Things I'm loving...

 

The boys and I have been loving this song for the last month or two but now it's really become like the soundtrack to our holidays.

Latha Math (laa ma) means 'a good day' and the song is all about a great day on the island - Eilean Leodhais (The Isle of Lewis)

For some reason the embed link isn't working so to see the video click here.

The band are called Manran and their first album came out only a couple of weeks ago. We are loving it!!


Here a few more random photos of what we would describe as 'Latha Math air an Eilean'.

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Meet Roscoe

Roscoe is my youngest brother's dog, and at about 18 months old, is still very much the mischievous puppy.

When we first came up here a week ago, Alasdair wasn't too sure what to make of him. After all, he would jump up to face height and lick Alasadair's face. Repeatedly.

It only took a day or so for Alasdair to get used to him though. Rosoce settled down and wasn't quite so over friendly when he saw him. Alasdair learned how to pat him nicely.

Now they are great friends.

Rosoce pulls too much on the lead for Alasdair to take him on it outside, but he likes to hold him until we are all ready to go.

The photo quality isn't great in these pictures as I was using my phone, but this is the road from the house down to the shore.

There was no chance for skimming practice tonight before dinner, as the tide was right in.

Down at the shore is this amazing old ruined jetty, which hasn't been in use for decades.

Here is another shot of the cliffs. The land on the other side of the sea is another part of the island, the part where my dad is originally from.

He says the best part about living where they are now is the view across the bay to 'his' part of the island :0)

Now a cute picture to finish.

Here is Rosoce, Chrsitmas 2009, when my brother got him as a tiny puppy.

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The Midnight Sun

One of my favourite things about the summer is the long summer nights.

I love how when I go to bed after 11 it's still a little bit light outside. I sometimes like to keep the curtains open a little too and look at the sky as it finally darkens, but the downside to this is that when the sun rises again a few hours later it wakes you up, so I don't do this too often!!

Up here in Lewis we are over 200 miles further north than where we currently live. Not really that far in the grand scheme of things, but far enough for it to make a difference in the daylight hours.

Here is stays light even longer, I would say about 45 minutes longer, which does make a difference. 

I took this photo from my bedroom window at 11.20pm last night.

I remember in the summer holidays when I was younger, my cousins, brother and I would stay outside playing on the croft until 11pm. Now my own boys are doing the same thing, although they haven't quite managed to stay out until 11 yet.

Of course, what it also means is that in the winter time it gets dark about 45 minutes earlier here too, but let's not think about that in the summer!

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Foraging at the shore

One of the many things the boys love to do while here at Granny & Shen's, is to go for a walk down to the shore at the bottom of the road. With or without my parents' dog.

They don't mind who takes them down, whether it is me or my youngest brother, but I think their preferred choice is my dad, Shen, as he is a champion stone skimmer.

The shore is a sheltered little spot, with plenty stones on the beach, and a calm enough sea for skimming. I just can't skim, so when I take them down they are happy enough to just chuck rocks in the sea, but when my dad takes them, they spend ages searching for the best stones to skim and to see if he can beat his record - which this week stands at 11.

He has been teaching them to skim too. Calum's record so far is 4. David's technique is to through a stone really hard into the sea, near another stone under the water so that it bounces up again and looks like it has done more than one splash!

This morning on their post-breakfast dog walk with my dad they spent much longer than usual down there.

When they came back, my mum and I were presented with these beautiful wild flowers.

Very sweet.

Then my dad came in with something much less sweet.

Winkles.

Eurgh!

He asked me to point out to my bloggy friends that they are different from whelks, before promtly rinsing them out and popping them in a pan to boil quickly for lunch.

I remember having these at my granny's when we were younger. They were quite a delicacy but I just could never stomach them. I've already told you all how I really don't like sea-food - I know, shameful with my island heritage! Eurgh, again.

The kitchen smelled like the sea while my dad drained the pan and then picked out all the snails (I'm afraid that's the only way I can describe how they looked) and put them in a big bowl.

None of the boys were brave enough to try them, I can't blame them. Neither was my brother, which I thought was a trifle unfair as when I was his age (OK, perhaps a little younger), I had no choice but to eat them at my own Granny & Shen's! No, actually, I don't mind him chickening out either.

The boys did enjoy picking them from the rock pools and I'm sure that will be a new adventure added to their shore walks from now on.

I promise I shall have some slightly more appetising food on the blog as soon as I can!

Oh, and my brother has asked me to point out that his skimming record is also 11!

