Island Blether

Events on Gigha

Friday 15th January saw the first competition of the newly formed society “Gigha Leek Union of Growers” { G.L.U.G}. Alastair Barge, of Gigha Halibut fame and outgoing president of GLUG got the proceedings off with a very witty speech in which he suggested this competition was so big that phone lines had to close early, before introducing the chief judge, well the only judge, John Earnshaw of Achamore farm. John admitted he had never grown leeks in his life, and knew next to nothing about them, so we knew we were in for a spot of unbiased judging. After much deliberation John chose this year’s winning leek which was grown by Keith Helm. Keith received a magnificent trophy made and given by Henri Macaulay of Gigha Gallery. The evening was rounded off with soup, and then large portions of Halibut and chips, the Halibut being donated by Gigha Halibut fish farm, the supper was prepared by the hotel, which as usual was of the highest standard. The GLUG committee and its new president, Rob Wilkieson are expecting a big increase in membership for next year’s competition. The staff and pupils of the school held a soup and filled rolls lunch on Wednesday in aid of the Haiti earthquake disaster, there were also a home baking table, this always proves popular with the locals, as well as a raffle, with prizes donated by the Heritage trust and again by the good folk on Gigha. The grand total raised was £816.32 which went to Marys Meals The Croft is finished, we have decorated just waiting for the word when we can move back, always the same with the council and the building inspector, who issue the building warrant, and they will not get their finger out. We are getting the garden back to how it was before the builders moved in, all builders seem to have the same code, leave the site like a battle ground.

This week-end

The kids are back at school after a week long holiday, does not seen that long since they went back from the summer break. This holiday that they have just had is I’m told called a tattie holiday, aberrantly it goes’ back years when the kids were taken out of school to help with the lifting of the potatoes’. I seem to remember when we were at school, and we had our six week holiday in August that was part of the harvest gathering Tonight is the kids parade for Halloween, its always good to see the many different costumes the parents come up with, it’s the judge I feel sorry for when they do not pick the one everybody else think should have won. This year’s judge is a French man who is working on the Island for two years, after tonight he may leave early, only kidding. We have the treats ready for tomorrow night when we expect the geysers to give us a visit, trouble is if we do not get rid of the treats I eat them, and as you can well imagine they are really rubbish sweets, no wonder my teeth are falling out. All the boats are out of the water, good job we got them in when we did as more gales are forecast for this week-end.

Summer has gone

The brackens are turning a golden rust, the leaves arte fallen. The first signs that autumn are once again with us, if we needed reminding which we did not, it was on Saturday the first Atlantic gale came in, force 9 to 10 so we had no ferry, visitors could not get away until Sunday, a group of footballers from Kent, who come to Gigha every year had to stay on the mainland, but I’m sure they enjoyed there selves, I know they did on the Sunday night in the hotel where the local musicians played Scottish traditional music. Must get the boat in this coming week-end, just waiting for Kenny who has a four track vehicle to be able to haul it up. Our Croft, which is being refurbish is all most finished, just hope there are no last minute snags that could delay us moving back to our lovely Croft. Keill cottage where we are now is nice enough, but not like our Croft, we are so on our own at the Croft and I know Mac our cat will love it when he is back, a couple of times when we first moved to Keill he went walkabout, we found him at the Croft. So at the end of this month the clocks go back, lighter mornings but darker afternoons, just got to get use to it, we have done it all before, so no worries there. From our kitchen window at Keill we can see N. Ireland, Islay, and Jura, after that it’s America. Just had a quick look and the tide is ebbing, so I’m away to gather my tea of Mussels, and Whelks.

A Good Weekend

We had a brilliant time this week-end on the Island. On Friday night the hall committee organised a two course supper followed by music from a local band. The supper consisted of local fish, Scallops, Salmon, and Halerbert, along with local green salad, and the usual fill me ups. As with all our nights out we did not last to the end, well when you are talking 5am, I’m thinking about getting up at that time. The event made a staggering £800.00 profit. On Saturday afternoon we had the church fete, this year because of the uncertainty of the weather we had the fete in the hall. I did my Wheel of fortune. In just two hours we made £760.00 the folk of Gigha are so supportive of anything that is going on, the next thing will be Christmas.

