Our House for a Week

Our House for a Week

June 25th 2015

The house we rented for the week is a traditional Hebridean cottage called Caberfeidh (pronouncec Cabberfay, which means 'stag's antlers').  It is situated in a very quiet area near a sea loch, with only a few other houses nearby.  It is the house nearest the centre of the picture, with some trees beside it.

It was a comfortable house with everything we all needed.  After being out all day, we were always pleased to come back to it, especially when the wood-burning stove was lit - very cosy!  Bella and I sometimes watched Lady Helen as she did some of her crafting - she made some beautiful cards.

One evening our oldies had a lovely selection of biscuits and cheese and I had a good close look but promise I didn't do any nibbling!

At other times we sat in our chairs on the window-sill of Grannymac's bedroom and watched the sheep which lived in a small field close to the house.  Because the walls of the cottage are very thick, the window-sills are very wide, so there is plenty of room for two little bears to sit  comfortably.  Sometimes we sat and chatted about the day's adventures or snoozed while our oldies watched television or dvds, or read books or did some crafting.  It was all very quiet and peaceful.  I am so glad that Lady Helen brought Bella to join us on our holiday - she is such good company for me!

Best of all though was when the stove was lit and Bella and I sat in front of it, toasting our toes and watching the colours and patterns of the flames.

None of us thought we would like to live there all the time, but apart from being a long way away from everywhere, it was a very nice, comfortable house to have for a week.

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.

The Worst Day of my Life

The Worst Day of my Life

 

June 23rd 2015

Today started off well, as we headed off to the Butt of Lewis, to explore the most northern tip of Lewis. As well as taking photographs of the scenery, our grown-ups were on the look-out for examples of anything connected with peat.  Bella and I didn't know what peat was (except that we know someone called Pete) so Grannymac had to tell us.  She said that peat is made of the decayed remains of plant material in wet, boggy areas.  Because there is no coal and almost no wood on the islands, people cut the peat into chunks, set the chunks out to dry and then took them home to use as fuel for their fires.  Well, imagine that!  She said that only a few people do that now as so many homes now have central heating of some kind - much less work than using peat.  Before going on to our adventures, we are going to put three peat photographs here, two of the peat where it was cut and left to dry, and another of someone's peat stack beside their house.

What a huge amount of cutting, carrying and stacking must have gone into making a pile that size!  It should be enough to keep that family warm until next summer.

When we reached the Butt of Lewis, (if you read this, Blueper B, it isn't what you mean by 'butt' in America!)  right up in the northernmost point of the island, it was very exciting.  There was a lot of rocky scenery. with cliffs and very strange rocks, with the sea crashing into them far below.  I don't think it would be much fun to be there on a stormy day in winter!

 

There was also a very tall, thin building which Grannymac told us was called a lighthouse.  At night a light shone out from it to warn passing ships to keep away from the rocks.

There were lots and lots of clumps of very pretty pink flowers (which Grannymac said were called 'thrift') growing on the rocks, with gulls sitting on nests here and there.  Bella and I really enjoyed sitting amongst them - the flowers, not the gulls.

I didn't know it then, but that might easily have been the last time I saw Bella.  When we left the lighthouse area, Grannymac wanted to stop to take some photographs of some models which were at the side of the road.

While she was doing this, an elderly man, out for a walk with his dog, came along and started to chat.  After a little while, he asked if we could give him a lift to his neighbour's house - he was just going along to 'socialise' (wink, wink) as he produced a half-bottle of Famous Grouse whisky from his pocket!  What could anyone say?  The car already had four adults in it, but he squeezed in and his dog jumped in too!  That was the start of the trouble,  I was sitting on the back seat when Grannymac got out to take her photographs, and as she got back in, with all the squash, she didn't notice that I had fallen out of the car!  I tried all I could to attract her attention, but nobody heard me and to my complete horror, I had to lie there at the side of the road and watch the car drive away without me!  Even now, I can hardly bear to think about it.  The man and his dog got out of the car a very short distance along the road and Bella told me afterwards that she tried very hard to tell Grannymac that I was missing.  After a little while, her message must have got through to Grannymac, as she realised she couldn't find me. Apparently there was a big panic and everyone was very worried and upset.  Mr Apache immediately turned the car round and drove for twenty minutes back to where the man had got into the car.  And there they found me - one very unhappy but greatly relieved little bear!

You will understand now why I said this was the worst day of my life.  What if someone had come along and found me?  Or if nobody had noticed I was missing until they were all the way back to the house?  I still sometimes have nightmares about it but try not to think about it too much.  Grannymac has always looked after me but she promised she will now be even more careful when we are out. 

We stopped for a while at Callanish Standing Stones but the rest of the day was just a blur to me as I tried to calm down after such a horrible, terrifying experience.  I was so glad to get out of the car and back into our house where I felt safe again.

A Day of Exploring

A Day of Exploring

June 22nd 2015 

We didn't have any particular destination in mind today - we just set off to explore some other parts of the island.  Because Grannymac really likes maps which help us to see where we are and where we are going, we are going to include a map of Lewis and Harris in this post.  Our house for the week was roughly half-way between Tarbert and Stornoway - it took about an hour to get to either of them.



