Wandering Wednesday

Here I stand, my bare feet cooling in the foaming Atlantic Ocean, after a hot afternoon working on our croft.  I am wearing my favourite summer skirt, which is billowing out in the ever present breeze, making me lean forward to see my toes. The waves surge over my feet in their endless rhythm

My husband and son paddle at the water's edge.  There can be no rushing and plunging headlong into the waves here;  the currents are very strong and dangerous and small boys could easily be swept out towards America  - the next landfall. So we stand truly on the edge of our country, gazing out to the West.  Many people from here left for The New World - some willingly, but most were forced to by the Highland Clearances. The rich landowners thought that sheep were more important than the indigenous people, and so they were cleared off the land and into the emigrant ships.

But the land endures, and so do the people.  Now we are reclaiming a tiny couple of acres back for ourselves.  We have so many ideas, and much work to do.  My husband, John, takes up his scythe and begins. ..

while James revels in the lush summer grass, hunting for bugs and flowers and hearing the steady rhythmic sound of his father mowing..

Wandering Wednesday is a beautiful new photo challenge from Nicole at GardenMama. She says:
"Lets all take notice of where our feet take us and point our cameras down to take notice of where we are planted."
It is good to reflect on where we are - in the world - in the day - in our lives.  Do join in... you never know where you might end up!

Introducing...

Our latest grandchild!!!!  Due in February!! We are very excited about this news, and so happy for daughter Karen and son-in-law Daniel.

And not forgetting big brother Finlay, taking a very close interest in events.  

Good things.

Well, we've been here a few weeks now and it is safe to say that we all love it. Now we even have broadband, so i can tell you  how much I love it too.  Unfortunately i brought the wrong camera/ laptop lead, so I can't show any new pictures, but hopefully next week I can rectify that.  i have so many shots to download and am really looking forward to seeing them.
So - here are a few verbal snapshots of what i love about living here - in no particular order.

The fresh clean air.
Silent nights
Boys who sleep all night
Doing my weekly shopping from a van
Having to factor in an extra hour and a half to do anything, as people stop to talk all the time.
The people
The community feeling.
The scenery
The changeable weather 
The wind - keeps the midges away
Being on an island
Having our own peat banks to cut our own fuel
The croft and outbuildings
Working out our plans for the croft
Visiting the Stones
The beach
The people
The people
The view
Just - being here.....

Unexpected Prizes!

The Point Agricultural Show is one of the first of several held on the Islands during the summer.  Although it was not our local show, people outside the area were allowed to enter the photography section.  I have never done anything like this before, and have only really been seriously taking pictures for a year or so, but I gave it a go.  And guess what?  I got 3 rosettes!    This snap of James at The Mother camp in May won 3rd prize in the portrait section. 

This picture is a favourite taken at Horgabost beach in the Isle of Harris earlier in the Spring.  It won 2nd prize in the open section.  I am also very honored and delighted that this photograph is the cover shot of the current The Mother magazine.

Finally - this picture took first prize in the abstract section.  I was very surprised by this, as I wasn't even going to enter that section, and just printed this one off at the last minute.  It is simply a picture of our open fire taken on a winter's evening. I liked the way the piece of wood was burning down. 

So there you go.  i am so thrilled with my red, blue and yellow rosettes - our own local show is in 2 weeks time, so I will try a few more.  As I am a resident in the area, I am allowed to enter other sections of the show too, so I am nursing along one of the lettuces we brought up as seedlings last month to enter, as well as a bottle of elderflower cordial, made from our own tree.  It is very addictive this rural show business. Great fun and a good way to integrate into a community too.

The 51st State?

When I asked for my latest amazon order to be delivered to the new address on Lewis, they very kindly asked if  I would prefer to pay in US dollars, that being (as they imagined) my home currency.  Have I been out of contact so long that I have missed something?  Have Mr Cameron and Mr Obama come to some sort of arrangement , in which the Outer Hebrides is the price?  What is Mr Salmond doing abut it - does he even know? Hmmmm....

