SID 43 Catching Up - That Was April

Is it really 11 days since I visited Blogland properly. I used the word 'properly' because I have made the occasional Covid-19 type skirmish there hoping that The Authorities would not notice that I was travelling further than strictly allowed when on gardening leave. We, on Lewis, have had one of the longest spells of constant sun that I can recall for a couple of years. We have had the occasional shower in the last few days and the wind has been very chilly from the North East but I have managed a great deal of garden and external house maintenance. Much, I have to say, to the detriment of my letter writing. My coffee's in The Woodlands have been replaced by virtual WhatsApp and Zoom coffees (or G & Ts depending on the time of day).  Well, everyone has to have coffee breaks.

I have discovered that it's easy to walk 4 miles in a day when gardening and add to that the 'hard labour' humping 100l bags of compost and removing small tree/shrub stumps etc and it's a good workout each day. Apart from trips to the local postbox and a trip to the medical practice for my Trial Review bloods and my 3-monthly bumjab I've not been off the property. 

Of course I miss the family (who are now out of quarantine but still subject to lockdown rules which are not quite as strict as my self-isolation) but I confess that the days are flying by at an alarming rate and I've hardly scratched any of the items off the 'To Do' lists. I am fortunate generally to sleep well but a day in the garden certainly leaves one pleasantly tired (I was going to say 'knackered' but that's not very polite). Apart from the news I've hardly even watched television.

However the birds have been enjoying the garden even with me working in it. 

Bird box in use. Note to self: clean it up next autumn.

Meadow Pipit: Bathing; Checking claws; Under wing clean?; Aren't I a pretty pipit?

 Blackbird. "These raisins are good." 

Golden Eagle exiting over the sea. 

Female sparrow looking for extra nourishment for egg laying in the form of delphinium leaves. 

Blackbird bathing in the waterfall.

Eagles Galore

Viv had never seen an eagle in its natural surroundings.  Today she saw four, perhaps five.  We went to Harris.  The first two golden eagles were soaring very high above the hills on the Lewis and Harris border of Loch Seaforth (so high, in fact that at times I lost sight of them), then two were being chased by hooded crows a little further on over the climb towards the Clisham and the last possible sighting was down at the Southern tip of Harris at Lingerbay.  OK I promise not to post any more eagles until I have something really spectacular to show you.

Golden Eagle being chased by two hooded crows

Friday Was A Beautiful Day

In so many ways.  Pat and Dave, close friends from the other side of the valley, have had friends staying and wherever they went this week they found the sun (and kept telling us!).  So yesterday CJ was feeling good (by his standards) so we decided to go over to the West side of the Island to Uig and Reef and Valtos for their fabulous views, machair and beaches and see if the promised sun would make an appearance.  We had to do a bit of chasing but we did manage some sun.

Uig is not the place to try and get a cup of morning coffee however we remembered that last year we had had an excellent coffee from the machine in the café facility at the Uig Community Cooperative Shop which is an example of the considerable achievements of a small remote population and provides a range of retail facilities including a post office and petrol station as well as a community meeting hall.

 The view from the front of the coop says a lot

Then we went to the tiny township of Cliff:

Then we walked on Reef sands

Where holiday makers at the camping ground there were fishing off the rocks

Someone or two in the township of Carishader has a sense of humour:

As we came up to the old schoolhouse in Loch Croistean which is now a very friendly café we came across a pair of eagles soaring high above the valley:

All in all it was a Very Good Day.