Moving on.....to Island Blogging

Please note my blog has now moved onto Island Blogging - this is a network of Blogs kept by people who live on Scottish Islands.

If you want to keep following the adventures of N and I, please follow this link and update your favourites! Unfortunately most of the photos have not transferred across, so I will post them again later

http://sarahmac.islandblogging.co.uk/

A lovely hairy Cow!

I know that you can buy postcards of Highland Cows, but somehow, when you have taken the picture yourself from the car window, the cow looks even prettier! Look at this one

I have been asked to post more pictures of the house and the village we live in. Every time I have my camera the weather is awful and yesterday, when the weather was beautiful my camera was at home.....but I have a couple taken from the road between Grimshader and Ranish. As the road winds between the hills there are a couple of places where you can see the house through the gaps.

Hard to see when the picture is that small, but our house is just above the silvery patch of water just to the right of centre of the shot. Hmmm, that didn't really work did it? Sorry Dad!

We are working hard again today at observing a traditional Lewis Sabbath. I am getting a bit better at doing very little, but need to try harder again next week. N and I went to church today in Leurbost - N happily pointed out that he knew far more people than I did, which was horribly true! Even the minister recognised him from a visit to the school. I enjoyed the calm atmosphere and the singing - especially the singing.

Did some more work on the family tree with "The Elder" yesterday - we now have around 350 names on it and still growing. Starting to pull a few reports from the data and finding the best way of looking at it. Not bumped into any new relations this week, although we talked, quite by chance yesterday to some one whose blog I have been watching for a few months. Strange how small this place really is!

Swimming, climbing and football are still the mainstays of N's out of school activities. He is playing for Lochs U12s and is in a tournament which runs every Tuesday night for another 4 weeks. The tournament is indoor and 5-a-side, so very fast and exciting to watch. We are trying to swim twice a week to get him good enough for canoe club, not sure if we are progressing or not. As for the climbing....that is great. We had an induction on the climbing wall in the Sports Centre, and that means we can go as often as we like - with me doing the belaying, rope thang. We went on our own for the first time yesterday, and fumbled our wya through the knot tying (with a bit of timely intervention from a climber just when we needed it!). N made it to the top via 3 different routes, each harder than the last - he is a bit of a natural.

This week the mobile library comes, so off to try and finish my books - although you can have as many as you like and there are no late fines, so if I don't finish it doesn't really matter! What a place

HouseWarming

....not sure of HouseWarming is one word or two, but quite like it with a capital in the middle, so will leave it like that

One of my friends, Iain, told me in January that he didn't think I'd manage to keep my blog going past the end of March. Obviously I am determined to prove him wrong, purely out of spite. I must say, however, that I do struggle to update as regularly as I would like to. I have just been reading another blog (some porn star or other, over in Achmor). His blog has not been going much longer than mine, but he gets LOADS of comments. Maybe it is just that he is naturally wittier than me, or maybe he writes all the comments himself? Whichever it is, I'll need to find out. Having said that, lots of the blogs I read do have some "clever" content - some social comment, something educational about the Island or political undertones - whereas mine is just about what N and I have been up to and what we have had for tea. While that is interesting to my parents and some friends, I suppose my subject matter is not as "public" as some others. I am going to try adding some labels to the this post, which may mean I get more "passing traffic"....let's see!

The last 2 weeks have been eventful. N had his 9th Birthday, his Dad came to visit for the weekend and I moved out to Lochganvich for a couple of days (to give them "boy time"). N enjoyed himself and had a gaggle of boys over for a "Rock Band" party on Saturday night. I had a lovely peaceful weekend learning a few bits of Gaelic with my cousin and having a ride in a Porsche on Saturday night

I went to the mainland for 2 days last week - first crossing of the Minch since our big move in January. I flew over, and we STILL managed to find a bumpy bit in the middle, even being up in the air instead of on the surface of the water. Hung on to breakfast, but the Hostie had to sit on the floor of the plane for a few minutes, trying to hold on to her coffee pot. We all smiled and tried not to look nervous. I think I pulled it off and was glad to be "spared" to come back the next day

