From a Very Windy Lewis, to a Cool Virginian Porch

Hi, Patrice. Brrrr, it's chilly here this week. Along with very cool temperatures, we have very, very strong winds. In fact, we had American friends visiting today and I asked one of the young girls whether they had winds like this in Michigan. Her answer was: 'If we had winds like this, we'd be in the basement waiting for the tornado to hit' ... !

THIS also came to visit.

*Swoon* ... Couldn't you just eat these toes? The ransom note is heading the parents' way. After all, you don't seriously think I allowed these toes to escape, do you?

Let's move on to your questions, Patrice.

1. Would you rather sit in front of a fireplace with a roaring fire, soak in a lovely bath, or spend free time on your computer?

Definitely a fireplace with a roaring fire, Patrice. I love sitting in front of a peat fire - it gives off such a lovely warmth - totally unlike the kind of heat that comes off an electric fire. Of course, if you add a cuppa and cake and a book to my sitting by a roaring fire, then we have my complete ideal. 

This scenario is definitely the stuff my dreams are made of.


2. Milk chocolate or dark chocolate?

Oh, milk, every time. I do not like dark chocolate at all .... oh, well, I have one exception: if the dark chocolate is with mint, like in After Eights.

After Eights are wonderful.


3. Have you ever tried a recipe from a blog or Pinterest?

Ab-sol-utely, Patrice! I often find my recipes from blogs, and the Raspberry Muffins I made last week (twice) and this week (twice) came from the blog Mennonite Girls can Cook.

They sure can! 

I used raspberry yoghurt in the recipe and I also sprinkled the muffins with Demerara sugar before they went into the oven. I love that extra little crunch that gives them.

These muffins are seriously good, and I am holding these Mennonite Girls personally responsible for the pounds that are slowly but surely being piled on.

If you make them, remember they are to blame when you have the pounds piling on. I am taking no responsibility.

4. Do you have a guest room? If not, do you have a spare room that you use for something other than a bedroom (sewing room, office, craft area, etc)?

I was telling you a couple of weeks ago about the room that used to be our office, but is now, erm .... It's now the Builder's room, aka, the exercise room. Of course, after all the aforementioned raspberry muffins, it's the room I ought to be frequenting, but so far, I have managed to resist its draw.

Seriously, can you see me spending a lot of time in here??

We do have a guest room, Patrice. I do love having a bedroom that is always ready for visitors.

You remember our dear friends, Alex and Elsie? Do you remember me telling you how we met? You can read about it here.

 Our guest bedroom has become known as 'Alex and Elsie's room', simply because they are the ones who use it most regularly. The times they come to stay are always happy times of love and fellowship, so we are happy to have a specific 'Alex and Elsie Room'.

5. Is your hair curly, straight, or something in between?

That'll be straight, then, Patrice :)

This Past Week ...

I was having a wee wander through some photos today, and I came across some snaps I'd intended showing you last week, but didn't actually.

This could sum up my life: not doing what I'd intended.

I love the drama of this kind of sunshine and cloud. I love the way these colours speak to my heart of strength. It may be because I'm an islander, but strength means more to me than beauty.

Even though I love beauty too.

Talking of strength over beauty .... This photo shows Big Brother lifting potatoes, along with one of his sisters and one of his nieces.

His nieces are both plentiful and adoring towards him.

Even though I said (above) that I preferred strength over beauty, that doesn't of course mean I don't love beauty. These waves, with the wind blowing spray off the top of the crest, are my favourite.

Doing the dishes with this as my view is no chore, I can assure you.

Raspberry Breakfast Muffins.

They are seriously good, but (and this may also be because I'm an islander, or because I'm Scottish, or simply because I'm not American) I cannot get my head around having muffins for breakfast - even if they do have crushed shreddies, porridge oats and fruit in them.

But you know what? I don't need to get my head around a thing to love doing it. They are seriously delicious and they may warrant a whole post to themselves in the future.

