Weekends in Islay

Tibby and Barny

2010-03-13T22:48:00.003Z

I'm glad Hilary didn't name the goose while we were there. I might not have been able to let Jason cook it if it had a name.... she has since posted photos of it on facebook and called it Barny, which suits it as it is (eh, was) a Barnacle Goose. It had a wild free life and it was very much appreciated for its taste after its demise. Here is Tibby getting it on with Barny's removed head. She let out low growls to anyone who went near her while she was toying with the goose head.

Sunday Morning (and evening)

2010-03-08T22:02:00.015Z

The swiiming pool is across the road from Hilary's house, so handy. And right next door to the Bowmore Distillery. Shame that everything is shut on a Sunday. When you think that most folk ar visiting for the weekend, it makes a lot of sense to me to open on a Sunday, but it's probably some religious island thing.

Just before it goes in the oven

2010-03-08T22:02:00.012Z

Jason cooked the goose on Sunday night when we got back. He absolutely loved it. So did the cats. I wasn't too keen, a bit too strong tasting for me. It tasted not unlike beef and I can't have my burds tasting like beef, that's just wrong.

Tibby talks when asked

2010-03-08T22:02:00.009Z

Tibby had just done that thing that cats do when they see something that they want to attack but they can't because they are indoors. It's a bit like opening your mouth and clacking your teeth together. She had just done this for a minute or so and stopped as soon as I got my camera. So I asked her to do it again for me. And she did. Twice!

Pppphhhheathers, says Silvester

2010-03-08T22:02:00.008Z

Jason managed to look like the cat who got caught in the canary cage after plucking the bird. You can't make out all the feathers so I highlighted them!

The Goose!

2010-03-08T22:01:00.022Z

So here is the goose being plucked. Jason was actually really looking forward to this part. I can't imagine anything worse. It sounded like velcro being ripped off. There is maybe one thing more disgusting...

Goose liver, yuk!

2010-03-08T22:01:00.017Z

Jason cooked up the goose liver (eh yuk) and he, James and Hilary all tried it, weirdos that they are. In order to counterbalance the horrible picture of the liver, I have given you a lovely picture of some posies that were on Hilary's table.

Jura from Hilary's back garden

2010-03-08T22:01:00.014Z

Lovely Jura

2010-03-08T22:01:00.012Z

Jura was lovely. A five minute ferry from Islay. When you go to Islay from the mainland, you are aware of how remote you are. What's strange is that when you go over to Jura, Islay feels a bit like the uncouth, busy mainland. Jura is remote and peaceful. It's where Orwell wrote 1984. You get a sense of serenity when you're on Jura, helped by the fact that the only road winds round the side of the hills, alongside the coast. I can imagine it being a very restful place. We only went over for a drive and some lunch. I don't think I could live on it, but I would like to experience a short break on it one day.

Tormisdale Croft Crafts

2010-03-08T22:01:00.010Z

This is James' step-mum's shop. She spins the wool herself on a spinning wheel, it's wonderful to watch. And then she knits and sews beautiful creations. gorgeous fingerless gloves, cashgora (cashmere and angora mix) scarves, wonderful jumpers, oh all sorts of stuff. I could have spent all day up there. And her finishing is exquisite. What I aspire to. You can't get better praise than that! I can't wait to go back.

Tibby likes to have a wee sit

2010-03-08T22:00:00.022Z

The last time I came up to Islay, Tibbs had a wee nap on my suitcase. This time it was the turn of my cardigan. Awww.

Tinker is Pinker

2010-03-08T22:00:00.005Z

Tinker is a gentler cat, more of a lady. Here she is cuddling up with Jason. They both took to Jason very well, but Tinker came back for more cuddles than Tibby. She has a lovely pinky colour to her. When the goose was unveiled, Tinker was too ladylike to get involved, preferring to sit in the background. Quite right, Tinker.

Tibby the Tiger

2010-03-08T20:22:00.006Z

Maybe it's the outdoor life giving her a lovely ruddy glow but Tibby looks so beautiful and wild these days. A right proper tiger. She even had ginger markings. She loves the outdoor life; and stealing crabs' legs from the beach!

Paddling in the sea

2009-08-19T22:54:00.005+01:00

The weather turned really quite nice on the Sunday afternoon. We were so lucky. Wee bit windy but very sunny. When we arrived on Saturday, it was a bit dull but thankfully it just got brighter as the weekend progressed. We had an hour to kill and went up to the beach, left our shoes on the grass in a sand dune and went paddling in the sea! It was lovely. Not too cold, unless you were in it for too long and then you kind of got a cramp in your feet. You had to keep moving. Hilary liked to push her legs in until they got stuck.

