The English couple depart for the Uists and their place is taken by a chap who'll be here until Monday. He was under the impression that it was Friday - nope. Nice day, not warm. Spend the afternoon writing a tribute to Norberto Hernandez. It is very sad work, and you can't begin to fathom the depth of grief, felt by his family. Go out at 4pm to get a huge wad of papers. On the way to the shop, I meet my acquaintance from Lochs, who is trying to sell her house. No luck - only 1 person has shown an interest over the past few months. I know the location - it is very exposed, situated at the very end of the 2.5 mile long village. I turn up Cromwell Street and go as far up Bayhead as the YM, which is being taken down. At least, the cladding has gone. Head up MacKenzie Street to Matheson Road, then down Goathill Road and Smith Avenue towards Newton. Those are the leafiest streets in town. Youngsters play a ballgame on the sports pitch behind the Nicolson. Supper is pie and cabbage and beans. The guga hunters went out for their annual cull of young gannets on Sula Sgeir two weeks ago. They'll be back within a week or so. The chap who is here until Monday is taking a leisurely trip round the Highlands and Islands, glad to be far from the madding crowd of the West Midlands
Guga is dried young gannet, it looks like a bicycle saddle, and is despatched round the world to Lewis exiles. I don't want to know what it tastes like - oily, fishy, yuk. Although gannets are a protected species, there is a tradition going back to at least the 15th century for the men of Ness to go out to Sula Sgeir to take the birds, and a special dispensation was made for them.
Wednesday 06/09/06
Fairly bright day with some showers. The English couple stay on for another night, as they are quite comfortable. Another lady is due off the plane, who is involved with a concert tonight - which I'm not attending. As she arrives before midday, mrs B and I have an opportunity to go out for the afternoon. A cruiseship has arrived, the Mona Lisa. She is an old lady of the seas, built in 1966 as the Kungsholm, from Sweden. After stints as the Sea Princess and the Victoria, the ship was refurbished in 2002 as the Mona Lisa. It has a replica of the famous painting on the funnel. Coaches are lined up alongside no 3 pier to take passengers on tours around Lewis. She measures 200 by 26 m and has a 9 m draft, which means she cannot berth, as the piers can only accommodate vessels which draw a maximum of 7 m. Mona Lisa departs at 6pm, destination unknown to me. Found it very difficult to find any inside information on her on the Net. Anyway, leave for the busstation at 1.30pm, and sit on the Point bus, waiting for it to go. Bit of a smell on board, of sweat, booze and chips. We are going to Aignish, 7 miles to the east, which costs me 85p single. From there, we are walking the 1½ miles along the northern side of the Braighe back to Melbost, from where another bus will take us back to town. For now, the bus runs past the Health Centre on Springfield Road, down Anderson Road to Sandwick and past Park End to the Braighe. We alight at the Landraiders' Monument at 2pm. Mrs B wants to look around the old Eye (or Aoidhe) Cemetery, which has tombstones going back to the 18th century. Some of the oldest graves only have symbols on them, such as a skull and crossbones, a goblet etc. These are in a terrible state of repair, and generally quite a few tombstones are leaning at all sorts of angles or have fallen over. By 2.30, we leave the churchyard and walk down to the beach below. At a slow amble, we head west towards the village of Melbost, 1.5 miles away.
Half way down, we go up to the top of the seabarrier and have a break. Mrs B collects another handful of seashells. There is a very cold northwesterly wind. The views are great, right along the coast to Garrabost in Point, and as far north as Cellar Head near Filiscleitir in Ness. We carry on to the loch and Melbost. Bus leaves at 4.15, and takes us back to Stornoway. I go on to Somerfields to get the necessary. The day closes sunny and bright.
