Dawn and Stornoway

My brother, CJ, is staying with me. His wife, Jo, arrives a few days into August. After a week of distinctly un-summery weather we've had a few beautiful days.  CJ was up for some reason or other at 4.58am on Friday. This was the view from my kitchen window:

We have had coffee a crossword in town most mornings. Today I actually stopped and took some photos in the town centre.

2021 - New Year's Day, First Walk of The Year

Yesterday was a beautiful day: almost windless, just above freezing and sunny. I decided on the spur of the moment in the morning to get back into my practice of walking in the Castle Grounds. So I drove into town and parked at The Woodlands Café as always and set off. The walk up into the woods and along to the River Creed was fairly quiet. There were not even many dog walkers about. Many of you will have seen pictures of the walk, or parts of it, before but I thought I'd publish some of the winter ones I took yesterday anyway. 

An icy stretch

The River Creed in full flow.

The River Creed just above the estuary

The estuary and slack water at low tide. Quietness after the noisy torrent. 

The estuary 

And again.

A good place for a summer picnic

In memory of someone or perhaps of the RAF. Fresh roses.

I have photographed this tree in almost every month of the year.

A gull, a cormorant and a heron sat on a rock......

The Lews Castle resplendent with it's rebuilt stone wall.

Lewis Memories - 1

When we bought our first house on Lewis we moved in in February 1976. I had already been here for 3 months. I, and a colleague, had been boarding with Mrs Thompson (or was it Thomson) in Stornoway. Mrs Thompson appeared to know everyone on  Lewis and certainly was an excellent person to tutor my colleague and I in the ways of the Stornoway world that we might otherwise have missed out on. There didn't appear to be anyone nor anything that Mrs Thompson didn't know and we were the beneficiaries of that knowledge in the three months I lived there.

The first, and most important lesson, was that before any food or drink was taken at any time grace was said. Mr Thompson's graces could be very long. It was not unusual, therefore, for our evening supper cup of tea and Scotch pancakes to go cold whilst the grace was said. Mrs Thompson always quietly took our tea away and refilled the cups with a hot brew. However, occasionally, there would be a gap between the supper being laid before us and the grace being said. Occasionally without thinking my colleague or I would take a bite of the pancake. We would then have to sit there for a long time with this morsel in our mouth frightened to chew and unable to swallow. Those were the longest graces. 

Remembrance

Yesterday I was fortunate and privileged to be invited to go along when the Stornoway Rowing Club  went out from the Inner Harbour to the Beasts of Holm (the rocks on which HMY Iolaire foundered). I was not rowing of course but got a ride on the safety rib. Some yachts accompanied the skiffs as well. We were fortunate in that the Minch was calm with little more than a breeze but it was cold with a temperature not much above freezing.

When the skiffs arrived at the site of the disaster 201 paper boats were floated, the crews sang a hymn and saluted those who lost their lives. It was both poignant and moving.

Gathering on the marina pontoons

The 'Lewis Diver' rib I was fortunate to go out on.

Rowing across the harbour

Rowing around the Beasts of Holm

Floating the paper boats and singing a hymn

SY233 'Jubilee' the last original ‘sgoth Niseach’. Ideally suited to fishing in Scottish coastal waters, the clinker-built, lug-rigged ‘sgoth Niseach’ took their skippers and crews into the unpredictable waters of the North Atlantic

The Iolaire lies between the marker on the rocks and the shore.

The Salute

A Walk In The Woods

Well it's a start. Since my hospitalisation last September I've been unable for much of the time to go for 'proper' walks i.e. ones that get the muscles going and the heart pumping.  I've not even been to the gym very much. Since my visit to Ayr Hospital last week things have improved immeasurably and today I decided that I would don my trusty walking shoes and go for a short but purposeful walk in the Stornoway Castle Grounds. 

It was just  a mile and a half with a few short gradients to tackle. Along the shore road the wind was very strong and that always makes catching one's breath difficult. In the woods, however, it was very pleasant indeed.

Since the 1987 hurricane which brought down a great many of the very elderly trees the woods have undergone a huge transformation with hundreds of trees felled and hundreds planted. The main difference for those of us acquainted with the woods for over 4 decades is the removal of almost all the rhododendrons which had grown wild and covered every available free bit of ground. This has allowed much more light into the woods allowing new trees to flourish.

Wild daffodils on the shore roadside

Great paths for prams

Now that's the sort of helpful notice I like

Cuddy Point and Stornoway Harbour

There's still a few wildish bits

Winter Stornoway

Stornoway has a splendid golf course. It's  well over two decades since I walked round it trying to hit a little white ball as few times as possible. What is the saying? "Golf is a way to ruin a good walk." However it can provide good companionship with exercise after a long day behind a desk.

