The future is bright

This weekend, well, Thursday to Saturday, is The Secret Island "Three-day conference about the history of Tiree, bringing together experts on Tiree’s cultural and natural history from 1600 to the present day. Includes talks, tours and a ceilidh."

I'm booked on the whole thing, and am looking forward to three days of learning and sharing and the ceilidh if I'm not completely shattered!

Last night our kitchen was a very lovely shade of orange.  My new camera has a "sunset" setting so I went out and took this:




Today was gloriously sunny!  The wind has finally lost the cold edge it's had so far and chickens, dogs and livestock enjoyed the basking.


Not much to report really.  I've been tending the bushes/trees around the house and been shown how to start cuttings from the bushes so I now have 16 of those started off in pots out front.  More are planned but I need to wait for the bushes to stop flowering and to get some bits for the pots.

My shawls have been getting washed.  I had to lie the black silk one down to dry and got bitten for my efforts!  There's a nest entrance to an ant colony smack bang in the middle of our back lawn.  I fully intend to see that one off.  The back looks to be a nice place to sit and relax, it's flat for starters!

Anyway, I'll report again after the conference.

TTFN

A feast for the eyes

Friday was gloriously sunny, still a fairly cold wind, but the sun was worth the walk.  It's also really low tide this weekend, so I got to explore rock pools that are usually inaccessible.




I was curious how different my clip-on sunglasses make the view, this is what they do:



 Crossapol beach looking huge.


 


 


 


 One large rock pool.

Anenenenenemone



Pretty snails







I've got no idea what made this big black mark.  I couldn't feel the edge when I ran my fingers over it, it's just blacker than the rock.


Lots of exposed rock.  The sound of drying barnacles is rather disconcerting.


A HUGE rock pool.  I saw quite a few shrimp in here, but none obliged the camera.


Mussels.


This is the top of a concrete post below the tideline.  I love the effect on the wood.






An outlet, I presume.


I also took some video that day.

A hare down the road:


Walkers are a tad unusual on the island, so much so that should you happen to walk to An Talla from Crossapol, you get followed:


Finally, one I took last weekend.  It was warm but overcast so Jo and I went for a trot.  After a while, we chose to sit and watch the world go by, Madam was not impressed.



It's all words though, she's just complaining that she can't go and sniff that and that and that and this and ooooh!

I've had a quiet week this week, just getting bits and bobs done and finding it a tad strange being home alone for a whole week.  Well, nearly.  Jo was away on a physics-y thing from Monday to today so I had the house all to myself.  Doglet was alright with it, it was me that noticed it the most.

Anyhoo, not much else to report.  The sun is out again, I've started mowing the back "lawn" and finally drained the oil from the mower.  Note to self: warm oil is FAST, next time do it somewhere easier to wash off!

Still, laundry is almost up to date; lawns are starting to look like such; garage has had it's 6 monthly sweep; bath is clean (citric acid soaked loo roll is brilliant on limescale!) and we're all home and happy.

TTFN

Of nets and creels

I'm always trying new things; there are so many things to try!

I've been keeping an eye on an abandoned creel that's been sitting on the beach for a few months with the intention of having a go at repairing it.  I brought it home a couple of weeks ago and after working out it's missing the "door" at the end I set about fathoming how to repair it for my own purposes.






But first, I need to learn how to tie nets.  I spent a good couple of hours looking at picture tutorials on t'internet before finding a nice, easy to follow set of videos on YouTube showing how to tie a purse net (used for rabbitting or ratting).  After a few false starts I think I finally have a good idea:


I also now think I know how to make a string bag by doing this in a spiral rather than back and forth.



I'm not really using the correct tools though.  Currently I'm using a 6" ruler as my "mesh stick" and an intarsia knitting bobbin as my "net needle".  But, I already had those and the crochet cotton I'm using, so it cost me nothing to see if I could do this.

You may be wondering why I don't just knit a net?  There are good reasons.

Firstly: it's a LOT quicker.  Really, even with my slow knotting and checking I've got things right, this still got finished quicker than the equivalent in knitting.

Also, in knitting you're passing loops over each other.  This means that should you catch a loop it will pull out (like snagging a jumper) and get bigger while the others in its row shrink down.  Not really what you want in a net.  If you go dragging a net through pebbles and such the last thing you want is your lovely catch to escape through a giant hole because you caught on a piece of flimsy weed.  So in fishing nets and cargo nets every single point where two strands cross is knotted.  The size of the holes is fixed.

On the creel I've stashed the holes are about 1" each side.  In my practice they're almost 1.5".  Apparently I can make a net needle "easily enough" but having looked at them my mind simply boggles at how.  I think I shall have to find someone more that-way minded to show me.

I did order some nylon cord in what I think is the right size, so once that arrives I can make a mesh stick and a needle and get repairing.  Now I'm keeping an eye for more abandoned creels that might have a "door" I can nab.  My current reckoning is; if it's been sitting for a good few months or is half buried then it's free to nab.  If any islanders wish to correct me on this, please do!  I don't want to annoy anyone.

