Awesome Seas

There was a time years that seems like years ago when cooking for a dinner party for 12 was just part of my life.  This evening I had a small dinner party for 5.   It was a lovely evening but it did make me realise that a) I have forgotten how to judge the amount of  food people eat (I won't have to cook myself another meal this week) and b) I really love hosting dinner parties.

Following on from yesterday's post (sorry Tuesday's post - I'm writing this at nearly 1am on Thursday) how's this for a picture of the seas I referred to?

Butt of Lewis: Photo by John Gray

Photos From Lewis

I received and email from Spesh this morning.  Not that that's unusual.  Spesh also sent some photos from home.  Whilst most of the UK seems to be having snow and real winter weather the morning on Lewis was brilliant sun although there was a very brisk Lewis breeze whipping up the waves!

Lews Castle Grounds

The Braighe

The Braighe

 Briagha was exhausted - this walking lark was just toooooooooo tiring

It's a Very Small World

In a previous incarnation - leastways it seems that long ago - I was a potter.  Actually, like most things in life, it was not as simple as that.  To cut out all the detail, for many years, until it was sold in January 2005, I had interests in a pottery on Lewis.  It made the widest range of pottery of any pottery in Scotland.  One day I'll do a proper post on the pottery and its history on Eagleton Notes.   One of it's unique ranges of pottery was a marbled ware called the Hebridean Range.  Last week Wendy was in an op shop (opportunity shop = charity shop/thrift store/goodwill) in Napier when she saw an egg separator made by the pottery in that range.

From the backstamp underneath I can tell that it was made pre-1997 when Fear an eich (a partnership between between my wife and I) was sold to a new company (of which I was the major shareholder).  It would be fascinating to know how it came to New Zealand.

Thankful Thursday: Home

The subject of 'home' has raised its head a number of times recently but it was SP's post Home Sweet Home which made me think about it more earnestly than usual.  Where is 'home'?  For me home is where I am comfortable with myself in my surroundings.  That's easy for me to say because I've only lived in six places in my life and three of those were fairly transitory in the early '70s when I married and before we moved to the Outer Hebrides.  Except that it's actually seven because now I live in two places: Scotland and New Zealand or, more specifically, Lewis and Napier.  

People often ask me which place I'd rather make my permanent home.  The answer is that as I don't have to make a choice I don't think about it and as I don't have residency in New Zealand the longest I can stay is 9 months at a time anyway.  However I choose to stay 6 months here and 6 months in Scotland (and France and....).  I used to say that if someone pulled up the drawbridge I could live happily in either place but most of my closest friends (excepting my NZ 'family') are in the UK (and those in Canada and elsewhere are in neither home country anyway).

Choosing Lewis is not as simple as that of course: old friends have retired away from Lewis; I have made new friends who don't live on Lewis; very important friends still live on Lewis; and my son Gaz is building a house on Lewis.  The list of considerations is endless.  And there will come a time when I can't gallivant and stay where I wish and see whom I wish and Lewis is a long way from anywhere else.

Some people talk of going back to their roots but I do not know a single person who lives in the city of my birth.

I love Lewis.  I love New Zealand.  I love Glasgow (Well that's pushing it.  I could never live in a city but I enjoy it when I'm there.).  I love France.  I love Canada.  I am happy in the skin that I'm in and I love being wherever I have the privilege to be.  I'm lucky because for the moment I can choose.

For that I am thankful....very thankful indeed.

More Lewis Snow

An email was waiting for me this morning from Spesh1 aka Pat telling me about the snow and forwarding some photos that Dave had taken on his mobile phone:

From the back of Pat and Dave's house

Briagha in The Lews Castle Grounds

A footpath in the Castle Grounds - so why the tyre tracks?

News From Lewis

I've just had emails from two friends on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.  It's -2℃ in Eagleton this morning.  That doesn't happen in December.  One of the friends lives South of Stornoway and sent me this photo of his house:

Winter on Lewis - 2

I've just posted some more of Pat's photos of Stornoway and the Lews Castle grounds on Eagleton Notes.

Winter on Lewis

For the last six or so weeks I've been constantly reminded about the unusually early cold and snow in the UK, Ontario and elsewhere and, in particular, about Lewis where snow and freezing temperatures are rare.  So today I posted some photos by friends on Eagleton Notes of the townsips around where I live on Lewis.

The Hurricane Has Passed

Well the weather reports which said that the wind had reached less than expected seem to have been somewhat misleading. According to View From The Island's posting The Morning After the winds reached 113mph (182 kph) which, though less than 2005, is still rather more than a stiff breeze. First reports of loss of tiles on the house were unfounded and the house seems to have escaped unscathed. Oddly the garage window blew in. The kindness of neighbours, however, meant that by the morning's end the window had been made weatherproof and will await my return. I am such a fortunate person to have the neighbours and friends that I do.

So Near, Yet So Far away

I know from emails from Pat and friends on Lewis that another huricane was forecast last night. I use the word another because since I went to live on Lewis in the 1970s we have had quite a few hurricanes. None, though, had the strength and longevity of the one that hit the Island on the night of 11-12 January 2005. It has been said that the strongest measured single gust was 146 mph at Ness. It destroyed my conservatory. I was in the house and it was one of the most frightening moments of my life.

The conservatory was re-built and is supposed to be much stronger than the original one.

It is at moments like this that, no matter how small the world has become, I am still a long way from my Lewis home. Fortunately I am not a worrier but I cannot help being happy to read this evening (the UK's Sunday morning) that the winds did not seem to have reached the severity expected. I await emails and news on the blog View From The Island which had posted on the forthcoming storm.