Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty.

That's the current photo and video count on my Nikon. I have `now overtaken the Kodak that stood at 6431. I've had the Nikon a third of the time. I might be able to claim “Nutter with a shutter” status now.

Jo and I went to Oban this past weekend. His parents were doing their tour of the children and the country. As we were to leave on the Saturday boat and return on the Tuesday evening ferry we thought to contact a cycle shop in Oban to get the trike serviced. We had all the parts, but it is nicer for someone who's done this for a while to do it. So on Saturday I got the bus and Jo set off with the trike.

We had the Clansman out and back.

It came in to Tiree very light.

Positively swung round the turn to dock.

It was rather a mixed day weather-wise; consistent wind but inconsistent precipitation. Sun, rain, snow, hail, sleet, we saw it all in an hour. But the sea was fairly calm and it was a very pleasant sail over. I got a bit of knitting done and had a nice doze, Jo read most of a book.

Once in Oban it was damp. Not outright pouring it down, just constant mizzle with the odd bit of rain. The Clansman had apparently had a bit of a knock to her paintwork below water level.

Jo and the other cyclists had to wait for the cars to disembark, including those on the mezzanine deck, so his parents and I had a bit of a wait for him. But unlike boarding, I got to photograph the trike leaving the ferry. In this case alongside a kayak with it's own little wheels.

We trotted round to the entrance to the flat building and I took the bags up with Jo's parents while he took the trike to the shop. It is a lovely flat and I was so relaxed up there I completely forgot to photograph the view! It was very close to the train station and above the bus stops so we got to spend a fair bit of time watching folk coming and going, including Jo coming back with the trike!

Turned out that the shop had closed early (we don't know why, perhaps an emergency) and they weren't answering the phone either. So Jo and his Mum found it a good place in the car park and we all went shopping to Tesco where Jo purchased two extra bike locks. The trike can easily be moved if you know how unless you add an extra lock or two.

Jo had left his mobile on the ferry, this caused a very amusing scene when it was announced and suddenly everyone on deck did the "have I got mine? dance", caused Jo's parents to laugh on the shoreside.  Before we went shopping we trotted to the ferry office to reclaim it.  I saw this basket of crabs outside a van offering fresh cooked treats:

They are alive.  I was surprised they hadn't made a bid for freedom!  Upon picking one up (a lad watching me jumped back just in case it attacked him) I found out they were very sluggish and grumpy.  Quite hefty critters too.

Sunday the family went to church and I took a wander. I didn't know at that point that there were two sets of keys so I made a mad dash back when I noticed the churches had cleared out only to find them all happily settled. Oh well. That afternoon we went to Curachan, the hollow mountain.

Curachan was the first reversible pump/generator station in the UK, possibly the world (I can't remember) and is 90% efficient, not bad at all! You can't take cameras or bags inside which is actually a nice break. The tour guide and her “glamourous driver” were great and full of enthusiasm even on the last tour of the day. It truly is worth a visit I think, even if all you do is admire the loch.

On Monday we took a footpath in the direction of Dunollie castle. At the end of the paved bit you could either go up to the castle, up into the forest or back the way you'd come. Jo and his Dad went adventuring up into the forest and to the summit of the hill there, his Mum and I decided to walk back. I then went shopping. 

Loved this painting for the seal colony cruise:

I had a list of bits I could only really get on the mainland and that couldn't come by mail without adding extra instructions like “surface mail only”. I had a pretty good explore and satisfied my yarn cravings with a visit to the two yarn shops. Didn't spend a fortune this time either. I even found a new pair of trainers and some snow boots that are waterproof to over the foot. I am prepared for next winter.

Tuesday morning we went to Aldi, Lidl, Homebase and Tesco. Just getting various bits and some fresh stuff to bring home. We got a giant tarpaulin too which we used to wrap up all the shopping and Jo's rucksack in the basket of the trike. The weather forecast said it was going to be Wet on Tiree and it wasn't kidding!

The journey home was a little rougher but while the stabilisers were out it was perfectly fine. The view was rather...monochromatic?