Sunny days

At the time of writing this we are just seven pageviews away from 6000.  That's nearly 6000 times this blog has been looked at; not 6k different people, but still pretty impressive.  While it doesn't include my views, it might include Jo's.  Depends if he's clicked the "don't count me" button.

Sunshine!

You wouldn't have thought it, looking at this sad, sad doglet (note sarcasm)



In fairness, there was a fair bit of cloud until late afternoon so it wasn't as warming as she wanted.



I spent a while in the kitchen playing with the camera again.  Got a shot of this little bird and my birds of Tiree and Coll book informs me it's a meadow pipit.


The calves were up to their usual antics:


I love this one, the white one is doing what is called in the world of internet meme's "derp".


Before crashing so gracefully!


They weren't the only ones.  Calves all over the island were enjoying the sun and full bellies.




Next door was mowing the lawn and so did I.  First mow of the year.  I also read the mower manual "change oil after first 5 hours"  Oops.  Need to order more oil, but first I need to empty the fuel tank; more mowing!



For Lovefibre, some rust photos I snapped while taking photos of these notsurewhat's in the front grass. (EDIT: these are bluebells; apparently they also come in pink)




This week's photo theme is "reflection"  I considered the accidental sky shot from last post, but then saw this in my glass:



That reminds me, need to ask for next week's theme.  I've sort of unofficially taken over :s

Now off to knit, I have a sample to finish and then I can post a load off and get some money for them.

TTFN

Lovely day for a walk

It was indeed, although the wind did pick up occasionally.  I spent the morning doing laundry, knitting and relaxing.  In the afternoon Lovefibre and myself went for a walk.  3.1 miles along Gott Bay and back:


The batteries in the GPS finally admitted exhaustion about 12 minutes in but Google Earth lets me plot a route so I played connect the dots to find our distance






Not only were the skies amazing, the tide was out and this beach is HUGE!




It's also quite busy.  Lots of worm casts and mysterious holes.


I did dig down a few cm at one hole, but found no resident.A little Googling later and I found out these are lug worm holes.  The worm breathes through the hole while forming the cast from the other end.


Little tubes of sand, weed and tiny bits of shell and grit.  I feel I should know what made these, but I'm struggling to remember.  (Lovefibre found a fab marine worm site; these are Sand Mason homes)


The beach was smooth, but the way the tide had gone out left these "waves" of colour in the sand.





Crystal clear pools.



Tiny shed crab claw.


Judging by the colour, I suspect this wasn't shed so much as broken into.



The water also left this criss-cross pattern in the sand.



Big rock pool surrounded by barnacles (bit tough on the feet).



Fan-shaped weed.



Anemone (or, as I like to call them; anenenenenmone)  I took about 7 photos of this critter, but the wind caused waves on the surface of the water so the camera tried to focus on those.  I might actually have to read the manual!


Another type of weed.  The same colour as tangle, but without the 'trunk'  Instead it has this wavy stem.


And looks like a very floppy palm tree.

According to an online friend this is  "Furbelows - Saccorhiza polysachides, and if you chew a bit it will taste sweetish."  Dunno if I want to try ;)



This poor little snail got confused.



I'm not sure what this was.  I wanted to say weed, but I think perhaps a form of coral?



A much larger crab claw.  Quite possibly lost in battle.



A very pretty snail shell






Those holes in the sand.  These two had weird 'branches' coming out; we suspect due to water movement.



I'm not sure how clear this is; the colours of sand made a kind of, tangle of tracks.



Colourful sand 'waves'





Gorgeous views from the Brock end.



I have no idea.  Eggs of some sort perhaps. (EDIT: whelk egg casings)



This pink...something, was in a stream.  I know there's a type of bacteria that can get into the water system and turn sinks pink (completely harmless!), so perhaps it was growing in the sand?



A very precariously balanced bin bag full of something.



Herring gull egg methinks.





I honestly giggled when I saw this.  A combination of weed, sand and bird poop.  Completely random events lead to the human eye being able to see a face.



I walked a lot of the time with the camera on; apparently I managed to press the shutter button while it was pointing skywards.  Quite the unintentionally arty shot.



Oh yes, I also washed my one remaining fleece.  Courtesy of Angus the bus driver.  It had spent the winter in this bag hanging in the garage to avoid being mothed.  Finally the weather was right and I was willing to faff.  Three soaks and a LOT of dirty water later I had a mesh bag of wet fleece.  I hung it on the line and even after four hours it was still dripping.  It's now on a towel on top of the chest freezer ready to finish drying tomorrow (weather permitting!)









Sleepy calves.  They've spent the day between basking, snoozing and feeding; bliss!

That was today.  Yep, all those photos in one day. Photo/video count on the new camera is up to 361 and the first set of batteries are nearly exhausted.  Really need to buy more Hybrio's!  The camera uses four; the GPS uses four; the Wii Fit board wants four and all three items are going to have to somehow share if I don't order more soon.

Anyway, evening is here, I'm going to go read and then go to bed.

TTFN