Cup Half Full and 40 Miles

I tend to look at everything in a positive way. Probably because I've been one of life's fortunate people in that so far I've woken up every morning and gone to bed every evening for the last 27,601 days. That's a lot of days and even more when you realise that it's 39,745,440 minutes minus what's left of today plus the number I lived on the day I was born.

I'd love to know what makes us essentially positive or essentially negative. Nietzsche and Voltaire aside (they only had the raw material to speculate about) some of us are definitely glass half full and some are glass half empty. I've always been the essential optimist even when I've faced the terrible things in my life. There is always someone who has had a worse experience who has come through to be a role model. I think it's what has carried me through. 

It's not, however, something of which to be proud or to boast about. It is simply a fact of who you are. I'm not even convinced that it's nurture although I'm sure that helps to mould our nature. My Mum was the eternal optimist but my Dad was a more cautious pessimist (at least that's how I perceived it). 

What's all this about? Well I was actually thinking about something so mundane and trivial that it made me think about the remarks I'd heard today about the winter and the weather (we're Brits so that's a mighty important topic and I live on an Island so it's a matter of ferries and to travel or not to travel and is quite a real part of life.).

My first thought is that the nights are now getting shorter but the person to whom I was talking said that it was a long time to the longer days and we still had the full winter to contend with. She pointed out that the weather today was atrocious. So it was. However Christmas Day was cloudless blue skies from start to finish. Ah yes she said "That brought the icy conditions". C'est la vie.

On Christmas Eve I took some photos of the mainland. To give you an idea of perspective Canisp in the first photo is 40 miles from where I was standing.

Canisp and Suilven

The township in which I live surrounded by nothing but moor. It looks better in the sun.

My Few Previous Days

This is what my last post was really intended to be about. Much more mundane and requiring no thought whatsoever. My 'average day' tends to involve getting up and abluting and footling about with a mug of hot water and lemon and eating my breakfast of banana, blueberries and muesli (possibly with some Grapenuts) whilst checking emails and so on.

I then try to go for a walk in the woods in the Castle Grounds in Stornoway followed by a coffee in The Woodlands often with friends. Then I'll do what I need to do in Stornoway before home for lunch. The afternoons and evenings are varied well beyond 'average'.

In pictures the following has been part of life on Lewis this last week or so.

Last Saturday my son and daughter-in-law's home village of Grimshader had it's belated Novemver 5th bonfire night:

My son, a very keen cyclist, decided that one of the bikes he had made as a project was perfect for a child seat. Brodie absolutely loves it.

My daily drive into Stornoway involves driving over the 'spine' of the peninsula on which I live. This photo is of a heavy shower right over the top of Stornoway where I was about to walk. As it happens when I started on my walk the rain had disappeared and the sun had emerged.

The autumnal woods in the Castle Grounds were basking in glorious sun.

A couple of days ago I finished baking the last of the six Christmas cakes I've made over the last few weeks. The new oven in the new kitchen has been the best thing I've purchased for a long time.

Talking of the new kitchen I fitted a blind  this week.

This morning's sunrise over the Scottish mainland as seen from my kitchen was a mixed bag of snow showers and brilliant sun:

My garden pond was frozen over which is very rare here just above the sea

Now it is almost time to think of Christmas.

Behold, The Sky.

Looking from my garden towards the mainland with Suilven and Stac Pollaidh and lowering clouds.

Morning Fog

Despite the recent storms we've had some beautiful days.  Although it was clear and beautiful here on the day I took these photos the mainland looking over towards Canisp and Suilvan was wreathed in fog.

Peace and Tranquility: A Study in Blue

with a little bit of red.

I can't make up my mind whether the beautiful weather yesterday and today with sun and blue skies intermingled with amazing high clouds giving an almost surreal effect at times.  It's been very warm too (by Hebridean standards).

I Never Get Tired

of waking in the morning to the views from my kitchen and study.  I promise that I won't do this every day like I did when I was in Italy.

I'm Home

It's been a long journey.  I've been away over four weeks (but a few days less than the five I anticipated) and driven the best part of 5000 miles or 8000 kilometres.   I haven't done all that I intended to do - I couldn't see my Goddaughter nor her Mum which was a huge minus - but time and things conspired against me at the end.  It's been a wonderful time being part of the extended family of one of my oldest friends who arranged the holiday and brought six people from four countries around the world together in a large and beautiful Tuscan villa  to celebrate her 70th Birthday.  

The journey home took a week.  Mo (friend from Canada who's birthday it was) and Di (her sister in law) and I travelled back to Di's beautiful and restful house near Merseyside in the trusty Nighthawk via The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Di had never seen it), the Cinque Terre (and satisfy Mo's desire to walk between two of the five towns), Albiano near Lucca (to see my dear friends Peter and Sandie from Callander who have a house there) and Antibes (to satisfy my desire to see my son Gaz in situ in his life as Chief Engineer on a super-yacht.

