Could You Guess Where We've Been?

Now, had I not told you last week where we were heading, would the next two photos not shout London to you?

Churchill looking onto the newly named Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben,

and the very same tower with a London red bus and black cab in the foreground.

Did you know that the London cabs were all painted black initially when Queen Victoria's husband, Albert, passed away. In her grief, she asked for all cabs to be painted black to reflect her sorrow and they have remained black ever since.

No doubt there will follow more photos of our capital city, but for now, I have a sore throat and the shivers. I want my bed ...

Oh, we also have a wedding tomorrow. I may even give you a glimpse of the bride tomorrow on Homeschool on the Croft's Facebook page. 

A Journey to Town

Just before I go and begin my packing ...

You remember, don't you, that the Builder and I are heading to London for a few days.

This trip to London is his Christmas present from me. You remember - that Christmas present that he paid for, and that is shared with me. Best kind, I say.

Anyway, I'm not on here to talk about the trip - I'm sure there will be plenty time for that - but to show you a  few photos from yesterday's journey to town. I didn't have my camera, so the photos are from my phone, but the day was so lovely, I couldn't resist doing some stopping and clicking en route.

Nice place to come for some trout fishing...

I'm guessing the folks here are hoping for a whole lot of rain to fall this coming month.

Looking north 

and looking back towards Stornoway.

The day was almost windless, and even though the actual temperature was only a few degrees above freezing, it felt gorgeously mild in the sun.

On the home straight, I stopped to take a photo of this beautiful swan.

And to finish off, I snapped this jet which was already heading across the Atlantic. The smoke above the horizon was from the still burning moor fire. This was the 'plane I snapped five photos back, taken from the Barvas Moor.

Moving Sheep - it's my kinda thing

The Builder has a sister - he actually has four sisters - but he has one in particular who, unlike moi, is worthy of living on a croft.

She's never heard Big Brother say to her, 'Go find some town to live in'. He reserves such sweet talk for moi.

(Why, may I ask, am I referring to myself as moi? If you know, please let me know, cos I ain't got a clue.)

This is the Builder's wee sister.

The sheep like her.

They do as they're told, and when she speaks to them, they don't give her The Eye.

... like they're giving me here.

These sheep are due to begin giving birth on Friday. They are the mums-of-singles, and are kept separate from the mums-of-twins because they receive different food allowances during their pregnancies.

Each time I was pregnant, the scans showed I was carrying only a single, but I liked to be on the safe side and eat for twins. Just in case, you understand.

The expectant sheep were moved to this croft where I can keep an eye on them. Some of you may remember from last year how I love to have the Maternity Ward in full view of my house.

Not.

It makes me very nervous.

This clever Mama has the job done, and here is Big Brother's first lamb of the year.

Adorable, with a perfectly black face.

Having made sure all the mums-of-singles were safely ensconced in the appropriate field, we then went to move the mums-of-twins.

They were simply moving across the road, and here they are following Big Brother, 

in through the gate and into the field which looks at the other side of my house.

Gimme strength ... I'm not sure I can cope with the pressure.

This is Tweedles. She was a pet lamb that another of the Builder's sisters had. Well, when I say she had the pet lamb, you will understand that the kids had her. Aye, the kids had her, but mum looked after her ...

Tweedles still loves human company (except mine. Can't think why.), and follows BB around like a little puppy.

See? Here are all the sheep following younger sis. They never do that for me. I'm convinced BB has warned them to stay away from me.

And here she is speaking to Tweedles. She really thinks she's a puppy.

Have I mentioned before that we've been having amazing weather? 

Well, it's worth repeating.

You've met Louis before, haven't you? He, like me, likes to kid on he knows his stuff around sheep.

He, like me, knows nothing except how to look busy.

When was the last time you rode home on the tailgate of a pick-up?

(For any of you who are overly keen on Health and Safety matters, I may have taken this with the pick-up not moving. So sleep easy.)

