Hoots Mon, ah'm just goon ootside... Ah may be goon soome time...

clankenstein · August 21, 2011, 12:04:33 AM

thats some awesome countryside there. i wish we had made it there when we holidayed in scotland.

Highlander · August 24, 2011, 02:49:24 PM

I'm still trying to get back to normal at the moment for a number of personal reasons - the research is totally stalled too - just sitting in neutral but in a good way; very chilled out...

9th August...
The trip was for a number of reasons - first proper break for three years... we lost dad 31st August 2001; this was the closest we could tie-in to travel up; when we returned to London my first working day was September 11th... the Islanders had one victim in that event...

This was a day scheduled to chuck it down so we explored the village and walked out to the pier - the grand design for Lord Leverhulme was to build railwaylines from all of the fishing ports to Stornoway but the money ran out - all that is left is the thirty-odd miles of single-track roads across the moors... this was mostly a grey day...

This dinghy is distintly un-seaworthy, but I liked the idea behind it... Loch Charlabhagh has significant protection from the Atlantic so it made an ideal natural harbour which runs inland for 1.5 miles from the pier...

The pier itself is also quite protected from the Atlantic...

When I was a kid Herring was still "King" on the Island... now history and all but completely fished-out... almost all that goes on now is commercial salmon farms and lobster fishing... Stornoway used to have between 800 and 900 fishing boats during peak-seasons - the pictures of these times are quite breathtaking... the oceans flow throgh my veins...

Rust never sleeps, but it photographs so much better in sunset conditions, which this was not... debris like this litters many of the bays...

The only bridge over a road on the whole Island, which crosses the redundant railway line...

I could spend years up here, waiting patiently for just-the-right-lighting conditions and never get bored... This is a disused house which has views across the Island and out to the Atlantic... stuff this in stormy weather...!

Ahh yes, the squatters...

Highlander · August 24, 2011, 02:57:22 PM

Nearly forgot... this wild bunny just didn't get the idea that "freeze-and-I-won't-be-seen" just so says FAIL...

Freuds_Cat · August 24, 2011, 05:52:29 PM

Beautiful pics Ken

Highlander · August 25, 2011, 01:57:05 PM

10th August...

Another grey day but a storm was scheduled to pass over so we didn't do that much... back to the local beach for a walk...

Daughter miscalculated a wave... oops...

The difficulty of a day like this is to try and capture some of the quality of the light... anyone that lives at northern latitudes knows how blue the sea and sky can be but on an overcast day everything changes...

Stone, rust and weathered timbers... these walls protect the two graveyards at Dail Mor (big beach) from the sea...

We took a chance and popped over to Calanais to see if anything showed through... Daughter went stone-hugging...

... all we found was weather... lots of it... it was difficult to stay standing; a howling Gael...

So we went back to base-camp and checked out the squatters... it was getting more difficult to move them out to their night-time quarters (the outside world...

)

Highlander · August 26, 2011, 04:41:20 PM

Roundup time...

11th August rose with the storm blown out and blue skies again...

Kitties fed and watered... these guys turned up when we arrived (literature said "no pets") but it was clear they were not the neighbours cats - they just "lived" here... Mum turned up one morning with a sparrow; she was left outside until she "resolved" the issue...

We spent a few hours at Dail Mor again, keeping out of the way of the surfers and being pounded by the Atlantic...

We set off across the moors in the afternoon to visit my parents for the last time this trip and then visit family for the evening...
The weather did not disappoint - blue-on-blue...

dadagoboi · August 26, 2011, 04:56:14 PM

Beautiful pictures, Ken! You're really making me want to get out the traveling shoes.

Highlander · August 26, 2011, 05:05:49 PM

You'ld find a warm welcome there, Carlo, they are like the Italian Islanders...

12th August...
Last day - grey and overcast again...

The Machair - a rare and fragile area of natural beauty with all sorts of unusual flora, fauna and critters... it is a coastal area where shell-laden sand is blown into the heather making it extremely fertile...

Another rusty old sign caught my eye...

13th August...

We had to be at the ferry to book in no later than 0615 so we were up at 0330 - the kitties knew we were leaving... packing was done the previous day and mostly loaded into the car... a last roundup and goodbye to the kitties...

It was a wet start or I would not have got these shots...

The "Red-Duster", the flag of what was once the largest Merchant Fleet in the world and one my grandfather proudly sailed under for over fifty years of his life... now an endangered species...

By the time we got to the mainland (three hour crossing) the weather had cleared and we had a good run south, visiting family in Falkirk and stopping overnight in Lockerbie, sadly known to USofA folks for the wrong reasons...

Roshina spotted me with this and couldn't resist the picture to close the show...

Dave W · August 26, 2011, 06:14:15 PM

Great shots, Ken.

It's good to know that you spent at least a few minutes of leisure time studying sheds.

Highlander · August 27, 2011, 02:18:37 AM

I'm desperately trying to remember what mine looks like...

In all seriousness though I'm overdue working on a couple of projects in there...

Pilgrim · August 27, 2011, 11:23:51 AM

Now I find myself wondering WHO would write a book titled "Men and Sheds"

??

Fantastic pix!!

Dave W · August 27, 2011, 10:24:31 PM

Quote from: Pilgrim on August 27, 2011, 11:23:51 AM
Now I find myself wondering WHO would write a book titled "Men and Sheds"??

Fantastic pix!!

Because you asked: Gordon Thorburn

"It has been said that a shed is to a man what a handbag is to a woman - both contain all the essentials for surviving in the modern world..."

Pilgrim · August 28, 2011, 07:44:11 PM

Quote from: Dave W on August 27, 2011, 10:24:31 PM
Because you asked: Gordon Thorburn

"It has been said that a shed is to a man what a handbag is to a woman - both contain all the essentials for surviving in the modern world..."

I thot mebbe he was "Buff's" long lost brother....

Highlander · August 29, 2011, 03:21:13 AM

A womans handbag is a thing of mystery but this does prove one thing: they have alien technology at their beck-and-call... how on earth could they get the equivalent of all the stuff I have in my shed in something so small and portable...

It might also explain why they are so dangerous when brandishing them as a weapon...

Could anyone imagine swinging a shed like that...?