I stayed behind closed doors for all of ten days recently because of a sore throat. Of course, staying behind closed doors is no hardship for me - I have never been known to get cabin fever. Ever.

And one of the benefits of staying inside with a sore throat is that Katie hangs out the washing for me.

Along with her Macaroons, her home-made pizza, and her Lime and Coconut cupcakes, this is yet another reason I have for keeping this particular daughter.

Remembrance Day ... Let Us Never Forget

Here, in Ness, we had our annual Service of Remembrance today. I have attended each one of these Remembrance Day services since coming back to the island, and have taken our children along each year too. I am so glad to see more children and young folk attending these past few years. It is so important that our children are taught to have some sense of appreciation for what the young men of this community did all these years ago. I pray none of the children I saw there today have to endure what many from their grandfathers' and great-grandfathers' generations had to endure. 

I am also thankful that a committee was set up in Ness a number of years ago to erect a memorial with the names of all who were lost from this community in service to their country.

One of our local ministers spoke from the words in John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". Having spoken of the great sacrifice that so many made for the sake of fellow soldiers, of king and country, and of family and freedom, he spoke of the greatest sacrifice that was ever made ... the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is true, as he said, that we do no dishonour to the memory of the fallen when we move from speaking of their sacrifice to the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who died that all those who believe on Him may have eternal salvation, and unspeakable freedom.

As always, a number of wreaths were laid. This photo shows a cadet laying a wreath on behalf of the Territorial Army.

As the service came to an end, the rainbow which had hovered throughout our time there, became a full arc, reminding us of our covenant-keeping God.

On the third from the right here is a man whose grandfather was lost in the Iolaire disaster. If you don't know the story, please read a post I wrote some time ago about the Iolaire.

I took this photo tonight. The sun has set and nobody is left around the memorial. It will be another year before the next Remembrance Day service, but let us commit to one thing: Let us never forget.

Chatting with Patrice Again

Hi Patrice! I'm glad we're inside for our chat this week. Here, the weather has definitely taken on a cooler feel, and last night we had some frost. Have I ever mentioned how I love winter time? Well, I do. The stove is keeping our kitchen area beautifully warm, it gets dark early, and long evenings stretch out at the end of each day - yep, it all makes me a happy bunny.

Now to your questions, Patrice ...

1. Have you ever got a pet from a rescue?

No, we haven't, Patrice. Jackson is our first pet ever.

He may very well be our last too.

I mean, seriously, does this look like an intelligent, well-bred, grouse-retrieving dog to you?

Or how about this one? 

Okay ... let's try this? 

Aye, enough said, methinks.

2. What pumpkin goodies have you had this Fall?

I have never bought a real pumpkin. I have never tasted pumpkin, nor cooked with it, but last week, I bought four tins of pumpkin ... having realised, last year, that most recipes containing pumpkin actually contain tinned pumpkin.

I haven't, as yet, decided what to make with the aforementioned tinned pumpin, but I have no doubt that the internet will supply all the recipes I need.

And no doubt, you - my blogging friends - will hear about what I decide to make. And whether I enjoyed it. And whether I plan to make it again. And how much of it I ate. And .... 

Yes, that's what us bloggers do, isn't it? We tell all.


3. What are the best and worst rooms in your home?

I think the kitchen is my favourite room. Do you remember when we ('we' being used in the loosest sense, you understand) took away the wall between the kitchen and the dining room ...

Out kitchen used to look like this (please ignore the stuff, stuff, stuff on all the worktops).

And our Dining Room looked like this.

And then we had the bright idea - the best idea we've ever had - to put a stove into the kitchen.

The table moved from where it was, and we opened the wall between the Kitchen and the Dining Room ...

... and now we have one open room ...

... a room of which I have no photo!

It is definitely my favourite room in the house. The stove has made it lovely and cozy, the table is where almost all of Calum's homeschooling is done, and it's where we eat, read, and sit and blether.

The worst room, Patrice? Erm, I'm struggling with that one ...

