National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #30

 This is the final entry for the National Blog Posting Month 2022. It has been fun, and I think I managed a good variety of postings. I hope you enjoyed it. I may try to continue to post every day, if I can. 

Meanwhile, November 30th is St Andrew's Day, the patron saint of railway level crossings, Scotland and a few other places besides. I am being slightly tongue-in-cheek because of the current debate in Scotland on the subject of independence. A generation is something that spans a couple of weeks in the political party that is obsessed with independence for Scotland, to the detriment of all other responsibilities of government. Our members of parliament, both of SNP hue, both excel in either absence or fatuous uselessness. The disaster that is our ferry service has been contributed to by a breathtaking example of the above shift in the taking of responsibility. Two ferries were ordered to be built in 2015, for delivery in 2018. The order was granted to a yard in Port Glasgow, which is still building the wretched vessels, due for delivery in 2024. Ferguson's were granted the order because they were Scottish. Not on account of technical or financial suitability, on account of which the yard should never have been awarded the contract.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #29

This is a parsnip cake I baked today. The finished product comes with a citrus icing and is absolutely yummy. I post the recipe for those intrepidly minded

Parsnip and walnut cake
175 g  plain flour
5 g baking powder
5 g bicarbonate of soda
5 g ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
175 ml sunflower oil
175 g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175 g grated raw parsnip
60 g chopped walnuts
80 g sultanas
zest of one lemon

Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt together.
Place the oil and sugar in a large bowl, beat with an electric whisk then add the eggs one at a time until all are combined.
Fold in the dry ingredients, then the parsnip, the walnuts, the sultanas and the lemon zest.
Grease and flour a 25 cm diameter cake tin, pour in the mixture and cook in the over at 180C / gas mark 4 for 35 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 170C / gas mark 3 and cook for another 30 minutes.
It may be necessary to cover the tin with baking paper if it appears to be cooking too fast
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then remove from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Citrus icing
100 g unsalted butter at room temperature
175 g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
juice of half a lemon
25 ml milk

Place the butter and icing sugar in a bowl and cream together, then add the zests and lemon juice.
Add the milk until you achieve a spreadable consistency, then spread evenly over the cooled parsnip and walnut cake.

Modified 18 June 2020

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #28

Just want to post this image of sunset this afternoon. The sun sets at 3.45pm; this was about half an hour earlier.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #27

Over on the continent, there is a tradition surrounding St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors and children. In the Netherlands, the Bishop of Myra (modern day Smyrna in Turkey) arrives by steamboat from Spain, riding a white charger and accompanied by black-faced serfs, also known as Black Peters. They scatter candy and presents. St Nicholas is rumoured to ride the apexes of the roofs, dropping presents down chimneys. In turn, he collects a carrot for the horse, that children leave out in their shoe, set by the fireplace. Black Peter reputedly descends the chimney to leave the present and collect the carrot. Children who have been bad are warned that they will be carried back to Spain and given the rod, as carried by Black Peter. 

The historical background is slightly warped; as I wrote, St Nicholas lived and died in Myra. After his death, and upon the advent of Islam, his bones were disinterred and spirited across the Mediterranean to Spain. At the time, Spain was occupied by the Moors, a dark-skinned people from North Africa. 

This was an innocent tradition when I was a child, and once at a certain age, you were told that St Nicholas and Black Peter was a fable, a bit of fun and a foil for giving presents to each other. You'd be asked to draw a name from a hat and obtain a present for the person concerned. This would be accompanied by a poem, usually in inexecrable rhyme, highlighting the recipient's misdeeds and misfortunes of the year gone by. 

Over the last few years it has become increasingly tainted, and I am now of the opinion that it should be abolished altogether. The reason is that people no longer see that it's just a bit of fun, and is not discriminatory against people with dark skin, or favouring slavery or serfdom. There are protest movements, rallies that turn violent and groups travelling across the country to stop the Grand Entrance of Sinterklaas. 

It is bad enough that Santa Claus (St Nicholas' alter ego) has crept into the commercial side of December in the Netherlands. But violent protests debase the concept of it being a bit of fun for the children. That's the tradition killed off, in the name of political correctness.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #26

 Just to share some piccies I took round Stornoway on Friday evening. 