A Friday Mish-mash

1. The other morning, I was speaking to the kids about the usefulness of writing down some of our experiences and blessings. When we are blessed by God in certain ways, we think we will never, ever forget what He has done for us, but ... we do. The next morning at worship, we sang these verses:


1 O thou my soul, bless God the Lord; and all that in me is Be stirred up his holy name to magnify and bless. 2 Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, and not forgetful be Of all his gracious benefits he hath bestowed on thee. 3 All thine iniquities who doth most graciously forgive: Who thy diseases all and pains doth heal, and thee relieve. 4 Who doth redeem thy life, that thou to death may'st not go down; Who thee with loving-kindness doth and tender mercies crown:

Although we have many, many temporal blessings, the Psalmist here mentions his greatest blessings:

.... his iniquities were graciously forgiven;

.... his spiritual disease was healed and the pain relieved;

.... his life was redeemed.

Do any of you keep a journal of spiritual experiences and blessings? For years I didn't, but I am so glad to look back now over things I wrote over the past few years. They cause me to give thanks all over again for the many blessings 'He has bestowed on me'.

2. Do y'all remember the fella who gave us the St Kilda posts? What ... You haven't read them? You can read the first of the posts here.

In case you don't think it's worth going to read them, I'll give you a couple of photos as 'tasters'. No hurry here: I'll wait.

The second post is here, and the third St Kilda post can be found here.

Oh, you're back. They're good, aren't they? Anyway, that fella, Calum, sent me this photo yesterday:

This is a Cheviot ewe with a male Texel cross lamb.

I knew that off the top off my head. I'm good at this whole recognizing-sheep-and-their-breeds stuff.

Ahem.


3. Catherine turned eighteen this week. Yes, my second child is now officially an adult, and I still feel like I'm only beginning to learn this being-a-parent business.

Our kids get to choose the menu when it's their birthday, and Catherine's choice this year was lamb shanks.

I was cooking ten shanks, and had three different ways of cooking them. 

Five of them went into the slow cooker with red wine and rosemary, as well as garlic, stock and seasoning. They bubbled happily in there for about eight hours, and made my kitchen smell delicious throughout the day. The recipe for those is here.

Three of the shanks were bundled up in cozy foil parcels with rosemary and thyme, butter, garlic and onion. They went into the oven for about two and a half hours. You can find Jamie Oliver's recipe here.

The final two were plain-Jane roasted. I had to roast some in this way to get that lovely almost-burnt stuff on the bottom of the roasting dish so that Catherine could have ordinary plain lamb gravy.

My order of preference was:

1. The foil wrapped shanks. The flavour of the butter and garlic through the meat, as well as the thyme gives this one winning status.

2. The slow-cooker shanks come a close second. The meat just fell off the bones, as it did with the foil wrapped ones. Oh, they were delicious.

3. I did like the onion-y roasted flavour of these, and if they weren't in competition with the other two, I'd be singing their praises. As it is, they come 3rd in my order.

Morning Machair in March.

Some areas of Scotland are knee deep in snow. Parts of the south-west have this snow and have been without electricity for five days now.

Meanwhile in Lewis ...

I took these photos around eight o'clock this morning. 

There wasn't a breath of wind, and although the temperature was only about 6 degrees Celsius, it felt gorgeously mild.

These first two photos are taken from the car, 

but, believe it or not, I actually went for a wee stroll.

I am in the dunes taking this photo. The dunes are on the far right of the first photos.

The sea was about as calm as I've ever seen it, and the sound of the little waves was magical.

I'll add another couple of photos just so you can savour some of the peace,

and the beauty, 

and the music which surrounded me.

The next lot of photos are taken from the machair. I stood in one place and took the first photo looking south-eastward.

There's our house!

And now, I guess I'm facing eastward, 

to the north ...

and round,

westward,

and finally, 

to the south.

Our weather in Lewis has been so dry, that in this photo you can see the evidence of a moor fire on the east side of the island. The Tolsta moor is on fire, and in the centre of this photo, you can see the smoke rising to join the morning clouds.

Patrice's Porch ... I'm on Time This Week Again!

Another Tuesday, another chat on Patrice's porch. Pull up a chair, get yourself a cuppa, and join our blether.


1. Melanie asks "What kinds of seafood have you tried and liked? What is the most unique seafood you've eaten?

Considering that I live right beside the sea - in fact, surrounded by sea - I ought to have eaten more seafood than I have. As it is, I've had prawns and lobster and scallops the most. I love these three.

We were blessed a few months ago with a gift of a bag of scallops.

When I say blessed, I really mean that.

Absolutely delicious.

And the Builder took this beauty home another night from work.