Now then, here's a conundrum for you: What do you do if your phone battery is dead and the only socket available is 7ft off the floor?  The phone won't balance on the poster frames under the socket and the charger cable leaves the phone dangling precariously.

No ideas?  Well, other than the obvious wait until you get to your destination.

Use a detachable hood!

As for the weather at home, WET. Absolutely pouring with rain that had just enough wind to get under hat brims. By the time I got on the bus all I could see was huge water droplets on my glasses. We had planned to unload the trike onto the bus to save Jo effort but it really was too wet for that. So I rode back with two bags on the bus and Jo pedalled back with two crates, one coolbox, one rucksack and various extra bits all wrapped in a tarpaulin in the trike.

He's now outside drilling holes in the trike. But that's another post.

TTFN

Hello 2015

First off:  Happy new year!  Yeah, okay, we're a fortnight in, but still, we wish everyone a happy 2015.

What have we been up to?

Well, December 2014 was a busy month.  I ended up in hospital for tests but was home before Christmas and am doing much better.  Christmas day was great.  We had a friend over for lunch, had the BEST turkey to date and Jo made gravy from scratch that was deeeelicious!  He pretty much had to make the whole meal himself and excelled.

Among many useful and fun gifts that we received was a soft cheese making kit.  On our first attempt we followed the recipe in the provided booklet.  A recipe that contradicted itself.  It added the acid while heating the milk which causes the milk to curdle...we made 2l of curdled milk.  Alas, most of that ended up down the drain with some in the dog.  I put all the utensils through the dishwasher and the next day redid the sterilising (what a faff!) and followed a recipe from the book we were also sent.

This was the result after leaving it to curdle for 40 min:



It looked just like the previous evening's failed attempt and I feared the worst.  BUT, I sliced it up and started spooning out the curds in the hope of at least achieving ricotta (I was aiming for mozzarella).



Curds!  Actual curds!  Not quite as solid as the ones shown on the recipe but well worth continuing with.  The whey was even relatively clear:


(Turns out you can make bread using the whey, so we can freeze this next time we try)

The steps after draining involved heating the curds and shaping them and putting them into cold water.  When there's only one of you this gets messy so the camera was left alone.

End result:


and wrapped up:


It's a bit crumbly and lacking in flavour due to not adding a culture to it, but I made cheese!  We just need to eat it soon :)

Last Thursday (8th) a load of engineers were sent on the boat as we were predicted storms and strong winds.  That night we saw more lightning than I think I've seen in my life!  I did try to photograph it but, as is the way, I mistimed every time.  The gusts got to over 100mph, the roof rolled, and I had a very poor night's sleep waiting for the crash of escaped tiles.  Fortunately an inspection on Friday showed no damage to the roof and no escaped bins or lids.  The only thing that had happened was one of my bird feeders had flown off the bush and been replaced with a feed sack.

We've since been having strong winds; huge swells that keep causing the ferry to cancel, and hail.

Proper...


Heavy,


Invasive, hail.


Stones varying from a mere 2mm across to whoppers over 6mm across.

My poor oak sapling isn't too chuffed:


Madam has spent her time doing the sensible thing and staying wrapped up:


The back garden, to quote Jo, "looks like the Somme".  Mud, puddles, dead grass.  The reef doesn't look much better, the cows have already grazed it down and the crofters are having to spend a fortune on supplementary feed and shifting huge bales around.

Speaking of animals, I ordered more bird food and the garage mice tried to steal it:


Unfortunately I can't get rid of those mice, they steal the food from the ferret's bowl as he has to have food 24/7.  But the house has been mouse-free...so far.  Probably because all our food is stored better than we did in the past.

What else?  Oh yes, we got some money back from the electric people and Jo gave me permission to purchase a second hand DSLR for night photography.  I've tried and tried with both my newer bridge camera and that older Kodak but neither has really managed to capture what we see.