Norwich Again

I knew I should not have watched Norwich on the box last night, as I have said before every time do I have keek do they lose. Sunderlands winger must have thought it was his birthday, the amount of space he had to play in, and score his goals. Still it was nice to see that the Norwich players did not have their little Yellow and Green gloves on that I presume Delia knitted for them, must have been the hot weather.

Summer Ending ?

Looking at the weather charts you have been bathing in hot sunshine for the past few days, where we have had a bad spell of wet and windy weather. We can see what the day is going to be as we look from our kitchen window towards Islay and Jura, and beyond to Northern Ireland and then way out in to Atlantic. We have had a good year, that is as I say till the last week or so, the visitors are still coming over, last Thursday the ferry had to call for an additional crew member as there were over a hundred people wanting to come to Gigha on the 12 o’clock sailing and according to board of trade regulations you cannot drowned more than 70 folk without there being a extra grew member on board. Next Saturday is the Kirk summer fete, as last year I am on the wheel of fortune , last year I took my ipod and played Kay Star singing what else but Wheel of Fortune, BT will remember as I think he said he has songs of Kay Star. Only trouble the young folk don’t know who she is. The Mackerel fishing is still very good, last week I took a dad and his two young sons out for a couple of hours fishing, they really enjoyed the trip out, the older boy was desperate to see a Dogfish when we lifted the Creels and hauled in a dozen that put the icing on the day out. A 21st birthday bbq was held on the twin beaches yesterday afternoon, I’m afraid this kind of activity is not for us older folk, as soon as I saw beach games that was it, besides these younger folk do not know when to stop, as long as they are enjoying themselves and cause no trouble that’s fine.

All Good things on Gigha

It’s a lovely sunny day on Gigha, and the weather has been the same for the past two months, just the occasional shower at night, but we are forecast to get heavy rain tomorrow morning. Today we have our annual raft race, this is always good fun, and brings in funds for the gardens. The starting point for the race is from the beach at the Boathouse bar, this beach is across the bay from where the ferry leaves, the idea is when the ferry leaves at 3-30pm the skipper gives a tote on the whistle for the off, but in the past there has always been one smart Alex who go’s that fraction early. I WOULD SEND PHOTOS, BUT I HAVE NOT HEARD FROM THE WEB TEAM WHO I EMAILED FOR DEATAILS HOW TO GO ABOUT IT, PERHAPS THEY ARE ALL ON HOLIDAY.

The recession has not hit us as far as the tourist trade is concerned, it seems that more folk are have holidays in this country. After the raft race there is a BBQ and then a disco in the hall tonight that will go on until the wee small hours, or whoever is still standing. Tomorrow afternoon there will be a open air service on the Ministers beach, just hymns I’m not intending going to that, especially if it rains, I’ll stay in and watch the F1 race on TV that’s as good a excuse as ever. O by the way other years I was always asked to be safety boat, they don’t ask me know since they found out my great Grandfather was safety officer on the Titanic.

Summer on the Island

The renovation of our Croft is coming along very well, the old kitchen and bathroom have been replaced by bigger and modern facilities, the old roof has been replaced, it was slates we had before, and they must have been there for years. As it’s a building site we are not suppose go there at all, but we do have a little sneak look over the week-end when the builders are not around. Hopefully we might be back before Christmas, were we are at Keill is nice, a property that has been renovated, but it’s not as secluded as the Croft.

We have our music festival this week-end, in the past we held it in September this year as it’s home coming for Scotland it was decided to move the festival to June, good move according to the weather we are having at the moment, wall to wall sunshine, we were promised a good summer, and up to now we have not been disappointed. In the next week or so the Mackerel should be in, I really enjoy fishing for the Mackerel, not only are they good bait, but the old folk love to be given some for their meal, most bake them in newspaper, the old way, I like mine filleted coated in oatmeal and then fried.

This year we are seeing more and more visitors to the Island, it seems more and more folk are staying in this country for their holidays, which is a good thing for us. I will give a rundown of the music festival, and how it all went next time. That is if I last the four days, must limit the drinking and eating.