We set off to Tarbert first and from there we explored South Harris, where some of the most spectacular scenery on the island can be seen.

The first place we stopped at was a beautiful sandy beach with waves from a turquoise blue sea  washing up onto it.  We saw a lady taking her two dogs (which we had also seen on the ferry) for a walk.  We didn't take time to go onto that beach but maybe another day we can spend more time on another beach. 

Bella and I had an excellent view as we drove on a narrow, twisty road through wide open rocky areas with only a very few houses, or maybe small farms (called crofts), dotted here and there.  We all thought it looked very pretty on a day in June, but it must be very different in the middle of winter.

We then had a quick visit to a small town called Leverburgh.  The only photo Grannymac took there was of some very strange looking 'baskets', in fact a whole big pile of them.  Grannymac told us that they are called 'lobster pots' and that they are put into the sea with some bait in them, so that lobsters (sea creatures with two big long claws) will come into them and be trapped.  That doesn't sound a very nice thing to do, especially as it seems that many people like to EAT them!  Grannymac explained that this is how these fishermen earn the money they and their families need.

On the next part of our journey we saw something very interesting happening to some sheep but there will be a separate post just about sheep, so we keeping this part of our story for that post.  Lady Helen knew about a very old church in this area which she wanted to have a look at.  It is not used now but it had quite a few very old stone carvings in it which really were very interesting to look at it - you can see some of them in this collage.

There was a pretty little harbour nearby too.

On we went again and before long we saw some very strange creatures lying on rocks in the sea.  We had never seen anything like them, some brown, some grey, all sizes including one or two very big ones and strangest of all, they didn't have any legs!  How on earth do they manage to walk?  Again, Grannymac told us they are called 'seals' and they don't walk, but on land they have to haul themselves along which is difficult.  It is a different matter altogether when they are in the sea, where they live and where they catch fish, because they are expert swimmers, helped by their flippers which they have instead of arms.  What a lot we are learning on this holiday!

Further along the road a bit, we saw some more strange animals but this time they were a bit more familiar, in fact rather like our neighbours in the field at home, except that these have a lot more hair and some of them have very long horns!  Lady Helen was very pleased to be able to take some photographs of these Highland cattle - she always likes to stop when she sees them.  I can't help wondering how some of them can see where they are going with all that hair covering their eyes!  And just look at that cheeky black one sticking his tongue out at us!

The only other thing we have to write about today is watching the ferry (we know what that is now) coming in to Tarbert.  We stopped on a road above Tarbert - it was fun to watch it  and to think it was bringing more people and lots of the things people on the island need.  In no time at all, it would be unloaded and then loaded up again, and off it would go back to Uig, doing this twice a day, every day except Sunday.

After doing some shopping in Tarbert, we headed home.  I didn't know it then, but tomorrow was going to be the worst day of my life!

Callanish Standing Stones

Callanish Standing Stones - June 21st 2015

On the Western Isles, no shops are open on a Sunday, not even the supermarkets in the towns.  We did not need to shop as we were going to see the Callanish Standing Stones, one of the main places we all wanted to visit during our week.  These stones are about 5000 years old - that is very, very, VERY old!  Unfortunately it was raining, but that had not stopped a lot of people having the same idea.  It was difficult for us to take photographs, not only because of the rain, but it almost impossible to avoid people, or bits of people.  Here are a few  of the images that Grannymac managed to take.

These stones are very special.  They are all Lewisian gneiss, one of the common rocks on these islands.  Grannymac is very interested in rocks and minerals and all that sort of thing, so she knows a little bit about geology, which she told me is the word for that kind of science.  The stones are different sizes, the tallest being 4.75 metres.  This is her favourite photograph from that morning - pity about the fence, she says.

This is such a special place that we decided we would come back again another day, at a different time, in the hope that it might be quieter.

We then drove north, with a plan to visit to one of the sandy beaches for which the Hebrides are famous.

Yogi, Lady Helen and Yogi decided to walk out towards where the sea was, quite a long way away.

    Grannymac, Bella and I stayed nearer the car as it was too far for Grannymac on her crutches.  There were quite a few wild flowers, which Grannymac likes.  She enjoyed taking photographs of some of them.

Yogi took some photographs of the part of the beach he, Lady Helen and Mr Apache had walked out to.  He also photographed an interesting rock.

When Lady Helen came back, she told Grannymac that she had found one or two hairy caterpillars on the grassy area beside the beach.  Of course, Grannymac wanted to see them too, especially as she wanted a photograph of a Very Hungry Caterpillar for her Photo 500 Challenge.   When they looked they found lots and lots of them - they were everywhere and, my word, they certanly were hairy!

Time to go back to the car and head 'home'.  There is a wood-burning stove at our house, which Mr Apache and Yogi wanted to light at some point.  In my last photo, Yogi is carrying a broken pallet which was lying on the beach - some fuel for the fire.  I think I will need to write a separate post about the house soon, but not tonight.