Anyway - quick post as we are back down in the Central belt for K's birthday and various appointments and stuff.  Back up on the early ferry tomorrow - leaving the house at 4 am to be in time!!  We should have out broadband on by the end of next week, so I will be live from Lewis then. (Assuming there have been no border checkpoints put up in the last few days)
Wondering about a change of name for the blog to fit in with the island, crofting  type life.  Not usre, really, because I am still an interrupted gardener - different things to distract me now.
xx

First report from the edge.

Well - here we have arrived at our new house on the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar.)  John happily surveys his new territory, while James is just glad to be out of the car.  The neighbouring sheep seems a bit indifferent, mind you, and the tray of lettuce plants look a bit travel sick.  Happily they have recovered, and we have had a very productive couple of weeks getting to know this house and land and beginning the transformation into what will become our home.

James especially loves his new playground.

It was such a special place to be at the solstice.  The druids were very much in evidence on Midsummer's Eve (photo taken around 10 pm)

But, you know - if this is the view from the kitchen sink, well it is going to be fairly special at any time.

Belated solstice blessings and love to all.

Sacred Space

I am still feeling the glow from the wonderful time we spent at The Mother camp.  We began our time together with a moving and beautiful ceremony led by Keeley, where we opened a sacred space around the camp and in our hearts.  At the end of the camp, although we closed the circle, that space - that feeling -  remains in us.  I would never have imagined that 5 days spent in a field could have been so enriching and life-affirming - but it was.

Now we are heading off to begin what will be a change of lifestyle for us - as Crofters on the Western Isles.  the change will be gradual to start with.  Quite a bit of remedial work is to be done to the house we have bought, and we cannot start working on the land for a few months.  Still - lots of planning, organising and travelling back and forward for a few months - I hope we don't lose the excitment of boarding the Tarbert ferry.  It means that blogging will become very sporadic for a while.  We have no broadband - or even phone at the croft as yet - and I am quite taken with the idea of being out of contact for a while  We will be back down in a couple of weeks, and I will post the latest happenings then, but the time away will get longer and longer.
I just want to thank you all for all the lovely comments and support you have given me,and for your own inspiring blogs. While I am not stopping the blog, it may be a few months before normal service resumes.  So, until then I hold you all in a sacred space in my heart. xxx

Developing humour

James:  Is that a buoy?

Dad:    Yes

James:  I thought it was a girl...

Lol :)

June is busting out all over...

Just a stroll around the garden the other night produced this wonderful bouquet.  So many blooms this year - the hard winter has certainly been worth it.  I love these irises.

and the scarlet poppies are so intensely beautiful - they demand appreciation - they are here only fleetingly..

Poached egg plant - limnathese douglasii.  Very cheering ground cover plant which the hoverflies love, but the aphids don't!.

Chive flowers - pretty in the herb garden and tasty in the salad bowl.

A wonderful blowsy paeony rose - I have always lived beside these flowers, and they herald the onset of summer days for me.

Red lupins by the front door is a childhood memory of my husband.  These ones bloom every year straight out of the tarmac drive..  

An early anticipation of our plum harvest - not quite so heavy as last year, but still enough.

And these gorgeous turban lillies.  not sure what the people at the bus stop across the road thought of me wriggling around on my back in the flower bed trying to get this shot , but, hey-ho - I don't care, and it was worth it to see those exquisite flowers close up.  

Pizza night

K is home for the holidays again and has developed quite a talent in the kitchen.  Its become a bit like having a personal chef.  most afternoons he emerges from his room to ask if he can cook dinner!  Well - yes!  So tonight it was pizza night - from scratch too.  I know that picture looks like the dough stuck to the light fitting, but it didn't really.  Some quite impressive pizza throwing there - almost like being in Pizza Express.

His own recipe tomato sauce, on top of a homemade wholemeal base.

And a selection of toppings - this is the margarita one. 

I almost forgot to take a picture of a freshly baked one, as they disappeared so quickly.  Well, that's my excuse for the blurry photograph :)

Little brother seems to like it anyway - and he knows about pizzas!