After this, we had a lovely lie down in the grass out of the reach of the wind and then it was time to go and get the ferry back to the mainland.

Another fantastic trip. And the only thing that remained constant was that it was brilliantly different once again!

A visit to the hidden community vegetable garden

2009-08-19T22:39:00.005+01:00

We weren't going home until Sunday afternoon so we went for a visit to the hidden vegetable gardens. I WISH my camera was working for this but it wasn't. The garden was magnificent. It was in a large walled area and when you go through the door, you are standing at the top of rows of millions of vegetables. Well, thousands.

This isn't the best picture of it because it's from the side, kind of. The vegetables can be found at the back there, where the brown field bits are. I think this picture from the internet was taken in winter. It was chock-full of veg and fruit when we were there. We all snapped up some veg. Mary and Rebecca Rose got a bagful each. Jess got herself some quick vitamins in the form of tomatoes picked half an hour earlier and proceeded to munch them there and then. I got Jason a squash and some lovely onions. It was a great way to deal with a hangover.

The garden is tended by the locals who devote their spare time to it. There is an honour system in place if no-one is there. You weigh your veg and leave your money in the box. Only on Islay.

Tinker on the case. OR Tibbs on the case.

2009-08-19T22:34:00.004+01:00

Look at this lovely wee cat having a lie-down on my suitcase. I'm not going to try and guess which cat it is. I can only tell when they are both together. Sorry Hilary. I do love your cats. I'm just rubbish at telling them apart....

Hilary enjoys her present

2009-08-19T22:32:00.002+01:00

I brought Hilary a wee present - a draft excluder - and she loved it as you can see.

Jess and the farm dogs

2009-08-19T22:28:00.004+01:00

Check these lovely collies. They were so affectionate. As soon as you started petting them, they sat to attention and wagged their tail. So lovely. I can't remember their names. I think they were related and one of them lives in France now.

Mary through the Looking Glass

2009-08-08T23:22:00.006+01:00

Ardbeg prize fund

2009-08-08T23:21:00.014+01:00

There was a raffle at the ceildih with some excellent prizes and some normal raffle type prizes. Mary Macdee won this brolly which I swapped for a minature of whisky (that the ladies gave me and Jess for helping them with the raffle draw) and a free sewing lesson (yet to be redeemed). Most of the prizes were from Ardbeg, a distillery. We tasted it, and it was really peaty. Quite mediciney, know what I mean. Still, I love the brolly.

The Killers on Accordian. Yip, you read correctly.

2009-08-08T23:21:00.013+01:00

This needs little introduction because Jess provides it in the video. A little bit of background is required though. We were in the local hall, at a ceilidh, sitting near the front of the hall by the band. Take it away, Jess.

Bees for sale

2009-08-08T23:21:00.008+01:00

Healthy bees, no less. The funny thing was that Hilary knew this guy; Mr Millar. We passed him the next day and Hilary waved at him. I wonder if anyone bought his bees?

Cabaret? Caelidh.

2009-08-08T23:20:00.009+01:00

Hey hey hey! We went up the street to the local hall for a cabaret.....it so wasn't. It was a full on ceilidh. They kept mixing the music though so that there was ceilidh music and pop music, although the pop music was played by the band..... It was bizarre. But the ceilidh part was a great laugh. We had a blast and despite only remembering the most basic of steps, we had a shot at all the dances. Here we are doing one, can't remember off-hand which one. Poor Jess. She had NO clue, but held up extremely well. Mary provided the best laugh for just loving the 'birling' part. Great fun. We snuck red wine in and got nicely sozzled as the evening progressed. Lovely stuff.

Wine, pizza, back pain and some relief

2009-08-08T23:20:00.008+01:00

After the farm, we went down to Hil's lovely cottage for some relaxation, pizza, wine, cider, ale....and a nice back massage for my poor back. Thanks Jess, that was awesome.
Then it was on to the village hall for a cabaret night...or that's what it was advertised as.

Afterbirth, caesarians and an udder full of milk

2009-08-08T23:19:00.003+01:00

It was a real eye opener up at the farm. Us city girls had never seen the likes. There was afterbirth and blood lying in the cowshed and the biggest udders you've ever seen on a cow. Ginormous!

There had also been an emergency caesarian been carried out on one of the younger cows (she was technically too young to have children but was eh, "hijacked", shall we say, by the bull) and you can her poor scars in the photo above.

A visit to the farm

2009-08-08T23:18:00.007+01:00

As soon as we arrived on Islay, Hilary drove us up to the farm as there was a chance that we would get to see a calf being born. I know. We were all giddy considering it and couldn't wait to get up there. It was also really nice to see Hilary's mum and dad as they were over visiting from France and staying up at the farm. Unfortunately, there wasn't any cow-in-labour action but we did see some fresh day old calves. Awwww. And some REALLY full udders. Also, Hilary said that the calves really like to suck on your finger but I think she enjoyed it more than them to be honest.....

