St Clements Church, Rodel

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I would do another post on Rodel Church.  In fact I shall do several.  Here is the first: of the 1528 tomb of Alasdair Crotach MacLeod, 8th Chief of MacLeod.  I shall keep the text brief because there is lots of information on this important 15th century Isle of Harris landmark notably Wikipedia, Undiscovered Scotland (a complete misnomer in this case because Rodel Church is very discovered and essential visiting by any tourist on Harris) and Leverburgh.co.uk .

1528 tomb of Alasdair Crotach MacLeod, 8th Chief of MacLeod,

The Holy Trinity

An angel spreads insense from a censer

A Highland Galley under sail - part of the measure of a Chieftain's power

Writing

I have had one of those days when I've only ventured outside when I really had to.  The wind has been  cold and almost gale force and, despite the fact that the sun shone for a great deal of the day, the squalls have come through with great speed and ferocity.  So in between doing some spring cleaning and other odds and ends I've been writing.  I suddenly thought about a post I had done last month on A Hebridean in New Zealand.  Except that I'd apparently never actually posted it. 

How long does it take you to write your average blog post?  Or your average email?  Or a letter?  Or, indeed, anything.   Of course there isn't really an answer to that question other than responding by asking 'How long is a piece of string?'.  I've just written a post which has taken nearly two hours but that's not the whole story.  I had to download the photos from my camera and my phone.  I was, sort of, watching the TV News and making dinner too and in true ARADD fashion I managed to do (and not do) a number of other things as well.

I was thinking of the time it's taken because in a recent post, Terminology, on her blog, Katherine quoted, in context, “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” It would appear that Mark Twain made the comment.   Apparently, however, nothing is ever truly original because Blaise Pascal (French mathematician and physicist 1623 - 1662), in his "Lettres provinciales", letter 16, 1657 said "I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short (Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue parceque je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte)".

The point of all that rambling is that I spent my career making sure that letters, cases, reports, legal documents, the words spoken by politicians (but written by their civil servants) etc were always clear, precise and, hopefully, open only to the interpretation (or in some cases interpretations!) that were desired.

So now that I am supposed to be writing more entertaining prose where, let's face it, no one really cares whether I have crossed the is and dotted the ts (er that doesn't sound quite right correct does it?), I find it very hard to break old habits.

To which post I was referring I have no idea but the principle holds true.  Some people read and write speedily.  Some do not.  I'm one of the slow ones.

Storms and Things

It's been pretty stormy here today but, until I saw the pictures on The News I had no idea how bad it had been.  I recorded winds of about 50mph here at the house but 100mph has been recorded in central Scotland.  At the time of the 6 o'clock News 42000 households were reported as being without electricity and I think they said only 5 train services were running in Scotland.  A friend was stranded in Glasgow.  Fortunately he has a son there.  By about 7.15 the whole of the Western Isles was powerless too.  Fortunately it lasted less than a couple of hours with us.

The sea in the bay below the house gives an idea of what things were like at about 1400 this afternoon.

And then at just before 1600 the sea suddenly calmed down as the wind swung round off shore:

This is pretty rough weather for this time of year.  Impossible to believe that I was in shorts in the garden when I first came home around three weeks ago and the pier looked like this:

Cars, Punctures and Spare Wheels

In a recent post Thank You, Firestone Pauline mentioned the number of punctures that she has travelling on metaled (gravel) roads in New Zealand.  I have travelled over metaled roads and been remarkably fortunate but I was also with Pauline when she was about to take me to the airport and we discovered that one of her tyres had been completely flattened by a puncture.  Pauline's car carries a space-saving wheel which limits your speed but is quick and easy to use. 

When I arrived back in Scotland and Pauline wrote that post it made me think.  My car here doesn't have a spare wheel.  Strictly, therefore, I understand that it is not road legal in France where I travel.  I imagine that there are a great many UK cars similarly breaking French law.  I've had the Nighthawk for about - no, actually I've just looked it up - I bought it on the 28 May 2004 - and I've had it for 7 years.  Odd really because I still think of it as a new car.    I must get an MOT this week too.

Anyway as I was saying, the Nighthawk has a kit which injects stuff into the tyre in the event of a puncture.  I've never had to use it.  I've never had a puncture in those 7 years.  But Pauline made me think and I bought a space-saver wheel.  Not ideal but as the 'proper' wheel is hugely wide it would be a very tight fit in the allocated space.  There are limitations on the speed but it was only when I removed the supplied kit that I discovered that it has even more severe limitations.  It can be used at a max speed of 80kph/50mph.  If, however, I read the instructions correctly the car can only be driven for 10 minutes once the kit has been used.  Really?  Anyway reading various blogs on the subject it seems that even if you manage to get the tyre inflated with the gunge it is unlikely to be repairable once so filled. 

I think I've done the correct thing!  No more kits for me when I buy another car.  They can give me a proper wheel or lose the sale.  If I ever buy another car that is.