Last Saturday we had a wee gathering to warm our house. We invited everyone we have met in the village so far - but it was fairly last minute and several people couldn't come. Mrs Bonfire made an extremely good lamb curry, I made a chicken curry and beef casserole......and there was loads of beer and wine. My house is not as Party-friendly as out house in Cheshire - consequently the men spent most of the evening in the kitchen and the girls grabbed the lounge and the children were all in N's room. We all had a good time and at least a couple of people felt a bit jaded on Sunday, which I took as a good sign

I have promised Dad to put some pictures of the house on - so will do that at the weekend

Kissing Cousins

As many of you know my Great Grandfather came from Lewis.....part of the reason I think we feel such a affinity with the place. Over the years I have spent hours with The Elder Maciver in Laxay compiling our family tree. The Elder is an amazing man. He has grown up with stories about our family history and learned things "the old way" and he has a huge amount of verbal knowledge in his head. I set out when I first came here to get it all down onto paper, and latterly into the computer

Over the past 10 days or so I entered 218 names into some software called "Brothers Keeper" which is free and allows you to compile a family tree and then get reports out of it. It has been quite compulsive. Our "tree" was on a very long piece of lining paper, and was getting very scrappy and old, so it was a relief to get it onto the computer where I hope it will be less easily spoiled. Yesterday, I spent 2 hours with The Elder, and we added over 120 more names....all straight out of his and his wife's heads! We all ended up with a headache, but with a lot more information in

N spent yesterday afternoon with his new friend D, and D's Dad, Mr Bonfire, at the other end of the village. Quite by chance last week I was looking through some old papers I had kept with scribbled notes about the family tree, and I realised that my GG Grandmother, Mary Macaulay came from G, the village where we now live. In fact, I realised she came from number 4, which is where Mr Bonfire's mother lives.....and later we realised that Mr Bonfire and I are kissing cousins!! Can't quite work out what the connection would be called, but it is there, clear as day in the family tree. So, how weird. Not only did I not realise I had a connection to this village, but some of the people I have met since arriving are actually part of my distant family. N and his friend D were truly amazed to realise that they are not only friends but cousins

The boy had a ball yesterday, moving sheep around from one croft to another, feeding the lambs (last years, this years not quite here yet) and riding on his cousin's quad bike! He is really enjoying the outdoors and the freedom up here and we plan to make the very most of it during our year.

Archie the dog is going home tonight - we will miss him.

More Photos

Lots of people have asked for more photos, so here's a selection from the last 3 weeks.....all crammed in together, but hey!
I am afraid I don't know how to turn them round once they are on the blog, but I think you only need to crick your neck for one of them

These are in reverse order, so starting with today! We have a lovely Springer Spaniel staying with us for a few days. Today we went to Europie Sands to try (usaully unsuccessfully!!) to wear the dog out. I ache all over and will be in bed in 10 mins. Archie is raring to go and wants to chase the ball even though it is now dark! This is an empty beach, early afternoon on a day with no rain and little wind. During the 2 hours were on the beach we saw one other person. Love it


Here's N's friend and cousin D (next post will tel the story!). N, D and I had to take shifts to keep Archie satisfied with the ball thrower - I reckon he ran 6-7 miles today

As I said, reverse order. This was yesterday's walk in the Castle Grounds. Archie found the deepest, muddiest, peatiest (real word?) drainage ditch and laid in it. My car is beyond dirty. But he is so lovable we have forgiven him everything

This is the road to Grimshader - our village. When you turn off the main road, you follow a windy (as in lots of twists and turns....not wind) road for about 2 miles to get into Grimshader. Trouble is, it is so windy that I never get to look around, but this picture is typical of the road.

This weekend is a long weekend off school - N is off Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and I have taken the days off to spend the time together. So, the first day off and first day we had Archie, we went to Reef Beech in Uig - never been before. It is a beautiful beach, and very long. Here are the photos from that day

Lovely rock pool, loved the colours

As I said, long beach. Saw not another soul......again......love it!

Sorry, here comes the one you need to crick your neck for! Outside Grimshader there are 3 wind turbines. On Thursday when I went into town to the PO, there were 2 men abseiling down the "arms" (??!!) doing something. It was quite impressive

This was another view of the wind turbines on the same day - clear blue skies, no wind, the loch was like glass

OK, going back a couple of weeks now - sunrise outside the back door! And apparently they get better!