Then I drove up to the Scottish Borders to visit friends in their new home before bringing a friend, Anna, up from Bishopbriggs to stay on Lewis for a few days.  It's been a good journey.  

There have been the occasional hiccups  for example when one hotel booking disappeared into the ether and when our rooms were double allocated in another hotel.  The most irritating problem for me was internet access.  For the most part lack of time meant I wouldn't have been posting much but in Antibes the hotel's internet server provider went down and thereafter in France I couldn't get internet access even on my phone to set up a wireless hot spot for my laptop.  I couldn't link to Di's wifi and after that I managed to answer a few emails but catching up with friends precluded anything more.

So this morning I woke to my old familiar view just before the sun rose across The Minch over the mountains of the Scottish Mainland:

I know that many of you will have seen it all before but to me it was just wonderful to see 'my' view again and to be able to share it with you.

Hopefully I'll manage to catch up over the next few weeks with all the posts of the holiday as well as catching up with all of my friends in Blogland. 

Photos at Last

Since I returned to Lewis I have hardly taken any photos.  In fact in three weeks until today I had taken fewer photos than I usually take in a single day.  So today I set out to remedy that situation.  Mind you it started well because the Scottish Mainland was highlighted very spectacularly by the early morning sun. For your information the coastline at its nearest point is 30 miles (48k) away from me.

Journeying

As I start this post it is nearly 100 hours since I drove onto the ferry to leave Lewis.  The ferry leaves at 0700 which means getting up at 0500.  0530 on an ordinary day is not too unpalatable unless, and it's a big unless, I actually have to get up.  I wonder why that is.  The journey through the Highlands of Scotland is always wonderful and as I was in absolutely no hurry I had the opportunity to take my time and enjoy the journey.  

The road between Ullapool where the ferry lands on the Western side of the Scottish Mainland and Inverness which is on the East side is about 60 miles (about 100 ks) through some stunning and spectacular landscape until I arrived in West Wemyss at about 1730.

Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands on the road between Ullapool and Inverness.

The road between Ullapool and Inverness above the Aulthuish Inn

Ruthven Barracks by Kingussie (on the A9 Inverness to Perth Road)

The Watermill Café at Blair Atholl

The back of Falkland Palace in Fife

Just what the Doctor ordered on a hot afternoon in Falkland

All the places I visited were worthy of a post on their own and hopefully I will eventually do one for each of them.  The Falkland Palace is part of the Scottish National Trust and so photography is not allowed.  I must get back onto that bandwagon!

Sitting a'Top a Mountain

The scene: a moving boat out in The Minch as we sailed out of Loch Broom on a moderately easy swell as night fell.  Added to that a camera using the equivalent of a 640 mm lens this was never going to be the perfect photo.  But the huge orange disc sitting on top of a mountain in the Highlands of Scotland was just to good an opportunity to pass over.  So there's no claim here to anything other than a photographic record of a memorable moment standing on the side of MV Isle of Lewis on an autumn evening.

'The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to'  Carl Sandburg

Good Days

Yesterday was a Good Day. I had the grass cut and a wheelie bin filled with cuttings before midday (the bin men came at 2pm), three lots of washing on the lines and phone calls made and visiting friends coffeed all before dinner after which a friend visited. I didn't even have time to blog and few emails left my computer either. The weather was superb if a little chilly in the clear air but by the end of the afternoon the clouds were coming. I was visited by a family of Stonechats and I thought the photos of the female worth a showing. In the early evening the mainland mountains about 60 k (37 miles) away were astonishingly clear and I managed the following unusual photos taken with my lens at full telephoto - apologies for the noisy sea.

My Plan

My plan is to have no plans for the next few weeks.

I'm back in Eagleton having arrived at nearly 10pm yesterday after a drive through the Highlands of Scotland in flawless, cloudless conditions. I eventually got to bed and decided to sleep as long as I wanted this morning. Needless to say I was up at 0600 and just couldn't wait to get going sorting things out and making lists of things that have to be done. As the weather is dry for a change the top priority is cutting the grass. But that comes after making phone calls and catching up. The problem is that when the weather is good here there is a desperate urgency to get things done in the garden.

The first lot of washing is in and some of the things I brought back that have to be sorted have been at least put into the 'proper' room. As a consequence the study looks as though a bomb's hit it. So does the living room. And the kitchen. Ah well. Who cares I have 29 days to sort it before I leave for NZ.

29 sleeps. How fast they will go.

How come life goes so fast?

But this morning when the sun came up I realised just how privileged I am. Could things ever be better?

The Temperature Rose Today

It got into double figures.  I recorded a maximum of 11.2 deg – fleetingly.  It felt a lot colder in the wind.  And this is the middle of May.  There are less than 7 weeks before the nights start drawing in again and midsummer will be passed!  The mainland of Scotland with snow on some of the mountains stood out for part of the day which was crisp and clear.