4. If you could have a real 'brick and mortar' type business, what would it be?

Patrice, I'm stuck. I really have no idea. I am as un-crafty a person as anyone you could meet, so I'd be rubbish at selling stuff I'd made.

Since I graduated, and since the kids were born (they are one and the same really: I graduated the day DR was due, but thankfully, he was around six days late. He's always been a thoughtful child, that boy.), I've worked from home doing translation. If I was really working, I think this would be my kinda work - it suits me being on my own (yeah, I'm strange), working with words and meanings of words.


5. What's your favourite tropical fruit?

I think pineapple might be my favourite, Patrice. I love fresh pineapple..

Once again, thank you, Patrice, for having us over for a blether. I'm sorry I didn't see Wendell this week, but tell him I'll make a special effort to have carrots for him next time I call round.

Previous Bonfire Nights

Today is the 5th of November. For the Americans, that date will have little significance, and indeed, for many people in the UK, it is of little significance other than that some folks have bonfires, and that the buying of fireworks empties many wallets.

The November 5th bonfire and the burning of a 'Guy' relate to events that occurred in London in 1605. 

Wikipedia says this about Guy Fawkes: 

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. His effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by a firework display.

Whether people are remembering these particular events or not, many people have great fun with bonfires, guys, and fireworks. Here are some of our photos from the past couple of years ...


The morning of our bonfire: the sun was shining and it was a perfect November morning.

Beginning to get the bonfire shape..

and kids on top of the world.

The centre pole arriving...

...and the gaffer keeping an eye on proceedings

Later that evening ...

As the day goes on, and the bonfire is set up - with the centre pole firmly set, and Guy's seating arrangement sorted - work progresses to making the Guy.

(the boots will not go up in flames, and he will have a head)

This photo was taken before 4.30pm and the sun is setting. I guess we're kinda far north right enough, but I can't get over how quickly time passes. It seems only weeks since we were going to bed at night and the sun still hadn't set. 

Cousins. And they all live within a couple of miles of each other...

Guy seemed to have it sorted this year. He was so high above the flames

In the end, the centre pole fell before Guy went up in flames...

He fell to the ground...

Is he alive?

The Builder does some quick CPR, but it's all to no avail.

Sorry, Guy, but this is to be your fate.

You don't attempt to blow up our Parliament and think you're gonna get off with it.

Not back then, anyway.

And then it's time for some fireworks.

I wasn't able to get good photos of the fireworks at all, but this photo of our fireworks, with our house in the background, was posted on the Eoropaidh Tearoom site.

This gives a better flavour of what we had.

When my Heart goes Ahhhhh ...

You know, I'm not very good with mediocrity. I tend to be moved one way or the other with most things. If I read a book, watch a movie, or listen to the news, my heart feels something. Many times, that is exhausting, but there you have it: that's me!

Some things make my heart weep. Other times, I feel anger, sorrow or even anguish. 

But there are some things that make my heart ...

... *sigh contentedly*

These things de-stress me. It's like air coming slowly out of a balloon. They calm me, and take me to a more 'Ahhhhhhh' place. (I'm good with words. It's why I'm called a walking Thesaurus. Could you tell?)

This is my #1 Ahhhh-inducer. Yep, seriously. I've had twenty years of him walking through the door after his days' work, and every single time, my heart gives a wee Ahhhh, he's home :)

This pair. Any day of the week, my boys make my heart sigh a smiling sigh.

When you add this pair to a scene of working with sheep on a calm Spring day, with the sea in the background ... yes, another Ahhhh-inducing scene.

This view from my sofa.

At the end of a busy summer day, when we finally sit in the Family Room ... tired, but with a healthy tiredness, and I look out at this peaceful scene - a scene full of such calm beauty - my heart most certainly has that Ah, Lord, truly my cup overflows feel to it.

As with my other selections, my worries seem to float away when my eyes feast on this scene

Many other scenes and circumstances make my heart feel other kinds of emotions, like anguish, joy, or sadness... But these are just some of my Ahhhhh ones.

What are your 'calmers'? Are they similar to mine? Or very, very different?