I pass the course a lot because it is part of the Lews Castle grounds in which is situated The Woodlands Café which I frequent.

Earlier this week it was looking particularly attractive in its winter attire:

Just Occasionally

We have weather in the Outer Hebrides which makes you realise that there is nowhere else on earth that you ant to be (at that moment!). Last Monday was such a day as I walked by the Stornoway Golf Course. It was windless, cloudless and very cold.

There was a time many years ago when I used to walk this course regularly trying to hit a golf ball around 18 fairways an into 18 holes with as few swings of a club as possible.

PS I'm away from the Island at the moment and have not had much time to read blogs. Apologies.

I'll Meet You in Starbucks

"Pardon? I'm in Lewis at the moment."

"So am I. I'm here for the Festival."

"We don't have a Starbucks in Stornoway. Anyway it's a Sunday and only the hotels are open for coffee and meals."

"Trust me. There is a Starbucks. It opened on Thursday. Pick me up and we'll go for lunch."

So I did. And we did.

Mind you I was threatened with men in white coats by one friend who steadfastly refused to believe me when I told her where I was going.

Anyway we had a pleasant lunch in very spacious, airy surroundings even if the weather outside was pretty dreich.

The entrance across the courtyard

The menu - no mention of Starbucks

It is large, spacious, light and airy.

The foyer with shop and more seating and the servery counter to the right.

Exit acroos the courtyard with the newly relocated museum on the left

So not really your typical Starbucks! My guess is that as they are aiming at Americans to occupy the apartments in the Castle the Starbucks name is being used for the coffee to make visitors feel safe and 'at home'. Actually we agreed that the coffee was good.

I won't be moving my loyalty from The Woodlands (which is a hundred or two yards away in the Castle grounds)  but I will visit again.

Safari Day 3: Morning

It's been a very busy time recently. The weather has been better than any we've had on Lewis since April and I've been doing some outside maintenance and also been doing some labouring for our son, Gaz, who is having a house built on the Island. So my visits to Blogland (and Facebook) have been fewer than I would usually make.

On Day 3 of our Safari before we went off to the West Side I took Pauline for coffee at my favourite watering hole in Stornoway: the Woodlands Centre. It stands on the edge of Stornoway harbour which was unusually swathed in mist that morning.

Brighter Morn

At 0630 this morning it was pouring very heavily (so CJ tells me). I was up before that but didn't look outside and went back to bed and slept until 0710 when I rose.......to a beautiful sunny morning.

It was a

We went to town and around 1100 there were people actually drinking coffee in the square in the open air! OK so they weren't in open necked shirts and shorts but they were in the open air! That's not a sight you see very often in Stornoway. 

The Marina was full with many yachts from afar including La Puerta from Denmark. The marquee is one of a number in the Lews Castle Grounds for the Hebridean Celtic Festival which is on this weekend.

A Wee Trip

A week or so ago I decided that I would take a wee trip on Wednesday to Glasgow to see a friend for a few days. That involved an 0500 start. Why is it that for the previous two mornings I had been up well before 0600 but on the morning that I had to get up I didn't really want to? That's a rhetorical question (complete with ?) but it is always thus. Mind you the second I'm up I'm good and raring to go. I decided that I would go on deck for the leaving of the ferry, MV Loch Seaforth, from Stornoway's No 3 Pier. It was a cold but pleasant morning.

A few people have suggested that they would like to see more of the Island upon which I live so this summer I shall try and do more posts of the Islands. This is a start showing the town of Stornoway as we sail out of the harbour.

A few of the landmarks

MV Isle of Lewis berthed at No 1 Pier
We have three ferries here at the moment. I'l post about why on another occasion. 

Part of the South Beach Quay with the Lews Castle Grounds as a backdrop.
No 2 Pier is used for the fuel delivery ships and 40 years ago was covered, in season, with barrels being filled with salt herring.

The long-closed Caledonian Hotel where, back in the 70s, friends and I gathered on a Friday evening.
The first night I ever stayed on the Island was spent in the bedroom with the window second from the left on the top floor.

The old Harbour Master's Watchroom. The door behind the white van also led decades ago to the chair of John the Barber.

The Stornoway Town Hall. No longer used as a proper town hall but still a civic building.
The Stornoway Town Council met in the Council Chamber on the right of the building on the first floor.
It was in a committee room on the first floor to the right of the main entrance that I was offered the job that brought me to the Island.

MV Isle of Lewis with the recently renovated and restored Lews Castle. 

Lews Castle. At the top right of the picture can be seen the top of the Stornoway War Memorial