Deep and crisp and even!

It has snowed and snowed and snowed  - and then it snowed some more. This is how my front gate looked this morning, and the path was cleared yesterday! A little love heart shaped hole to the outside world.

Here is the scene at the bottom of the garden today. I posted the first picture on Tuesday, and you can see how much more snow has fallen since then. The forecast for the next few days is - guess?  Snow!

I am quite enjoying this little spell of weather. The world is filled with beauty in this Winter wonderland.  From the big skies and huge white expanses of snow covered fields, fringed by the delicate lacework of the trees,

  to the sparkling, tinkling fragility of these icicles which have formed on an overhanging branch of the apple tree - the Earth wears her Winter finery well.

But there is more to love in this Wintry upside-down world.  It brings people together.  This is a very busy road, normally, but it has been closed, so no traffic passes by.  Instead, real live people - walking - and stopping to chat as we clear our paths.  Families go trekking by, Mums and Dads and children, enjoying some unexpected time together. A girl skips by, exclaiming to her Mother "I'm dancing in the middle of the road!"  The corner shop has become the hub of the neighbourhood now - folk content to walk there, instead of jumping in cars and heading of to the supermarket in the opposite direction. We stop and pass the time with neighbours we otherwise  rarely see, although they live a few doors away. There is a general air of goodwill and "Hail Fellow Well Met" attitude abounding. it feels good - like a community.

Not everyone is happy though! The hens hate it.  They have had to be dug out every morning, and boy, do they complain!

Once a decent space has been cleared for them, they venture out long enough for a drink and some breakfast, before they head back in to the hut. Poor girls - they are really looking quite miserable, but at least they can cosy up together and keep warm.
Hope you are all cosy and warm too. x

On days like these

It has been snowing for several days now - snow on snow. So deep that most of the rowan tree's trunk is submerged in a sea of white. Icy blasts of wind come whistling over that North facing wall, and my attempts to clear the greenhouse roof are abandoned for other pursuits.

 On a day like this, then

we make ice art,

we remember the warmth of Summer and the abundance of Autumn, still sharing the garden with us.

We welcome old friends,

and we marvel at how much snow the back of a pick-up can hold!

Inside we paint and listen to some classical music radio,

and we are warmed by candle and firelight.

On days like these, I am thankful that I have my family at home, safe and warm, and that we have enough good nourishing food to sustain us.  We have nowhere we need to be, but here.  

My thoughts today are with all who must travel in these conditions.  I hope your journey is safe and you are soon back in the warm.

This moment...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember. 

I am joining in again with Soulemama this week.  Wishing all my US friends a wonderful holiday weekend.

Feeling a bit retro today.

Just having some fun with these retro photo effects.

Above is James helping his big sister, Kristine, in the kitchen -

- and James at work and play this morning. I am loving this - it is a free app (retro camera) on my mobile.  Now we are all striking moody film noir type poses. I'm sure it will wear off.  Meantime, I'll try and not get too kitschy...

Some birthday fun.

Who is that woman - anyone know?  She has so many candles to blow out, she needs 3 cakes to hold them all!
Alright - it is me, having one of those birthdays that folk seem to think is special just because it starts with a 5, and ends in 0, and a good enough reason to show face on the blog for a change.  A very rare occurence, and it might just be another 10 years before it happens again!

 Lots of lovely presents though - special birthdays do have their compensations.  Lovely food and fellowship with family, a new static lens for the camera, music, lovely smelling things - and this work of art. Hand spun, dyed and knitted by a local craftswoman - just fabulous - I love it.  I can just see myself striding the fields, crook in hand, tending my flock, or planting the potatoes, wearing this as protection against those South Easterlies.  It is warm, roomy and has that gorgeous oily smell. Did I mention that I loved it? Well I really do.

And now for a birthday game - no prizes, it's just for fun.  A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of one of the standing stones at Callanish, and several lovely people commented that it looked like an owl.  Many of the stones seem to contain images,or represent something, and I thought I would share some of them here. I walk this magical circle often, and yet each time, the changing light reveals another picture I hadn't seen before, or I notice a new angle, and behold a different shape. 
I took a stroll up to the Stones towards sunset and photographed a few. Look carefully - tell me - what do you see?

 1.

 2. 

3.

4.

5.

 

6.

Of course there are no right answers.  The stones show different colours to each visitor. I'd love to know if you see the same as me.

This moment...

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember. 

Today I am joining in with Soulemama 

Have a blessed weekend.

The first cut..

With views like this out of our windows, it is so tempting to leave them uncovered. As I write this,however, I am being accompanied by the sound of Gale Force 8, which has caused the ferry - "lifeline" of these islands, to remain tied up on the mainland, where it has been since Monday night.  Gales are a fact of life here  in Winter, so expanses of bare glass are not really an option. 

So, I had the idea to make Swedish, or roll-up blinds in Harris Tweed  - very cosy and insulating, and I can roll them up out of the way and enjoy the views during the day. Off I headed to the cutting room of the mill in Shawbost, where you can buy the the most beautiful fabric in a rainbow of colours . Never having attempted such a project before, I decided to start with the small south  facing window in James's bedroom.  We chose a sunny yellow and sky blue combination.  The colours of Harris Tweed are inspired from the landscape, and this reminds us of Summer beach days - golden sand and clear blue sea.

Making that first cut is  rather daunting. I am really not a very accomplished seamstress after all and I must have measured more than a dozen times.  Once the pieces were cut out - one for the front of the blind and one for the back, I then sewed a long bag.

In the bottom of the bag, I inserted a piece of 1cm (3/8") dowelling - enclosing that with the zip foot of my sewing machine.  A strip of velcro along the top, with the hook side attached to a piece of batten, and we fixed it to the window frame with 2 angle brackets.

With the cords in place ( attached to eyelets on the underside of the batten and to the front of the blind)  - it works!  I am always surprised and delighted when these things work out.

A reasonably successful prototype then. What do you think? Maybe it could be a tad wider at the top, and the seams aren't very straight, and I think I will make matching ties, rather than using plain blind cord, but they do go up and down very nicely. So then, full steam ahead for the rest of the windows - unlike the poor ferry - I do hope it gets underway soon..

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And so it begins!

We are real Crofters at last - we have livestock!  It is just so exciting, I can't keep this inane grin from my face when I think of it.
On Friday, all the sheep were being brought down from the common grazings for the winter.  There were two of this year's lambs unmarked, so John was asked if he wanted them.  Now we are the proud posessors of two Cheviot X Blackface sheep - and our own croft mark, which is a red dot on the side.

Of course being suddenly responsible for stock fairly concentrates the mind, and our procrastinating about the fence came to an abrupt end.  The hole next to the gate was duly repaired and made stock-proof by these two able fencers.

And then they arrived in Angus's trailer - bounded into the bottom field and wandered happily off to explore their new home.  This field has not been grazed for two or three years, so there is plenty of still lush grass for them to feed on.

James has named them both Maddie - Maddie Mor agus Maddie Beag (Big Maddie and Little Maddie).  There they go inspecting the edges of the field already, while James fruitlessly calls on them to come and play.

It's a thankless task being a shepherd boy.

                 Maddie Beag.                                            Exploring the shelter                                            Maddie Mor                                         

Remembrance.

At a community gathering last night, one of our lovely neighbours sang this song in such a sweet and poignant voice. It encapsulates all my feelings about war and remembrance.