I'm Still About

You would think flitting half a mile would not prove a problem, not in our case. When I knew the date we were moving I informed BT so they would move our telephone and broadband, on the day we moved the phone was reconnected but not the broadband, apparently someone in India had decided we had moved to another exchange. Now you try telling these folk this is not the case, as my dear mother would say, it’s like talking to the stones in the street. But at last after many phone calls and threats I have got broadband back.

Just when we thought nothing else can go wrong we discovered the electric company had put in the wrong meter, that took four weeks to sort out, we are up and running now.

Our Croft which is being renovated is coming along fine, we hope to be back before Christmas, it’s a nice place we are in at the moment, but we love out Croft, there we are on our own, here we have folk walking by, mainly tourists. We had a great week in April when we came and stayed in a riverside cottage in Wroxham. Rona and Hamish our very good friends came with us, it was their first time visited to Norfolk and they did enjoy the whole experience. The weather helped sunshine all week. Aud and I done things that we would not normally do, like a train ride from Wroxham to Cromer, a boat trip on Broadstours, Hamish wanted a day boat out, but at £14 an hour, I don’t think so. We also had a day in Norwich, must say how clean the city is, and something else we did that I have never done before, park and ride, we had to do that as I would not have wanted to try parking in the city, would not have known were to park anyway, so many changes. Will keep you up with Island life very soon.

The Flitting

Been very busy for the past three weeks decorating Keill cottage, that’s the place we are moving in to while our Croft, is renovated, when I say decorating I have left that to Aud and her sister Chris. I just set them up every morning make sure they know what is to be done, in other words I’m the gaffer. The building inspector came over yesterday, so all we have to do now is wait to see if everything is ok. It seems that all must be done by the book. Now we have got this far we can’t wait to get moving The next job when this house moving is over, is to get the boat painted, a friend in Norwich once asked, what do we find to do on a remote Island, my reply was, apart from a bit of sheep molesting in the winter, there is all ways something to do.

So when we get the go ahead I will be like a space ship when it is round the back of the moon, no telephone no computer until BT decide to come over and move our number and broadband, however I hope that they don’t take that long, they are usually good it that way. The weather has now gone very mild, spring is in the air, the Daffs, and Snowdrops are out, the banks along the road, and in our garden are mass off yellow and white, makes you feel that much better after the cold spell we did not get any snow, just cold east winds, which I don’t mind at all, better than the rain. I will be back as soon as we get connected again. I suppose I will have to take charge when it comes to the moving.

More wind than at NC football club

It’s a bright and breezy day so far hear on Gigha. At the moment the wind is blowing force 4to5 but we are braising our self’s for the hurricane winds that have been forecast for tonight. Aud and I have been down to the shore to put extra ropes and anchors on the boat, that’s six, hope that’s enough. We are still waiting to hear when we can flit , our Croft is next for refurbishing, so we will be flitting to the West side of the Island while the work is carried out, could be at the new place for a year or more all depends on how the builders move their bums.

The photo shows the view we get from the kitchen of the new home. This will follow later, having trouble with the site, must be the weather.

Sunrise

One I painted this morning.

The Logs

Is there enough logs to last

Greetings from Gigha

We send you greetings for Christmas and the new year from the Isle of Gigha.[Nollaig cridheil agus Bliadhna] Merry Christmas and Happy new Year. The logs are in for a good fire, the [uisge beathe] Whisky is ready to be opened. What could be better?

A Big Frost

Saturday we had a really heavy frost as we have had for the past three or four days, by lunch time the sun was shining and very warm, so Aud and I drove to the gates of the lodge and then walked the two miles to the South Pier. I know I go on a lot about the peace of our Island, but yesterday was just sublime, there was not a breath of wind, even the dancing ladies were still. When we reached the pier all you could hear was the geese on the farm land and the gulls on the shore. From the south pier you can see the Islands of Cara and Gigulum, and if you look west the Islands of Islay, and Jura with its paps covered in snow. Next time I will take the camera, just wish I could record the peace. We are having lunch at the hotel today, a little treat for Aud I will just have to miss the first half of the Norwich game, they never win any way when I watch them.