2.Anne says, "An unforgettable holiday moment is _____________________. (She's on the other side of that BIG pond. I believe a holiday is a vacation on this side. )

Ooh, that's me, Patrice! I probably asked this question because I have one of those 'unforgettable' moments stored in my memory: a moment that comes to the surface every now and again, and which we, as a family, re-tell from time to time. 

In 2001, my mum and I spent a week in London, Ontario. Whilst there, we were able to see some of the beautiful sights that province has to offer. One of these was, of course, Niagara Falls. 

Fast forward to 2007, and the Builder and I, along with our four kids, are going abroad for our first family holiday ever. We fly to Toronto, spend a couple of days with my relative in London, Ontario and then head to Niagara. Bear in mind that I have seen the Falls, but nobody else in the family has. I had done all the planning for this holiday - the Builder made it clear that he simply wanted to 'turn up' and enjoy it - and I'd booked a hotel suite which promised a wall-to-wall window looking right out onto the Falls.

When we came to the hotel, we came to the back of the building, having seen nothing of Niagara itself. (We had sauntered along back roads from London to Niagara, enjoying a relaxed drive through the countryside.) At this point, I was unsure what the view from the suite was going to be like. I knew what the hotel website told me it was going to be like, but one can never be sure ... 

And so I allowed everyone else to go in ahead of me, head to the window while I waited with baited breath for a reaction. I was not disappointed! Their reaction said it all: the view was perfect - more than the photos online had shown, in fact!

This moment was only one of so many unforgettable moments on that unforgettable holiday. We all talk often of the moment we arrived at the home of our (Scottish) friends in Michigan, after a 12-hour drive from Virginia. That moment we all said, 'That's the house!', and saw our friends for the first time since they left their homeland to make their home across the Pond. 

Would someone now pass the Kleenex? *Sniff*....


3. Arlene wants to know, "When was the last time you tried something new?"

Umm. Something new? 

Erm .... new?

People do new things? When they have kids? 


4. Becky asks, "Who or what inspires you?"

I'm tempted to ask, 'I'm inspired??'. Let me think about this for a moment ...

You know, a walk in our graveyard always inspires me.

I see the stone at my grandparents' grave, and I thank God for the family into which he brought me. 

I look beyond their headstone, and see the stone of my great-uncle, whose Godliness and cheerfulness are in my memory as an inspiration of how to live, and how to endear others to our Saviour.

The beauty of this sea inspires me, 

as does the combination of a machair full of summer flowers and a pair of chicken legs playing football.

This pair ...

and this pair 

inspire me.

And finally, some scenes from the hand of the Master Artist, 

whose creative beauty surrounds me,

in this place I call home.

Who could fail to be inspired by such wonders of God's creation?

5. Madonna wants to know," How did you chose the names of your children. Wendell adds,"If you don't have kids, how do you choose pet names?"

Oh, I can answer this quite easily, although - as y'all know with me - easy doesn't mean short.

Child #1
We named him Donald Ross: Donald is after his paternal grandfather; Ross is for my dad - it's his middle name.

Child #2
Catherine Petra - Both my mum and the Builder's mum were called Catherine. So she is named after her two grannies. Petra is named for a friend I had in college and who was killed in a car accident when we were only seventeen.

Child #3
Katie was named after an elderly cousin of my mum's, who was like a great-aunt to me. I know it's unfortunate that Katie and Catherine are so alike, but to me, they suit their specific names. Katie is a Katie.

Child #4
This was the only baby whose gender we knew before he was born. Do you remember me telling y'all about my Grampa? Well, his name was Calum, and I was really keen to have a child named after him. When our Wee Guy was born, the Builder suggested calling him Calum Stewart - the names of the Builder's two brothers. So the Wee Guy has the amazing privilege of being named after my Grampa, Big Brother and Baby Brother.  

Child #5 
AKA Dog #1. Jackson was named after Mr Thomas Stonewall Jackson. Please don't judge me if you're a Northerner. You'd need to be Scottish to understand.... Thank you.

And you know I love you all. Y'all, and you all.

Have a great week, y'all. Oh, I'm heading to London next week.

Did you hear me? I said I was heading to London! And - wait for it - I'm going with the Builder.

I can hardly believe it myself.... More on this to follow, no doubt.