Even further back in time - this was the day with most snow.....again the road into Grimshader

I promise not to leave it so long between photos from now on.

Another post tomorrow, to tell you all about our "new" cousin!

Girls Night Out

I am only 2 weeks late telling you about The Shady Ladies' trip into Town. It was a special occasion, Dr Do-Lots was 40 over the weekend and this was a great excuse for the girls to go out

Mr Bonfire has access to the Community Minibus so we were chauffeured into town in glorious style. I think there were 9 of us (2 weeks is a long time.....that'll teach me!) and we went straight to An Lanntair (the Arts Centre) where the cinema is. When I first came to Lewis the only way to see a film was in a mobile cinema, in the back of a truck which visited the Island about once a fortnight (ferry permitting). Now Stornoway has a beautiful Arts Centre, with gift shop, gallery, coffee shop, bar, restaurant......and cinema. N tells me (and he seems to know far more about this place than I do - and far more people!) that the walls and the stage all move around so the space is completely versatile and can be used for many different events

We watched "The Changling" which was quite grim, but an excellent film. A great feature of "Cinema Stornoway Style", is that you can buy a glass of wine at the bar and take it in to the film with you - fantastic - popcorn and wine! So, by the end of the film, we had each had 2 rather large glasses of wine. I must admit, I thought that would be the end of the evening.....but oh no...we had to visit the pubs too. I have not been into a pub in Stornoway for about 15 years, and to be fair, I think very little had changed (including the carpet). There were a healthy number of drinkers in each place we went, and a few VERY drunk men, but the atmosphere was friendly.

At midnight we sang "Happy Birthday" - and half the 20 year old men in town joined in, obviously believing our party to be of the same generation as them. Amazing what wine can do! Not long after this I remembered I have a son and he was with Mr Welsh Idea back in Grimshader. I fully expected him to be sound asleep when we got back, and to leave him where he was until morning. In fact, when we staggered back to Dr Do-Lots house, there was N with Welsh, wide awake and discussing the merits of the various King Kong films which had been watched during the evening. I think Welsh was closer to sleep than his 8 year old companion!

So a lovely evening, but not such a nice fuzzy head the following morning. But it was worth it. I would like to point out that any reference to naked dancing on tables from Rusty is just a sad example of her hankering after her past. She needs to move on and accept she is now a responsible member of the Grimshader community - honestly, as if we would.....!

Shady Ladies!

I have been threatening to tell you about the people I have met up here, so that's the subject of this post....Shady Ladies!

Obviously there are the people I have known for a while now, my family, although distant and I'll tell you about them another day. I also have my friend I, who helped us leave Cheshire, and is quite shy, so won't want to see much on here about himself......But for now, we must focus on the people I have met in the village. Here's a cast list:

Rusty Pipes and Mr Methane - it's thanks to these 2 that we found the lovely wee hoos that N and I live in. First appearance - on Dalmor (or was it Dalbeg) beach last summer. I had been to get my hair done and N had gone to the beach with J&L who we were on holiday with. By the time I arrived N had made friends with the 2 lovely girlies, A&E and my friend L was chatting happily to Rusty Pipes (as I now know her!). We got on like a house on fire and when I later realised that a year on Lewis was a real possibility I managed to find them by the miracles of t'internet and the rest is history. Rusty is bonkers and makes me feel right at home here - good advice about where to park the car in a gale and other tidbits you only appreciate when you live on the edge of the world. And she makes a great cuppa. Mr Methane is very quiet, but has an excellent wit, and a great rapport with webcams (managed to install mine for me). He took my family tree away today and by now has probably found out about my great Aunt who died in Holloway after robbing a sub Post Office with a sawn off shotgun

Dr Do-lots and The Welsh Idea (WI) - Thankfully these 2 live at "the right end of the village" with their lovely kids C&O........if you stand on the roof of our hoos you can see the great yellow hoos on the hill where this crowd live! Dr Do-lots has already rescued me form one medical emergency - and hopefully that will be the last of it! She had a BIG Birthday at the weekend and as a result the Shady Ladies ventured forth on Friday night - Stornoway was afraid. More about the trip to town next time. The WI is always in a good mood, always smiling and full of positive energy. He too makes great tea - poofs or builders (ie earl grey or PG tips!)