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The Local Agricultural Show

On Saturday was the local Agricultural show here. Plenty of sheep and cows on display, as well as locally grown vegetables & flowers, and crafts.

James and Calum both entered the art competition, James entered the under 12 sewing competition and I entered 3 different crochet competitions.

My dad entered about 6 different photo competitions and my mum was the volunteer in charge of the teas & cakes.

It was a busy day for everyone.

The night before, we went along while things were being set up. The men were setting up the marquees and the ladies were setting up the teas - and the boys were out in the evening sunshine playing football.

On the day itself:

~there was the chance to sit inside a real fire-engine.

~And a police car.

~There was music from a local pipe band.

~Some, er, traditional? candy floss.

~Music from some accordian players.

~Even less traditional than the candy floss, gladiator fighting.

But more exciting than any of this was the results of the competitions.

James' hand sewn Harris Tweed Owl (seen below, tucked under his arm) won 2nd in his category, and my baby blanket won a 3rd in it's category! (seen below tucked under David's arm). I was so excited, given than I only took up crochet last summer, and most of the other ladies are veterans!

Calum and James are holding up their pictures too, which although not winners at the show, were winners in my eyes.

Alasdair enjoyed playing with the rosette!

Don't ask my dad about the photography competition! There's always next year!

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Things I'm loving...

Better late than never!

This week I am very greatful for safety in travel for myself and the boys as we made the 8 hour journey home to my parents. Five hours driving and nearly 3 hours on the ferry. The roads were nice and quiet and the ferry crossing was nice and calm.


This photo and the one below were taken by an excited Calum. Excited by both the ferry and lorries coming out of it, and the prospect of 3 weeks at Granny & Shen's. (Shen is the shortened Gaelic version of grandad - Seanair - shenar. The Gaelic for Granny is Seanmhair but everyone seems to just stick to Granny, probably because the shortened version of them both is the same!)

I hail from the Hebridean island of Lewis, off the north west coast of Scotland. The ferry leaves from Ullapool and this photo was taken as the boat was pulling out.

Calum was again the cameraman for this one.

The next few were taken from the back of the ferry looking back to the Scottish mainland.

For the first half or more of the journey, you can't see any land ahead, and it feels as though the journeey is going to be soooo long,

...and then you see it!

 It still takes quite a while from 'Land-hoy!' but at least you know the end is in sight!


We've had a relaxing couple of days so far, lots of running around on the croft for the boys, plenty of crochet time for me and the added bonus of sunshine - made all the more sweet by the fact that the rest of Scotland has been suffering torential downpours!

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An Afternoon of Jousting

Well, a few weeks ago we spent the Evening in the Great Hall of the Castle, this weekend we were at a different castle for an afternoon of Jousting.

The castle this time was Linlithgow Palace, once home to many of the Stuart Kings.

It is an excellent location for the jousting. The grassy area outside has a slight slope, so that wherever you end up sitting, you still get a great view.

This is the view looking down from the Palace towards the jousting area.

And this is the view from the jousting area back to the palace. 

The Jousting show was amazing. Really good fun. There were also some stalls showing medieval foods, weapons and armour as well as some little shows demonstrating various parts of medieval life.

It's on again this coming weekend so if anyone is local and has nothing else planned then I would highly recommend it.

I'll leave you all now with a little slide-show of some photos of the day. I need to give credit to my brother for some of these photos, the really clear close-ups of the jousting. His were so much better than mine.

I recommend clicking the arrows button in the bottom right corner when you view this to see it in full screen.

Also, ten points to anyone who recognises the soundtrack! I'll give you all a clue tomorrow :0)

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Things I'm loving Friday ♥ - First ever Video Blog!!!!

So, this week I finally got round to joining in with those who had some fun videos of themselves on their blogs a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed hearing what they all sounded like in 'real life' and hope you all do too.

Quickly, before I show them, Rachel asked in the comments to my previous post what 'a doddle' meant. I assumed this was a universal turn of phrase but obviously not! It means easy-peasy/a piece of cake/easy as pie, that sort of thing.

What I'm loving this week was pretty much covered in the previous post - being on-line again, the school holidays starting, the weather improving and the prospect of a few weeks holiday at my parents'.

We had such fun putting the Vlogs below together. It took quite a few takes as it's so weird looking at the camera and I kept on laughing and forgetting what I wanted to say. On playing them back I also realised that I sound a bit like Nina from Nina and the Neurons, well I think so anyway!

After we had done the final version, I then thought we should do a quick one in Gaelic for those who have never heard the language before.

So, without any further ado........








Have a great weekend!

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