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.

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.

16 Down: Humiliating disaster (6)

Coffee at The Woodlands this morning as is our habit.  Crossword as is our habit.  Feeling that we were on a real high because we finished the first crossword before we even started our coffees we decided on seeing if we could finish two crosswords before we finished our coffee instead of the habitual target of one.  We got this far with no problem and then disaster struck.  We were stuck.

Bummer.

The Last Visitors

David (and Molly), the last visitors I have staying this summer before I return to New Zealand next week left this afternoon on a ferry delayed by bad weather last evening.  After a long weekend of rain and gales today turned out to be sunny and dry (though windy) and we were able to get a short walk in the Lews Castle Grounds after lunch (at The Woodlands) before the ferry sailed.  The last of my visitors this summer has left.  I have seven sleeps before I set off for my New Zealand life again.  

A dog running at some considerable speed with a complete lack of any spacial awareness and a large stick in its mouth can deliver a hefty whack to the back of one's legs.  The problem is that she travels fairly quietly so that she's delivered the blow before you have time to get out of the way.  On one occasion Molly actually hit me so hard that the stick snapped out of her mouth and I thought that she'd broken her neck.  No.  She picked up the stick.  Looked accusingly at me as though it had been my fault and continued her journey - at speed!

I shall miss them.

Battle For Survival (Well, Perhaps Not Quite)

Whilst Pat and I were having coffee at The Woodlands Centre on Monday there was a Gull sitting on the roof with something that he didn't have the ability to swallow whole nor the type of bill that could rip it into pieces. He was, however, defending it against all comers.  Until a Hooded Crow came along and the Gull met its match....and lost the battle.

Look what I've got and it's mine!

Not now, it isn't.  The booty turns out to be a fish.

(Apologies for the lack of clarity - it was taken on telephoto through a rather dirty window)

A bill designed for destruction

The Woodlands Centre

Both CJ and I have blogged about The Woodlands Centre in Stornoway in the past.  It is generally where we go for coffee and do our crossword.  It is often where Spesh and I have coffee if we happen to be in town at the same time.  Well yesterday and today Marcel du Marche and I went and did the same thing.  It occured to me that I haven't actually shown you what it looks like.  Well from the outside this is it:

 

The top picture shows the settings within the Lews Castle Grounds and the second is a close-up taken yesterday.  It was a beautiful day and, as you can see, warm enough for people to sit outside.  And for CJ there is the reminder and the Rowan Trees with their berries which he will not, I think, have seen in this setting before.

Riding With Pat

My car has been having all the stone chips in the paintwork treated.  It's amazing how many stones are thrown up by vehicles (usually large lorries travelling towards one) and just how much damage they do.  One particularly large one which I actually saw as it bounced up onto the bonnet (hood) of the car then hit the windscreen and cracked it.  Anyway the car was in hospital for four days.  During that time Pat and Dave were good friends and neighbours and ferried me around.  One day after the Doc's Pat and I went for a coffee.  It was Wednesday - the first of our recent sunny mornings.

 

At The Woodlands where we had coffee the sunflowers and begonias which were already ageing had been all but destroyed by the storm on Tuesday. 

  

One or two had survived relatively unscathed

  

Back seat driver - actually Briagha's impeccably  behaved in the car.

 

Who says that Lewis is barren and treeless?  The road through the Castle Grounds to the Woodlands Centre

Birds at Woodlands Centre

When CJ and I were at The Woodlands Centre (our favourite coffee and crossword retreat) in the Lews Castle Grounds one morning, we struck lucky with the bird sightings and, as luck was obviously on our side that day, we also managed to get our favourite table near the bird table.

On the way in we saw this Jackdaw carrying a log
(CJ say's it's a twig but then he's bigger than the Jackdaw)

Arrival and anticipation

Can't quite get at this one

There's always more than one way...

This Blackbird made us wonder if he'd had a Ring Ousel parent

I've not seen many Siskins and I think this may be the first one I've photographed

Perky

Pinky

And this young Lapwing on the way home (us not him)