Another Glorious Day

Yesterday ended with a red sun and this morning started with one:
 

Sunrise over Bayble Bay

Well Lewis is having truly splendid weather for the end of April - another day of wall to wall sun.  If the garden hadn't been put into such good shape I'd have spent the day there but as it was I've had a rather decadent and very enjoyable day with morning coffee at Pat and Dave's and an even more decadent afternoon.  A text from Carol up the road suggested I pop up for coffee or, perhaps a sav blanc in the sun.  So for the first time that I can ever recall in the nearly 40 years I have lived on Lewis I sat in the blazing sun on an April afternoon and drank a glass or two of sav passing the time with a friend.  

This evening I decided that, even though you have probably seen the view from my kitchen and study windows a million times and in far better  photos than this, I would show you how the weather looked this evening.

Scarlet Lily Beetle

At Anna's where I stayed for a couple of nights on my way home I saw a very curious beetle that I'd not come across before.  Not that that is a surprise.

Red or Scarlet Lily Beetle, Lilioceris lilii

B****y Blackbird

I was writing this in my head before 4 am this morning!  No.  There wasn't a real Blackbird trying to wake me here in Eagleton.  It was all in my mind.  I just dreamed it was there and, so far as my brain was concerned, it was there.  So before 4 am this morning I was wide awake and a less than happy bunny.  Mind you, even at that hour the sky was promising a beautiful day. And that is what we got.  

Actually I'm now having my usual problem of changing from being 12 or so hours in front of half of my friends to being 12 hours or so behind half of my friends.

I arrived home to find that my garden had had a huge amount of tidying up work done by friends, Sue and Brian who had been staying over the last few weeks and who had taken advantage of some beautiful weather.  In fact today has been wall to wall or perhaps I should say horizon to horizon full sun and the beach below the house has had its share of youngsters and others who had the day off because of the Royal wedding but preferred to be outdoors and not in front of a television.  

Pat, Dave and Briagha came for a visit and returned via the croft and shore

Early evening and the youngsters were still congregating in the sun on the pier

And eventually the sun set over the distant croft houses

Thankful Thursday

On my blog A Hebridean in New Zealand I have been writing a post each Thursday entitled Thankful Thursday.  This came about because of the wonderfully positive attitude to life by Jaz, who started Thankful Thursday,  and her husband Mark on the blog Treacy Travels.  I intend to carry on with these posts on Eagleton Notes.  Today's will appear on both blogs.

It's Thursday morning and this afternoon I shall be back in my Lewis home.

A few weeks ago I was listening to Radio New Zealand Concert and a conductor was being interviewed.  He travelled frequently between New York and London if I recall it correctly and he said that he had never, after many years, managed to get over the problems of jet-lag.  Since then I have listened to stories of what people go through with jet-lag.  I have to be honest and say that I had never realised how unpleasant it could be.  Yes, after being awake and traveling for long periods of time, I sometimes feel tired (most of my life I have needed very little sleep so that helps) but I had never appreciated what people who suffer from it experience.  Yesterday a friend was explaining.

So today - having had a great day yesterday without even feeling tired - I am exceptionally thankful that I don't experience jet-lag.