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #25

 The Football World Cup is in full swing, and so is all the political fall-out. Whether it be those who prefer something different to a heterosexual relationship (isn't that a personal choice?), problems on the home front or just regional or national rivalries. 

The host nation, Qatar, is an odd choice, as it does not have a footballing history. However, money talks. Pity more of that money was not spent on the safety of those working on all the construction projects since the championships were awarded to the country - thousands have reportedly died. 

I am keeping half an eye on the results, I don't watch any matches. No, thank you.

Seasonal cheer

Today's Stornoway Gazette is required reading should one need a bit of cheering up this week. I summarise.

A recently elected member of the health board has visited the islands all of two times. He perambulates between Newcastle and Aberdeen, and of choice hangs a left at Perth to visit Stornoway.

The population in the Lewis district of Uig has been without EE broadband for weeks, in spite of technical teams having been in situ for the same amount time. Maybe they are prefixing the name of the company with the letter T. 

Calmac does not seem to wish to have island residents on its board, as it goes out of its way not to publish vacancies, leaving it for current members to inform their cronies of any such vacancies.

The workers in the Ferguson shipyard at Port Glasgow are ashamed to tell anyone they work there, following the 6-year delay in the delivery of two ferry ships. The reasons for that make very interesting reading, and could yet involve the Police.

The two surgeons in the Western Isles Hospital are quitting at the end of the year, leaving their positions to be filled by locums - which are very expensive.

Meanwhile, our MP is asking questions of the PM to which he already knows the answer - only to be able to flaunt his independence mantra, and get his face on the telly.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #24

Today is Thanksgiving in the island of Lewis. Our Thanksgiving has nothing in common with the American Thanksgiving, other than the name. Here, people give thanks for the riches of the land that were harvested this year. It is not dissimilar to the English harvest festival, which takes place in September. Our climate being what it is, harvest is brought in later in the Hebrides.

When I first arrived in Lewis, shops shut at lunchtime, children were off school for the day and people would attend church for La na Ceistean - the Day of Questions, from the catechism. Nowadays, life proceeds as normal. Except this year, the kids are off school - but this time because the teachers are on strike. 

Thanksgiving is not known in the United Kingdom outwith this island (other than the American version), but the following day is. Adverts have been bombarding us with Black Friday deals. When BF first reared its ugly head, a few years ago, it lead to fights in shops. 

Anyway, whichever way you observe Thanksgiving, have a good day.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #23

A momentous day in the constitutional affairs of Scotland: the UK Supreme Court has refused to allow the Scottish Parliament the powers to organise a referendum for independence. The issue has been festering for the past eight years, after the previous plebescite returned a 55-45 no vote. The party in power in Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP), has vowed to continue its machinations to achieve independence, by whichever legal means. I call it a neverendum. Unless they are removed from power, they will never give up. You'll appreciate that I am not in favour - the economic case for independence does not stack up, and in the current international climate (war in Ukraine) it's better to be united rather than go it alone.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #22

November has its different faces, and today saw it sunny and bright, with just the odd light shower. In between everything else, I'm looking across the harbour to the construction works on Glumag Harbour. A deepwater port is under construction there, with much of it being carved out of the hillside with diggers and explosives. I believe it is due for completion next year. The other day, I looked across after dark, and could only discern the lights of the diggers, reflected in the waters of the harbour. 

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #21

Came across an interesting discussion on Twitter today. Recently, ferry services to both Shetland and the Hebrides have been severely disrupted because of weather, leading to empty shelves in supermarkets. 

A Green councillor in Shetland has mooted the idea that we revert back to supplying shops from local producers, as regards vegetables, dairy products and bread - to name but a few items. Shetland had several days of no supplies - we only had one. 

Are we, consumers in Stornoway and beyond, prepared to revert back to the limited range and supplies of the era that existed before the likes of Tesco and the Co-op came on the scene here, about 40 years ago. Older islanders will be familiar with the idea, which saw many small shops supplying the town and villages in Lewis and Harris. Do we want to go back to that? Should small-scale producers of vegetables and milk be encouraged again? Are we prepared to put with the limited range of products that will be available, should we decide to forego the services of the big supermarket chains? 