I spent quite a while on EBay and Google looking at cameras in our price range and reading reviews of them for night photos.  Eventually I found one that ticks all the boxes, a Canon EOS 20D.  It's 10 years old, 8megapixels but it does the job.  I admit to being rather daunted when all the bits arrived:



I spent quite a while reading the manual and still need to get my head around some of it.  I also had to order some extra bits.  It takes CF cards and we don't have those, so two 8GB CF cards were ordered.  It has no internal memory so I had 4 days of not really being able to practice because the camera refuses to do anything without a card.

I'd also ordered a new tripod.  Ours is...okay, but one of the legs has a habit of sliding back into itself under the weight of my Nikon camera and this new (to us) camera is about 3x the weight.



The new tripod is just a bit bigger than the old one.  And far more adjustable.

So now I had all this kit but the weather didn't want to play!  Windy is okay, there's usually a side of the house where it's sheltered, but rain?  No go.

Until last night.  2am I was wide awake and it was bone dry outside.

Moonlit power station:


Most of the "big dipper/ plough":


I had a play with exposure times as well.  The clouds were really zooming so moon shots ended up blurred while stationary points like the power station were crystal clear.  Also...stars!  I actually photographed stars!

So you can definitely expect more starry night photos and moon shots to come.  I even know what lens to get to get even better night shots!  I plan to play with star trails too.

TTFN

Tiree Regatta 2014

Last year's regatta was cancelled due to bad weather.  This year they managed!  The day started overcast, windy, but dry.  Perfect sailing weather really.

I hadn't planned to go originally but when I heard Jo was going with his litres of home made ice cream I decided to go down too.

The refreshment tent (most important):


Scarinish harbour looking busy:


Mad, mad souls about to go paddling around:


I think this was "paddle to the other side and back so many times then run to the trailer".  Much enthusiastic cheering was heard anyway.


There was a children's event of home built raft racing:





After watching these for a while I trotted over to the beer tent and the other activities.

Pillow fighting!

(alas, cancelled shortly after due to wet pole)


My personal fave; welly wanging!  I think it was formally called "welly toss" but I prefer "wanging".  I did see one gent lose his grip on the welly and accidentally hit someone at the burger van, no injuries fortunately.

I had great fun with the camera trying to time my snaps!








I think I have about another dozen of either no welly or welly just about to leave thrower's hand.

The sailing competition also started.  A bit of confusion was had and I'm afraid I missed boats coming back in due to helping pack the tea tent.













Alas, by the time they started the wind had gotten up and the rain was fair belting down so I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted focusing the camera for fear of sodden lens.

So, that was the regatta.  The winning welly wanger got over 34m and I believe everyone who came enjoyed themselves.  Jo sold quite a few ice cream cones for the church funds and I was proven wrong about my assessment of the ginger flavour; people actually bought it!

Today is much better and the island is drying out again.

TTFN!

Wet, wet, wet.

Fortunately not nearly as wet as down South!

Yesterday was gorgeously sunny!




And yet, during the 2 hours of Wednesday crafters it turned to rain and fog:


We did have a lovely Tuesday arvo too.  I even sat outside for a bit.


(view to Mull)

Peter, he who had a giant cake last year, has been busy:


This man's talent is amazing.

Whereas I have been busy knitting.


"I can't feel my legs"


"Eh?! Speak up!"


Complete!

I initially was intending this for the Community Group baby kits but he's as big as a baby.  So, instead at the Easter sale he's going on a stall with "guess the koala's name" and the money will be split between the tapestry group and the community group.

I've also knit Jo another pair of socks:


He mentioned how I have quite a few pairs and that his shop bought ones are growing holes.  So now my sock knitting is for him.  Fortunately there's very little difference in our feet so it's not really any extra work.

What else?

I'm helping with records at An Iodhlann, finding pages that are missing and printing them off.

I've also applied to the OU to do an accounting certificate and the first module starts in April.  That is, assuming I get the fee grant from SAAS.  See, in Scotland you can apply once every academic year for financial help towards study.  The two modules will be around £1700; we don't have that spare.  So the SAAS is helping me achieve it.

Anyway, bedtime.

TTFN