Picnics and barbies

2009-05-15T20:21:00.005+01:00

It was a bit windy, but we still managed to have a picnic in the sun after the horse riding. It wasn't the warmest though, so after our lovely lunch it was back in to finish our skirts.

Burgers and sweetcorn on the barbie for dinner was the business. Sunny days are the best. If only we knew in advance when they would be.

Can you feel the heat?

2009-05-15T20:16:00.003+01:00

Around about the time that Tinker was out catching prey, I took a video of the roaring fire. Yeah, okay I had had some wine by this stage but I wanted to remember how fantastic the fire was. I can totally feel the heat when I watch this.

Making Skirts - Part II

2009-05-15T19:57:00.004+01:00

It started to become clear that the bubble skirt was in danger of being too puffy. Erm. Crap. I went first on the 'bubbling'. Yeah, it was too puffy. It looked like a costume! I had to resize it, trim it, press the bejesus out of it and now it kind of has the semblance of a normal skirt about it. Kind of. I'm not sure if it will ever see daylight.

Hilary, wise woman that she is, decided to watch me make mine first, saw how ridiculous it looked and decided to restyle at the last minute. She chose a sensible, cute A-line number and ended up with a piece that she wore next day. Hmm, lucky her. BTW, mine has a patch at the bottom because I managed to rip it too.

My skirt may not have turned out the way I wanted, but we did have fun making them. The material and the elastic were really nice to work with.

Out chasin' burds

2009-05-15T19:47:00.005+01:00

On Monday night, Hilary and I were sitting having some wine, enjoying the coal fire when Tinker (I think) trots in from the back garden with a present.... We think he ate it. Except this leg which we found the next day. Nice.

Is this the worst toilet in Scotland?

2009-05-15T19:44:00.002+01:00

Seriously, I couldn't even bear to take a photo of the inside. I'd rather have went to the toilet in Trainspotting.

Cantering along the beach

2009-05-15T19:20:00.005+01:00

Thanks to boisterous Baxter, I had kinda lost my confidence when it came to riding. I just believed that all horses were there to take the mickey out of me. Along came Fiona.

A lovely Highland pony, Fiona went a long way to restoring my confidence in horse riding. I won't hesitate to ride her again. Gemma, our lead rider, was also a great help. She reassured me through the ride, I managed to get a picture of her, despite her protestations!

Hilary took up the rear on Rhu, Fiona's son in fact.

The ride wasn't the most exhilirating I've ever had, mostly walking, but the two canters were great. The first was a great flat run on the beach and the second was a bit more terrifying, on the grass and a blind summit; I had to rely on Fiona knowing when to stop and doing so on time. The champion girl that she is, she brought it back to a walk at the right time.

Back at the farm, Hilary was reunited with her old pony, Amy, who is now in retirement. It was nice to know that she was happy with her pals and that she had been a good lead horse in her day.

We had to walk up a wee path to get to the farm and the ponies were just strolling around. We were going to stop for a picnic after the ride, but while it was sunny, it was well windy so we just headed back to the house for a garden picnic instead.

Making Skirts - Part I

2009-05-15T19:07:00.003+01:00

I had brought my overlocker and sewing machine, some material, some 2" rainbow elastic and a vague idea that we could make cute bubble skirts for summer. Hmm. You can see the final results later, but suffice to say, we had good intentions while we were measuring, cutting and overlocking our pieces. We left the house around 1pm to go to the horses.

Our skirts would have to wait for now.

Dinky Tink and Longhaired Tibbs

2009-05-14T15:22:00.004+01:00

I can't tell the difference between Hilary's cats. At least I couldn't. After many, many mistakes I have now worked out a foolproof way of telling them apart. Tinker is dinkier. Tibbs has longer hair. T-i-b-b = l-o-n-g.

They are gorgeous cats. Hence the many photos. Hilary says that when Tinker is sleeping by the window, passing folk stop and take her photograph.

Arriving, then feeding lambs

2009-05-14T14:55:00.007+01:00

Being a lady of leisure these days, I went back up to idyllic Islay to visit Hilary again. I brought both my sewing machines, some material and my jodpurs. It was promising to be an exciting few days.

After a looooong journey (don't ask), we stopped off at a farm on the way back from the ferry port to pick up a tractor part or something and when we got there, it was feeding time for the lambs. The lady feeding them let us lift them up and even feed them ourselves. It was ace. I was so excited. I just wanted to take mine home. He was a tiny black and white guy with a lame leg, it would have been quite easy to sneak him up my jumper....