My hunch is that we are all only too used to the lovely ranges and ease-of-use foods that Tesco et al supply. Whilst being all in favour of encouraging local small producers, and perhaps setting up chains of shops around the island, I do not expect that people would be happy to be weaned off St Tesco and Co-op.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #20

  Wargraves in Sandwick Cemetery

Friendly cat at Sandwick

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #19

 In our winter season, we get gales on a regular basis. Some stand out, such as the one that occurred on 11th November 2005. November 11th is the nameday for St Martin, which is why I named that gale the St Martin's Storm. A ferry nearly sank in the Minch, after it mistimed its departure from Ullapool. Here is the blog I wrote about it. https://stmartinsstorm2005.blogspot.com/

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #18

November is a dark month up here, with rapidly decreasing hours of daylight. At the moment, the sun sets at 4pm, after rising at 8.20am. We'll lose an hour and a half more in daylight before the solstice on December 21st. Today, we did not see the sun at all - it was wall-to-wall rain, but not that much wind. Better than in Aberdeenshire, which saw over 6 inches (169 mm) of rain, leading to flooding. There was also a severe gale, localised to the coastline south of Aberdeen, because of a severe barometric pressure gradient. The weather will remain very changeable, as we transition towards winter. 

This image is a late November sunset from two years ago, taking along Springfield Road here in SY. 

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #17

I'm just posting a few photographs today, following on from yesterday's post. 

The subject is Loch Erisort, 12 miles south of Stornoway. 

The second photograph is of the Loch Erisort Inn, also known as the Cleitir Inn. I would sometimes nip in there for a coke, at the end of one of my interminable walks. One day, in December '04, I was offered a lift by some worthy locals from one of the villages up the road into South Lochs. At the time, the B8060 road was a windy-winding single-track affair (since double-tracked). My lift-givers had no hesitation to blast down it at 50 mph, tossing empty beercans out of the window as they went along. The 4 miles to Cearsiadar went by quick, very quick - I was grateful for the lift as it was dark. Ahem.  

The third picture shows the approach to Ravenspoint from the east - taken at sunset in January 2008, when I returned for a brief afternoon visit. The spell was gone... 

One story without a picture. The first house in the village of Balallan as you come in from Harris was home to a friend I have since lost - because they moved away under circumstances that are, again, known locally. I would meet the person on the bus into or out of town, or when out on a walk there. That's a long time ago now. I'll turn my gaze back to the present, and better still, the future.

Tempus fugit.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #16

I sometimes look back to the year I arrived in Lewis. On this day in 2004, my wanderings took me to Cearsiadar, a hamlet on the shores of Loch Erisort, 12 miles south of Stornoway. I came to stay in the Ravenspoint Centre, which provided accommodation. As the days shortened, the weather grew colder and stormier. It culminated in a violent storm, some two months later, which claimed five lives in Uist. I left Cearsiadar in February 2005, under circumstances that are known locally. It was the day I went to stay with a person who became a close friend, companion and confidant. I actually never left. She would sometimes say, with a haunted look on her face, that everybody always left her. She ended up leaving me, but that was nature's way, it had to be. 

I sometimes think of my weeks in Cearsiadar, the nights that the walls shook with winter gales. The nights that a flock of sheep ambled by Ravenspoint in the snow. My wanderings along the roads and moors of South Lochs, which enveloped me with a degree of warmth, comfort and familiarity that was not reflected in the actual temperature. I probably needed that at the time. But those were lonely weeks. When I go back there now, I have a completely different perspective.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #15

Every now and again, the sad reaches us that one of the island community has gone missing. Many times, they are found safe and well. On November 15th, a man from Grimsay, North Uist, was reported missing and a search was on-going. The other day, the Coastguard helicopter woke us up at 8 in the morning on a Sunday, scouring the coastline around Stornoway Bay. That search proved fruitful, and the missing person was happily returned home. I am also reminded of the German man who was sadly found deceased on a beach, a mile or two from the place where he was last seen alive. Cliffs lie between the former and the latter, and the inference is clear.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #14

