A Much Better Day

A Much Better Day - Fun at the Beach

June 24th 2015

Today we explored an island called  Great Bernera over to the west of Lewis, or almost an island, as it is connected to the mainland by a bridge.We knew there was one of the special Hebridean beaches there, probably with beautiful turqoise-coloured water, where Mr Apache hoped he would be able to paddle his canoe.  It took a little while to get there but we weren't in a hurry.  Sure enough, the beach was lovely and the calm water was perfect for a canoe.

Do you see the strange object in the water?  (I don't mean Mr Apache in his canoe!)  Bella and I heard our oldies talking about it.  They didn't realise right away, but they found out by looking at their phones (the internet, they said - we have no idea what that means, but those must be very, very clever phones!)  Apparently it is a Time and Tide Bell, one of a few installed around the coast of Britain.  At high tide, and only then, the bell rings. 

While Mr Apache was paddling, Lady Helen spent some time looking for shells and Grannymac, Bella and I headed for some rocks at one end of the beach. 

While Grannymac sat on the rocks, Bella and I had a lot of fun.  It was a lovely, warm, sunny day, ideal for relaxing in our deck-chair. The sun was bright too - we were glad we had brought our sunglasses.   This was just what I needed to make me forget my big fright yesterday. 

Mr Apache came along and joined us.  For some reason, he started to laugh out loud about something, but he didn't tell us what was so funny.

For a little while we sat nearer the waves coming in, but Bella thought we were a bit too close, so we moved back a bit again.

Soon Lady Helen came back along the beach with the shells she had collected.  She gave us some of them as we had been too busy relaxing to collect any.

We were all sorry to leave this beach, but it was a long journey back to our house.  On the way, we saw a lot of interesting things.  One of them resulted in one of Grannymac's favourite photos - we like it too.

There were also a lot of very pretty yellow flowers here and in many other places we have been to.  Grannymac said they are flag irises.

We also saw many little houses which were deserted and in ruins, and were really a very sad sight.   Apparently, more than 200 years ago,  many islanders (and other people who had small farms, or crofts, in the north of Scotland), were forced by rich landowners to leave their homes so that sheep could be put on the land as they were more profitable. There would often have been other reasons too for the houses being abandoned.

Lastly, we went to see another beach on the way home.  We stopped for a very short time to look at a wooden figure, all on his own at the side of the road - we thought he looked very sad.  Bella and I didn't really understand all of this, but this is the story we heard Grannymac talking about. The reason why he is there is that almost 200 years ago, a large numbers of pieces like him, for playing games like one called chess, were found here.  They are very old, about 900 years in fact and had somehow come here from either Norway or Iceland.  Most of them are made from walrus ivory.  They are so rare, important and valuable that they are now kept in two museums, one in London, and one in Edinburgh.  End of story.  We hope this lonely king like having a hug from Lady Helen!

 

After a little while on the beach, it was time to go home.  Next time, I'll tell you a bit about our house.