Mr Bonfire and Victoria (Wood....dinner ladies...think about it, those of you who know her) - live right at the the far end of the village. The 3 of us have had a moment of epiphany, realising that our boys (my N and their D) are truly soul mates. They both love football, guns, wrestling and mud. It is great for N to have a boy a little older to play with, and we have been sharing the driving to and from footie training on a Friday night. S is the long suffering older brother of D, who is really in to internet shopping. Mr B ( as opposed to Mr M....keep up!!) looks after the community minibus and drove us Shady Ladies into town for a our quiet sherry.....and then even came back again to pick us up. What a gent!

We have been very fortunate so far. We came from a lovely village with lots of fantastic friends.....for a while on 06 Jan I did think we must be mad to be leaving to come here and follow our dream. However, it looks like we have had a soft landing, and found more people who can help N and I enjoy our lives and our time on the Island. Still.....early days.....will start the stalking, blackmail and abusive phone calls soon - that'll put the cat among the pidgeons!

Need to do better on the pictures front

I have borrowed a card reader as mine has not turned up anywhere during the unpacking. I think I have out it somewhere safe.....hmmm!

Anyway, what this sorry collection of photos proves is "I need to do better" - but here are the ones I have taken since arriving

This one summarises the ferry crossing from Ullapool to Stornoway - N took it about 20 mins before I threw up! I promised him we will never travel that route again - Uig Tarbert is much shorter and much calmer so we have promised each other "never to forget":

Noah's first walk down the drive in the morning to catch the school bus. This was at 0840 am....and even just 2 weeks later we have lots more light at that time of day now:

This one is the wee boy waiting for the bus last week......see much lighter!!

Last Sunday, the day after the gale, we went with our friend I over to the West side to see the waves at Dalmor and Dalbeg - here are a few pictures I was expecting to be more spectacular. The waves looked much bigger in real life:

....and then on the way back we had snow.....this is about a mile from our house

The Post office!

I had a lovely trip out at lunchtime to go the Post Office. Since I arrived I have had quite a lot of work post to send out as it is "end of year review" time, and ink signatures are still essential. So, I have been "popping" to the Post Office next to Charley Barley the Butcher, just in Stornoway. I knew there was a Post Office in either Luerbost or Crossbost, so I set off today in the sunshine to find it.....and what an adventure!

I was sure the Portakabin in question was in Leurbost, so I took the back road from Grimshader, through Crossbost and crawled through Leurbost at 20 mph looking out for the PO. Reached the road end - no sign. I went to the shop at Cameron Terrace to pick up milk and asked for directions to the PO in the shop. I was told it was just past the Village Hall on the Leubost Road.

So I crawled back through Leurbost, probably looking slightly dodgy! Found the village Hall....but no PO. So, as a typical woman, I stopped again to ask for directions - this time a local man, in his garden. The garden is an impressive feature of houses in the country on Lewis - not many houses have them. This one was laid out with flower beds and the best collection of garden gnomes than I have seen outside Surrey. This gentleman explained that I needed to "go past the graveyard, turn left up the hill and it is just there". Thanking him, I leaped back in the milk float and set off confidently towards Crossbost graveyard. At last, I thought I had found the hidden PO

But no.....I got to the graveyard and there was no left hand turn. Maybe there was another graveyard which I had sped past in my enthusiasm? So, back I went towards Leurbost; couldn't see another graveyard, but did spot another likely candidate for direction-giver extraordinaire. This was a wonderful old man - very deaf, so we had to huddle up to communicate. And he did enjoy the huddling! He asked where I was living, and when I told him the village, he asked which house and told me "I'll be up to visit tonight then" with a twinkle in his eye. He turned out to be 90 - although he didn't look it. I have seen many old ladies in Lewis with fabulous skin, but never seen an old man anywhere with such a wonderful complexion. Anyway, he gave me directions, again involving the graveyard, but a turning before the graveyard