 As I type this, the rain has once more started up. After a relatively benign morning, another weatherfront is moving in from the Atlantic. Looking back, I am reminded of a visit to Berneray in 1996. I was staying with Gloria MacKillop, who was married to Donald Alick, locally known as Splash. Splash was friendly with (then) Prince Charles, and told me in '96 that he loved staying in Berneray. Down there, folk treated him like one theirs, another crofter up for the summer, and not like high-ranking royalty. My memory of 1996 is dominated by It's a Knockout!, a water-based steeple chase. The tenth stage nearly drowned me. Afterwards, all participants could come to a tent for a cup of soup to warm up. Although it was 17C at the time, I was cold. I returned to Mrs MacKillop's, who was mortified to recognise her guest as the person that had been put through It's a Knockout! I am sad to record that Splash passed away in 2009. 

The beach pictured below is Berneray's West Beach, but some years ago was passed off as a beach at Phuket in Thailand. Bit nippy for Thailand!

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #13

Today was Remembrance Sunday here in the UK. King Charles III attended the national commemoration at the Cenotaph in London, for the first time as monarch. 

I did not attend the service at the War Memorial, but passed by it as part of my Sunday afternoon stroll. The 6 miles also took in the Waterwheel, Cross Street, Sand Street and the newly completed Sinclair Avenue estate. The weather was bright, sunny and very mild: 15C is not out of place on a summer's day. 

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #12

 
The shelves in our Tesco superstore were empty yesterday, empty of bread and fresh produce. The ferry was unable to sail, and all goods that we use in this island comes across the sea. I posted these innocent images with the caption "Tesco is an empire of empty shelves today", and the reaction was breathtaking in its excess. 

I do think it is indicative of the times we live in, with people stressing about the cost of living, political uncertainty, a war in Ukraine and - the uncertainty of supplies. The latter is nothing new, and when you live in an island that lies 50 miles offshore, at a latitude of 58 degrees north, this is what happens. 

The shelves are full again today.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #11

 On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the guns fell silent on the Western Front, out at sea and across other theatres of engagement of what was then known as the Great War. After millions had lost their lives in a conflict that had come to span the globe, hostilities came to an end. For just under twenty years. 

Seven weeks later, two hundred and one sailors returning home to the island of Lewis in Scotland were lost when their transport, His Majesty's Yacht Iolaire sank after hitting rocks just outside Stornoway. Of those lost, the bodies of more than sixty were never recovered. The island community, which had been celebrating the end of four years of war, which had claimed more than a thousand of their number, was cast into profound mourning. The echoes of that terrible loss can still be felt today. 

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them

Aig àm dol fodha na grèine agus anns a’ mhadainn
Bidh sinn gan cuimhneachadh

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #10

 It's been a thoroughly wet and quite windy day. Wind and rain have subsided a little as evening winds down towards midnight. No ferry service today, or tomorrow due to the strong winds. Tomorrow will be Armistice Day, and I'll blog about that separately. 

Eighteen years ago, I washed up on the shores of the Western Isles. At 4.45pm, just as darkness fell, I stepped off the MV Hebrides at Lochmaddy, and proceeded to a place I had booked for the night. It was closed, so I had to backtrack into the village and book into the hotel. I revisited Lochmaddy a couple of times, in 2009 and 2014 (passing through), in 2013 to meet a friend. 

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #09

It is 84 years ago since the Night of Broken Glass [Kristallnacht]. That night, an organised mob of Nazi forces and sympathisers went on the rampage in towns and cities across Germany, smashing and destroying Jewish-owned property and businesses. It was a foretaste of what was to come during World War II. The extermination of anyone deemed sub-human by the warped mind of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. Jews topped their league of the unfit, closely followed by gypsies, the mentally ill and many many others. The Reichskristallnacht was a night of infamy, and not just to Germany. Hitler had already been allowed to get away with murder for several years beforehand. In 1936, he occupied the Rhineland which had been ceded to France at the end of the First World War. The League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations, cried wolf but had no bite. On 12 March 1938, Nazi forces marched into Austria to join that country to Germany, an event referred to as the Anschluss. Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich to meet with Adolf Hitler on 30 September 1938, returning with the infamous phrase: "Peace for our time". Six weeks later, the Reichskristallnacht took place. Only a few months later, Germany invaded the Sudetenland area of Czecho-Slovakia, and again, nobody moved a finger to stop. In September 1939, Hitler thought he could get away with the invasion of Poland. But this time, it prompted a declaration of war, signalling the outbreak of the Second World War. The lights have gone out in Europe, it was said at the time. The lights in Europe had already been extinguished in 1914, and had not been relit, not even at the end of the First World War. The Versailles Peace Treaty of June 1919 contained all the ingredients for another war, which duly materialised.