Half way down, we go up to the top of the seabarrier and have a break. Mrs B collects another handful of seashells. There is a very cold northwesterly wind. The views are great, right along the coast to Garrabost in Point, and as far north as Cellar Head near Filiscleitir in Ness. We carry on to the loch and Melbost. Bus leaves at 4.15, and takes us back to Stornoway. I go on to Somerfields to get the necessary. The day closes sunny and bright.
Tuesday 05/09/06
Grey start to the day, and it comes on to rain by 11. Mrs B and myself join her nephew on a run to Barvas to collect items from an art gallery. After wrapping everything up, we return across a rain-sodden moor. Although the heather and the thistles are still blooming, the grass is already turning yellow. Muirneag and the Barvas Hills are clearly visible, as is Roiseal Mor, the hill to the north of the Barvas Hills. Beinn Bragar and Stacaseal stand out to the west. Return to Stornoway exactly one hour after setting forth. Rain lets off briefly after 2pm. A new couple comes to stay for the night, they flew in from southern England after a 4.30am start. They will be staying in the islands for a week.
Monday 04/09/06
The Germans head off for a day round Harris before catching the 4pm ferry to Uig, Skye. It's a cool morning, but quite pleasant. Isles FM report the normal Monday morning litany of drunken loutishness that happened over the weekend. The story surrounding Molly / Misbah gets more surreal the more I hear about it. Head into town at 11 am to print digital pictures at the photographer's shop. Four of these images will go to the BBC Countryfile's Photographic Competition. I'm disappointed with the quality of the 16 pics I print off. It's nowhere near as good as what I see on the computer screen.
Ferry comes in at 1pm. We have sausage rolls for lunch. At 2.30pm, the tanker Border Heather comes in, stops off the Glumag and turns round to leave port again. Mrs B is visited by two of her relatives in the afternoon. Supper is microwaveable sweet & sour.
Ferry comes in at 1pm. We have sausage rolls for lunch. At 2.30pm, the tanker Border Heather comes in, stops off the Glumag and turns round to leave port again. Mrs B is visited by two of her relatives in the afternoon. Supper is microwaveable sweet & sour.
Sunday 03/09/06
Quite a variable day, starting with frequent heavy showers. These cease after lunchtime. Spend some time drawing up a shortlist of pictures I would like to submit to the BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition, which closes on Friday 8th. A bit of a job, as I have 4,000+ pictures to go through. Theme is The Weather, and that is the general theme of my piccies this year. Tomorrow, I'm going to the photographer's to print them off. It's my turn to cook supper tonight, and it's Take a Leek (see Recipe Book). Young Molly Campbell aka Misbah Rana was not kidnapped after all, she went quite willingly. That family is a total mess. Mum married Dad when she was 16, had 4 kids by him, converted to Islam - then decided she didn't like it, divorced him and told the kids that Islam is no good. Bad idea. Kids had their own ideas, two went to Pakistan with Dad, one is in central Scotland and the youngest, Molly, was carted all over the west of Scotland. She has now declared she is proud to be a Moslem, and wants to be a good Scottish Moslem. The sad news comes through that the 14-man crew of an RAF Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft were killed when the plane crashed in Afghanistan. They were based at RAF Kinloss, just east of Inverness, and their families are still there. A breezy afternoon follows. The German couple return from thei rlast trip in Lewis, to Ness at 8.30.
Saturday 02/09/06
After the lashing winds and heavy rain overnight, Saturday dawns fairly bright. I join the German couple for breakfast. Their English is not very strong, but today they go over to Bernera and Uig. Mrs B goes to an 11.30 session at the Book Festival re. Village Bards. A Bard has to excell in 33 different categories, apparently. At 1pm, I go along to listen to David Craig, an excellent writer on the Highland Clearances. We start late, due to the very late finish to the previous session. Mr Craig tells some horror stories of the Clearances, the events in the 18th and 19th century in western and northern Scotland where thousands were forcibly evicted from home and land. They were shunted off somewhere else in Scotland or out to the Americas or Australia and New Zealand. The stories are heart rending. David's research took him right across Scotland, and it was very hard to pull the stories out of people. It's comparable to the trauma suffered through the Iolaire Disaster here in Lewis, which is not openly discussed.