Off I went, this time checking on the way with a man on a tractor, who confirmed the location. Turned left from the Crossbost road, towards Grimshader, and there, not 10 yards from the road was the PO. A fine portakabin, proudly announcing itself to the world - I has driven past it about 40 minutes before on my way out. How on earth I didn't see it I will never know. The postmistress emerged from her house, unlocked the PO and weighed my mail. I explained my PO hunt of the best part of the last hour, and she laughingly told me I must need new specs. So, I now know where it is - close than Charley Barley's, and I will continue to go there in the hope that an extra customer will help keep the place open. Again, when I find my bloomin' card reader I will put up a photo of it

First Full week

We have now lived on Lewis for 9 full days, and they really have been FULL days!

We left on Weds 07Jan for our adventure. Following our good friend I in a big van full of "stuff" we drove up the A9 to Inverness, which is a new route for me. When visiting the Island in the past we always travel via Skye, so it added an extra "it's different this time" element to the journey

Our crossing from Ullapool to Stornoway was eventful for both N and I - it was apparently quite calm and yet we were both dreadfully seasick for an hour in the middle of the Minch. Luckily N went to sleep, during which time my breakfast and I parted company, so we arrived feeling wobbly and embarrassed! With lots of help from cousins C and J we moved everything in and settled in for a windy weekend. It was quite consistently blowy, so that when I woke up on Monday morning, it took me a few minutes, lying in bed to work out what was different. It was that the wind had stopped!

N started at School on Monday - I drove him in the his first day, in his new uniform. He was a little nervous, but went off with the secretary to his classroom without a backward glance. Coming home on the school bus was a first for him - he got off the little bus, and ran down the drive with a big grin on his face. The first thing he told me is that the children all brush their teeth at lunchtime, and that there's homework most nights! He now races through his morning routine and breakfast, so he can be outside early for the bus - great for his independence

He has already done some things he has not had the opportunity to before. As the school caters for children up to 14, they have a home economics room, with cookers etc. So I have been informed he will be making flapjacks next week. In PE they learned some basketball skills. Travelling on the bus every day is a great social opportunity to get to know the other children in the village. He had previously met 2 families of children, but he has made another friend on the bus who we hope will come up for a play today. The boy is thriving!

I was a bit twitchy last night as there was a severe weather warning, anticipating the worst winds since 2004. We were in town at lunchtime and it was getting blustery. In Tesco's our checkout operator was asked if he got the bus home. If he did he would have to leave early as the buses would not be running out to the country after 1800. N and I settled down to watch TV, candles on, torches in hands.......the water went off sometime in the evening, and we were advised the power would almost certainly go off. One of my fab neighbours (more on them later!) rang with advice about the best place to park my car to make sure it was still here in the morning. And the wind blew harder and harder outside. We decided to sleep in the downstairs bedroom, as out rooms are in the roof, and I haven't bought my red "Dorothy Shoes" with me.
Off we went to bed shortly after 2100 as the anticipation was killing me - read for a while, switched off the still-working light and slept very well. I am not sure if the power went off at all, don't think it did, but interestingly our water is still off

Photos will follow when I can find my card reader - I know it's here somewhere! Hoping to complete the unpacking today, so I am sure it will turn up

We are on our way!

Things went in our favour this morning at Chester Court and N and I will be on our way to Lochs tomorrow, hopefully around lunchtime!.....more to come when we arrive

We are truly delighted and excited and can't wait to start on our adventure

Thanks to everyone for messages of support and encouragement - so here we go!

Cleaning instead of Leaving!

This morning should have been when N and I left for Lewis......a long drive in the milk float, followed by a lorry carrying all our "stuff" for a year. It's a very frosty morning, here in Cheshire, and 6 days to go until we get a go/no go decision from the court. We are staying with our fantastic friends K,J, M and E and having a ball - could not be in better company for laughing!
We had a good New Years Eve. I slept on the sofa for about 2 hours in the middle, but then perked up for midnight. N fell asleep at about 1130 and could not be roused for the bells - we are a lively pair!
So, our house is empty - all that's left is to clean, so that's what I am off to do now. Will post again on 06Jan.....