After the unspeakable atrocities of the Second World War, Germany was divided into four by the victorious allies. The British, French and American sectors became West Germany, whilst the Soviet sector was turned into East Germany, a communist state. Berlin was similarly divided. Until 1961, people from the East fled to the West in droves. A barrier was erected across Berlin in August 1961, later replaced by a high, concrete wall. Similar barriers were put up along the borders between East and West Germany. Anyone trying to flee from East to West was shot on sight, no questions asked. The advent of Mikhail Gorbatchov as leader of the USSR in the 1980s heralded a start of change. And when this wind of change blew across eastern Europe, it blew away all the communist regimes within the space of a few months in 1989.

That event was never properly accepted by Vladimir Putin, then a KGB officer in Dresden, former East Germany. As president of the Russian Federation, he is wanting to make Russia great again, and reclaim empire, lost in 1989. He sought to annexe the whole of Ukraine by invasion in February this year, 2022. But resistance proved stiffer than he anticipated, and with the help of many nations, Putin's war of conquest has not achieved its objectives. This is an on-going event, claiming tens of thousands of lives, and wreaking untold devastation. Its eventual outcome is shrouded in the fog of the future. The past continues to echo, From as far back as that pistol shot in Sarajevo on 28th June 1914, which heralded the start of the Great War. The crippling reparations, visited upon Germany after the 1919 Armistice bled that country's economy white, and created a fertile breeding ground for the extreme ideologies espoused by Adolf Hitler.

The Berlin Wall was torn down on 9 November 1989, and you can see the dilemma. Do we remember the Kristallnacht, and not celebrate the reunification of Germany? Do we celebrate the reunification, and ignore the Night of Broken Glass? Maybe the two can be reconciled. The Berliners remember the Kristallnacht in a very low-key but poignant manner. Every year, in the evening of November 9th, candles are left on the doorsteps of houses that were ransacked that night.

The flame, burning at the top of this post, is my candle of remembrance for Kristallnacht.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #08

 
Five sculptures, depicting characters from the Gruffalo, a story by Julia Donaldson. I have asked for a sign to be installed to point to its presence.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #07

 On Sunday, I went into Lews Castle again. Whenever I happen by, I take the opportunity to pop in and have a look. The Castle is actually nothing more than a mansion, built in the middle of the 19th century. The funding was generated through the opium trade in China, with Sir James Matheson, baronet, at the heart of it. He even got to the British government to foment a war with China over the stuff. Opium is the base material from which all opioids, including morphine and codeine are extracted. Heroin is a synthetic form of morphine, with two acetyl groups hitched onto the molecule. 

The Castle was last owned privately by Lord Leverhulme, who died in 1925. He left it to the community, which eventually turned it into a college. After it fell into disrepair in the 1970s and 80s, the college moved to a new building next door, and the Castle slowly mouldered away. If it had not been for the refurbishment of 2015, it would have collapsed. As it was, Lews Castle was lovingly restored and the results never cease to amaze me. 

When one of my friends attended its reopening, on 16 July 2016, she burst into tears upon seeing the ornate entrance hall, the magnificent ballroom and the finery of the other staterooms. For all the riches and opulence displayed there, Sir James Matheson was laird over a population of desperately poor tenantry. In 1851, he organised for those that had fallen behind with their rent passage to Canada. They were appointed volunteers, if you catch my drift. Rather than help them with more land, Matheson bumped them off. 

By all means, visit Lews Castle. Have a cuppa in the Stonehouse Cafe. But spare a thought for the poor people that were subjected to its 19th century owner's whims.