A family from Kildonan, northwest of Helmsdale on the Sutherland coast, was kicked out and were ordered to march to the harbour at Portcawl. They brought their pet sheep with them. When they arrived at Portcawl, the landowner's agent (the factor) set his dog on the sheep, tearing it to pieces.
A family was expelled from Boreraig, Skye, and had to walk east along the shores of Loch Eishort, with their cattle in tow. At the end of the day, they camped out at Drumfearn, 5 miles away. Their tears were more prodigious than the milk, yielded by the cows, which were exhausted.
A family had been given notice to quit from their home at Sollas, North Uist. They had been deliberating whether to take the loom with them, or just to cut loose the tweed from it and take at least that along. When the factor turned up, he set fire to the roof thatch. This was so dry, that the sparks from the burning fell inside the loomshed and set fire to tweed and loom. Both were destroyed.
I got David to sign my copy of his book On the Crofters' Trail. I also bought Eilean Fraoich [Heather Isle] which contains a large number of Lewis songs and melodies.
After this session, I did some shopping in Somerfields. Mrs B went outat 4 pm to listen to a session on a famous columnist, Aimisear Eachainn (Hector the Weather), who used to write in the regional paper The West Highland Free Press. Supper consists of a Thai stirfry with rice, followed by a cherry pie with custard. Lottery yields nothing. It starts to rain after nightfall.
A family from Kildonan, northwest of Helmsdale on the Sutherland coast, was kicked out and were ordered to march to the harbour at Portcawl. They brought their pet sheep with them. When they arrived at Portcawl, the landowner's agent (the factor) set his dog on the sheep, tearing it to pieces.
A family was expelled from Boreraig, Skye, and had to walk east along the shores of Loch Eishort, with their cattle in tow. At the end of the day, they camped out at Drumfearn, 5 miles away. Their tears were more prodigious than the milk, yielded by the cows, which were exhausted.
A family had been given notice to quit from their home at Sollas, North Uist. They had been deliberating whether to take the loom with them, or just to cut loose the tweed from it and take at least that along. When the factor turned up, he set fire to the roof thatch. This was so dry, that the sparks from the burning fell inside the loomshed and set fire to tweed and loom. Both were destroyed.
I got David to sign my copy of his book On the Crofters' Trail. I also bought Eilean Fraoich [Heather Isle] which contains a large number of Lewis songs and melodies.
After this session, I did some shopping in Somerfields. Mrs B went outat 4 pm to listen to a session on a famous columnist, Aimisear Eachainn (Hector the Weather), who used to write in the regional paper The West Highland Free Press. Supper consists of a Thai stirfry with rice, followed by a cherry pie with custard. Lottery yields nothing. It starts to rain after nightfall.
Friday 01/09/06
This morning started nasty and wet, but it rapidly clears up. Mrs B has her helper in this morning, giving the lady of the house the opportunity to attend to her appointments in the town. At 1.40, we toddle along to An Lanntair for a talk by Jim Hunter (pic 2, on the left) about The MacLeods and the Hebrides. His focus is more on the Skye MacLeods rather than those in the Outer Hebrides. And he is also quite focused on the places where the Skye MacLeods ended up following their eviction from the island. In the Carolinas, they backed the Confederates in the Civil War; many owned slaves. In Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, quite a few turned up from Moidart and the Isle of Eigg (near Mallaig). On return to Scotland, their Gaelic accents were recognised. In northern Manitoba, a MacLeod assimilated with the Cree tribes, and would not see a western doctor about his failing health - this was in the 1980s. No typo there. Talk was a bit boring. Went to Somerfields to help mrs B carry her shopping home. Supper is a very nice carrot and onion stew. After nightfall, the wind picks up to a force 7.
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