People and places

I feel that there's some background missing from the story - I've gone on about Stornoway, but not shown you any pictures of it, nor have I talked about Point, which is the part of Lewis that Annie and Martin lived on last year and which we revisited together this year, and about their visit in general. So.

I first met up with Annie and Martin in Harris. They'd flown from East Midlands to Inverness and then hired a car and got the ferry across, and they had a B and B place near Luskentyre - Beul na Mara, run by a very nice woman called Katherine ( I would definitely recommend the B and B!). The B and B had a panoramic view of the beach from a lovely conservatory built on the back. The beach is more an estuary, really - when the tide is out, it's one of the biggest beaches you've ever seen. Down there somewhere is a picture of Bonnie in the middle of it. Anyway, Annie, Martin and I had a fab meal out in Leverburgh at a place called The Anchorage, which I'd also recommend. Not only is the food great, but they know a lot about Celtic music and often have live bands. When we went there, it was only CDs, but very nicely chosen ones. And the people knew Annie and Martin, and were very friendly. I still remember the asparagus ravioli. Yum.


In Harris, we also went on a boat trip - I think I've talked about that already - and had a very nice meal at the B and B, which was on a very windy night. Katherine kindly let me park the van on her drive instead of going back to the campsite, so the van had a bit of shelter from a force 8. It was still a bit rock and roll though.

We met up again later in Lewis: I'd established myself at the campsite (Laxdale, if you need to know - it's fine, and the only one on the east side of Lewis with electricity, showers, etc) in Stornoway, Jan had arrived, and we met up from time to time at HebCeltFest and at An Lanntair, the arts centre, for coffee and concerts. And then after that, Annie and Martin moved on to a place in Point called Portvoller, and borrowed a house from their friend Mairi, who lives in Derbyshire just round the corner from them but was born in Portvoller and still keeps the family home. Next door in Portvoller is her nephew Ian Angus Macleod, who I met last year at the Hebridean Kite Festival over at Uig on the West Coast of Lewis. I met him again when he was mowing the front lawn of his aunt's house. He also drives the local bus. So it all comes together.




I camped on the drive of the house at Portvoller and watched the fabulous sunsets, ate meals with Annie and Martin, and played card games and Rummikub with them in the evenings. I'm quite bad at both, so they enjoyed beating me every night. During this time (July 22) it was Annie's birthday, and we went up to the lighthouse at Tiumpan Head and ate cake and watched the gannets diving into the water. There were also some great sunsets. Annie got a fab new camera for her birthday - a Canon Powershot G9, if anyone's interested, and I want one myself -so was keen to try it out. The picture is of her unwrapping it. It's brill - it has a fabulous zoom, a big screen, and like the iPhone it seems to know which way up it is so it turns the picture round. It even made me look nice (I don't normally like myself in photos). It's either the camera or the two month holiday, I'm not sure which. And I did some good sunbathing, as you'll see from the picture of me lounging on the lawn with Bonnie: Annie and Martin went visiting friends and left me in charge of the house, and it was good to be able to wander in and out after so long spent in a van. And at times, the weather was so hot I had to intersperse my spells on the lawn with an hour or so indoors. Napping, of course.



And I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Stornoway. Parts of it are quite industrial-looking (cargo sheds, things to do with fish, and so on) but there are also some pretty waterfront buildings. And across the water Lews Castle and its extensive grounds - which are open for anyone to walk in - look across to the busy shops and waterfront on the other side. And there's always the ferries to watch coming in and out, and the Customs vessels and lifeboats, and visiting yachts from all over. I also thought you'd like the picture of the replica Queen from the Lewis Chessmen. Her pose reminds me of a picture of me that turned up on a roll of film that Annie took at my wedding. Nuff said.


By the time I left Lewis, I had a few thank you letters to write. To the hairdresser with the big Alsatian who had tried to find me an appointment and by the time she succeeded, I'd gone over to the west and had no signal, so didn't find out until too late; to Hector Low, the fabulous vet who looked after Bonnie; to the crofter who'd invited me to stay and who I didn't get around to phoning; to Ian Angus Macleod saying I'll probably see him again next year and to thank him for the offer of the loan of a kite, and to Caroline MacLennan, who organised HebCeltFest and has now put my reviews up on the website. I finished these with a little help from Annie, who reorganised some of my prose (see, she's a proper journalist!) and added some of her recollections to mine to beef up some of the reviews. Nothing like getting your big sister to help you out with your homework. Although it's been a while - I think the last time was when she lent me all her notes on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at University. I still remember her getting top marks for her essay on the notion of 'trawBe' (that 'B' is meant to be an Anglo-Saxon thorn). Swot.