How could I forget the big coal fire!

2009-05-07T15:03:00.002+01:00

Everyone loves a big coal fire. Trouble was we couldn't get ours lit. After a box of firelighters and a little bit (lot) of vegetable oil, we had roaring flames. It's the best kind of heat. Gives everyone a rosy glow.

The journey home

2009-05-07T14:47:00.003+01:00

A somewhat more subdued Nicola and Michelle on the ferry on the way back. Some nice chat, tea and muffins. Mmmm. We were so in love with the Islay Ales, we bought a gift pack of 3 each. Under the guise of a present for Gregor and Jason, it was really just a chance for us to have some more ale.

I felt a little queasy on the bus but felt improved come Inverary. Our seats on the bus reclined right back. Here's Michelle and I reclining and finding it hilarious. Where were these seats on the nightbus up from London?

Pub lunch next door

2009-05-07T14:42:00.002+01:00

More ale, some predictable Scottish hospitality and pub grub. Hilary's back garden is just next door. We wanted to eat outside but it attracted seagulls. Good thing too, as it started bucketing the minute we sat down in the conservatory. We would have got soaked. True to Scottish form, it only lasted 15 minutes and the sun came back out.

What are we dancing to?

2009-05-07T14:36:00.002+01:00

Gregor, can you help here? You and I seem to be dancing the same way. I can't believe that it's the Birdie Song. Jason reckons it must be the Five Aces. I just don't know.

The detectives among you should spot at least a dozen of our pals in this photo.

The Morning After

2009-05-07T14:22:00.002+01:00

Despite waking up at the back of nine, none of us had hangovers. Splendid, especially as the weather was lovely and sunny. A bit blustery, good for blowing the cobwebs away. Michelle and I took our coffee out to the back garden. Yip, that's Hilary's view. A beautiful back garden and the beach behind that wall. So idyllic. So different from my own motorway view. Islay is such a combatant of stress. It's almost impossible to focus on anything other than your peaceful surroundings.

Kisses for Michelle

2009-05-07T14:11:00.003+01:00

Awwww. We were pretty wined up at this stage!

Cats, cats, wine and more cats

2009-05-07T14:00:00.003+01:00

Tinker and Tibbs.

They look like identical twins to me but Hilary insists that they are completely different.

You be the judge. Actually, I may have only taken pictures of one of them, I'd need to ask Hilary...

It may have been the wine but I was mesmerised by them. It was like telly; they were that hypnotic. Any time one of them came near me, I was desperate to cuddle them. I can't wait until we get our own wee kittens in the summer.

Festive & Nerabus Ale - yummo!

2009-05-07T13:38:00.001+01:00

Islay House Square, Bridgend is in the woods and has a home-made chocolate shop, a micro-brewery http://www.islayales.com/, a photography studio, a cafe and a fabric shop (I could have spent all day in there, actually I got some lovely fabric!)

We bought a wee ale each; Hils and I went for the cinnamony-gingery-Christmasy Festive Ale and Michelle went for the Nerabus. They were scrummy. It was so nice to walk through the woods sipping on ale. Such a change from Glasgow streets. We couldn't have done it were it not for the temperate weather. Wouldn't have been the same in the rain!

Bluebells in Bridgend Wood

2009-05-07T13:16:00.001+01:00

Hilary suggesed that we go out for a walk as soon as we arrived. It was a great idea, as we had been sitting down for about 6 hours so it was good to stretch our legs.

Hilary loaned me some wellies and off we trotted for a stroll around Bridgend Wood.

The bluebells were out in force and they were beautiful. A purple blanket on the ground.

We set the camera up for a few shots. It kinda worked.

Petrol Station

2009-05-07T13:08:00.000+01:00

Two pumps at a dyke wall next to a Spar. Seriously.

Getting there

2009-05-07T12:19:00.001+01:00

You could feasibly travel to here http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/14/60/12/parthenon-remains-athens.jpg or here http://www.worldexecutive.com/cityguides/pics/new_york/new_york_1.jpg in the length of time that it takes to get to the lovely Isle of Islay. It's truly worth it though; Islay has a Postman Pat type of charm. No Starbucks or Macdonalds in sight.

Here's the ferry that takes you from Kennacraig to Islay. Driving passsed both my flat and Michelle's, it would have been nice if the bus from Glasgow to Kennacraig had made house calls, but no, you have to get it at Buchanan Bus Station. Fair dos.

Kennacraig is really just a hut and a concrete path that takes you onto the ferry.

We had doubts about the weather because I had been checking all week and the forecast was rain, rain, rain. However, it was sunny and blustery as we sat on the deck with a wee cup of Stella Artois.

A lovely start to our trip.