Sauna and Swim

Below my house in Bayble Bay there is a beach and a pier and a little working marina for fishing and pleasure boats. All of these facilities are well used. 

At the end of December I also mentioned a rather more unusual facility and today I investigated.

Despite the temperature being in fairly low single figures the sun is shining and down at the beach it's been quite busy with the usual dog walkers. There have also been some of the more hardy wild swimmers who have swum here in the winter for a good few years. Now, however, we have a relatively recent set of users: those having a dip after coming out of the sauna. Yes. We have a sauna at the beach.  

The Old Shop, Bayble

Yesterday afternoon I did a shift in The Old Shop, Bayble. I had rather assumed that I had blogged about it before but, if I have, it's not coming up in any searches. The Old Shop, Bayble is a not-for-profit community association, staffed entirely by volunteers. Any profits go to support local community projects.

The aim is to contribute to community life by keeping a much-loved historic building in community use, helping to reduce waste and show-casing locally produced crafts and many other interesting and unusual items.

A mixture of new speciality goods, eco products, crafts and "nice things to buy" as well as quality used clothes and other items you might find in a charity shop/op shop/goodwill store are available to buy.

You can also enjoy a cup of freshly ground coffee and 'home made' cakes and treats. A range of fine teas and ever-popular ices and vegan sweets are also available. 

A small sample of some of the beautiful woodturning and wood products of one of the volunteers

A Short Walk

A couple of weeks ago I went for a walk to Pat and Dave's across the valley. I decided to go via the beach below the house and back via the road.

           There                                                                                                          and back again

The track from my house to the beach.

Looking across to Upper Bayble

One of a myriad of wild flowers - a particularly beautiful marsh orchid (I think)

The 'small' hidden beach below my house. The sand has largely temporarily disappeared. It always comes back.

Bayble Pier

The road to (and from) the pier.

An example of a modern humble croft house.

On the way home. A steep climb up from the junction with the road to the beach and pier.

Looking back from the top of the hill towards Upper Bayble.

Summer Flowers

This year many of the flowers and bushes here are blossoming in greater profusion that I can ever recall.  On the way back from Pat and Dave's on the other side of the valley yesterday I stopped to take this view.  I can't seen the Island from my house but I can see the sweeping croft of Meadow Buttercups.  

Weekends

As Maggie Smith's character, Lady Grantham, in Downton Abbey's first episode said "What is a weekend?"  Friday was a holiday in the UK (someone was getting married) and today (Monday) is a Bank Holiday.  I realised that something was up on Friday because when I was in the supermarket it was deserted by Friday lunchtime standards.  Today I had an appointment with the optician but when I arrived in Town almost everywhere else was closed.  If it hadn't been for those events however  one of the things about being retired is that weekends no longer play as important a part in one's life. 

However the last four days have been truly exceptional in that the weather for the end of April and the first day of May has, in my experience, been truly exceptional.  I haven't seen a cloud since I returned.  People have been down on the beach and the children have been swimming and making the most of the holiday and the weather.

A truly beautiful pre-sunrise dawn

Another sunrise - sorry, but I just can't resist.  It's only the first day of May!

Pat, Dave and Briagha with another dog lover, photographed from the house.

The garden is looking amazing considering I've been away for the winter.  Thanks Sue and Brian!

Crowds like this are unusual in mid-summer!

That cold water is not for the faint hearted!

Winter on Lewis

I know that it's a few years - 2005 to be exact - since I spent any of the winter months on Lewis however this year I'm really missing something - snow.  Pat's been keeping me supplied with photographic reminders and I've realised that I do sort of feel that I'm missing out on something.  Snow is unusual on Lewis.  Even more unusual is the bitter sub zero temperatures the Island has been experiencing.  Here's some idea of what it's like.  The first photo of the back of my house from Carol's at the other end of the township and the rest by Pat alias Spesh.

Oh What a Difference The Sun Makes

It's 0900 and I've still got the light on in the kitchen because it's so dark and miserable.  Where is the sun that peeped out yesterday?  Albeit between the squalls and downpours.  The house in the photos is perhaps 4 or 500 metres away and the sky yesterday was dark and heavy as another squall approached but the sun lifted it and gave some texture to our lives.  This morning all is grey, very grey.  I should add that the bottom one is also taken through 4/500 metres of fine rain!

 

To The Shore

I sometimes find it hard to believe that I live 100 metres from the shore and yet I seem rarely to go down to it these days.  I suppose the fact that I can see it all the time and that I can go down to it whenever I want puts it into the category of the over-familiar.  After all how many of us when we have lived in a place for any length of time actually carry on exploring?  Until, of course, we become bloggers looking for the next posting.  

Wendy (of my New Zealand ‘family’) arrived back here yesterday on the midday flight for a short visit before she and the children return to NZ on Friday.  Her luggage did not.  So, as the afternoon yesterday was sunny (having cleared up after the torrential morning rain) and having kitted Wendy out in a spare warm, if unflattering and slightly large, jacket and a pair of my shoes we set off in the strong cold wind down to the shore:

After a few yards I took some photos from the same spot to give you an idea of the house is in relation to the shore

Looking back up the hill at the house (the nearest building is my garage and workshop)

To the South East at Bayble Island in The Minch

A slightly different perspective to that which you are used to seeing from my house of the view of Bayble Bay

The ‘secret’ beach below my house but invisible from it

and again looking the other way

negotiating the burn at the bottom of the croft (the house is just visible at the top of the picture)

A rather pointless gate now

It’s cold and windy!  Facing into the wind Wendy reckoned that she was getting a facelift and a chemical scrub (from the windblown sand) for free

The House from Bayble Pier using the full telephoto – mine is the nearest house and the study is the white plastic bit stuck on the corner nearest the camera

Once we had arrived at the pier we decided to carry on up the cliffs on the other side of the Bay.  After a while the clouds looked very threatening so we headed up the croft to Pat and Dave’s where hospitality was offered and accepted and Dave drove us home as the heavens opened.  What would one do without friends!

PS Wendy’s luggage didn’t arrive this morning so the first task was buying essentials.  Then we had a day out being tourists before returning home to a G & T and dinner.  The luggage arrived with the G & T!

Promise of Things To Come

Today dawned (a rare sight this autumn) and showed great promise: