service.
The society claimed the ferry operator had refused to make public the text of legal opinion it received last week.
CalMac is due to hold discussions on the Sunday service.
Last week, the company said it had been told it would be unlawful to refuse to run a service because of the religious views of just part of a community.
Pro-sailings campaigners sought advice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Sources at CalMac told BBC Alba the service was now “inevitable”.
After seeking its own legal opinion, the ferry operator said its advisers warned it could be unlawful to refuse running a service on account of the beliefs of a section of the community.

For those not in the know The Lords Observance Day Society is a force to be reckoned with on the Isle of Lewis and Harris. It is primarily a group made up from Free Presbyterian church goers and ministers. And what they stand for is in their title! Currently they seem to hold quite powerful positions in the island. There are similar societies across the world

By far the biggest piece of news this week and the talk of most work places, the coop and post office queues is Calmacs’ decision to implement Sunday sailings from Lewis to the mainland for the first time ever. Only a few weeks ago, Calmac were saying that they would not consider running a Sunday service from Lewis until the recently introduced subsidised ferry fares are reviewed in about two and a half years time. News broke earlier in the week that Calmac were coming to the island to meet with officials from various groups to possibly discuss Sunday sailings but it was rumour and conjecture.
But Calmac has put out a statement saying it has been challenged by the Equality Commission over the lack of seven day sailings to the island. The company have sought legal advice which says they are legally obliged to implement a Sunday sailing. Calmac have said that the advice they have received is that under the 2006 Equality Act, with-holding a Sunday ferry out of respect of traditionalist’s views could infringe the rights of residents. Consequently, they have made the decision to run Sunday ferries and say they are now deciding on logistics and a start date.
This decision will inevitably cause a division of opinion. The pro Sunday ferry lobby claim that the majority of people living here do want Sunday sailings, while the Lord’s Day Observance Society are equally adamant that most residents do not want change. I would imagine if the residents were actually asked – opinion would be fairly equally divided. There is a fear that having Sunday sailings will be the thin edge of the wedge and before we know it all the shops will be open and the last bastion of Sunday closing in the UK will be gone but I am not sure that this will be the case, it didn’t happen when the Sunday flights started up
The Western Isles Lib Dem candidate put out this statement earlier.

This week we had a team building/ team meeting in Uist – at the Lochmaddy Hotel
We were all looking forward to it – as our bosses had got stranded in Uist a few months ago and had an impromptu stay there and were so impressed had booked this team trip!

It has not long been taken over by new owners (end of season last year) and so we were hopeful that it would be good.

Unfortunately it wasn’t – it was a real shame.

On arrival the owner said though she had  our booking she had no record of the conversations we had had with the owner(s) for the arrangements of meals and additional rooms booked for meetings. In addition we were presented with a faite-du-complie about 2 people having to share a room (despite confirming we had single rooms) – which if you were away with friends would not have been great but ok – but work colleagues is a different thing. Apparently a guest had decided on staying an extra night, and didn’t want to upset their holiday. Maybe it could have been handled very differently and we probably would have reacted differently?
We felt we were completely imposing and were blamed for not speaking to the ‘right’ people despite us speaking several times to people referred to as the owner or the manager – not sure if it is old fashioned of me, but as a customer I would feel it is not my responsibility to make sure I am making arrangements with the right manager (can there be a wrong manager) when I ask to speak to the manager – I expect the manager to deal with my booking professionally.

The rooms we had (bar-one) were in shabby condition but clearly the owners are in the process of updating, as one if us had a very nicely decorated and modernised room. The breakfast dining room also was decorated nicely.
The information in the rooms was very good and they obviously have good tours for walking, sightseeing and fishing set up for visitors there on pleasure.
The majority of the food we had was delicious – lemon sole with prawns for dinner was very good but some colleagues had the most dreadful sticky-toffee pudding – which was cold and hard and looked and tasted like a house brick and would have been better used as such! When the waitress asked us if there was a problem with pudding and we explained – her reply was well it is nothing to do with me – it was the chef that made it! Mmmm is this the right answer?
Breakfasts were good as well!

It is a shame the hotel has not got their customer service sorted as the other downsides you would over look – but put it all together and not a good experience – sorry Lochmaddy Hotel.