Tea with Junior

Two weeks ago Junior was creating havoc on the croft as usual, muddying up the place and giving me the evil eye as I strolled down the village. Well, now, sadly he has gone to meet his butcher - who just happened to be his owner - via the slaughterhouse .

The butcher is learning his trade on the kitchen table and Mum looks on approvingly.

My Human walker

Here's Ghriet waiting or me to catch up and stop looking at the sea or meditating or whatever humans do. The snap is interesting in that the film was rather over-developed and scanned so it looked a bit like IR film. Still, I like it.

Sea Level rise

A piece on t'radio [ you know, the box with sound and not moving pictures] today got me thinking again about climate change and associated expected sea level rises and how that might affect the Western isles. I did a bit of digging around and found this mash-up of Google maps and NASA data that illustrates the effect of sea level rise. We are already expecting 1m sea level rise and if the greenland Ice shelf and the Antartic ice melts completely - that could ride to at least 25m
Anyway, see here for 1m rise in the Western Isles, here for 5m rise then turn down your central heating. Please.

Thanks to Bob Kingsley for the link.

Ghriet [the doggie]

Hardly Mike. [While Muriel keeps order]

Here it is; the coolest bike on the island:-) With the best dressed technician on-board.

Tapadh leibh

Birthday Chef - looking well fed-up!

A great w/e - snapping up, plotting the downfall of the Isle of Jura and gassing bout snaps. What more can one want. And The Warming Room [fka; The Scullery] is brill.
Took off to see Aonghas at the Anchorage restaurant in Leverburgh - famed for its fine food and great hospitality [and light area which was great for snapping up wif the 8x10 and paper negs]. Chef had his burfday so snapped him up [¡Feliz cumpleaños a tí! , ¡Feliz cumpleaños a tí! , ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ......! ,¡Feliz cumpleaños a tí! etc].

Also snapped up with the Kiev 60 [or it the 6c ? - who cares?] loaded with slide film which I developed in B&W print developer - as you do. Or, as I do! And Toots' Lubitel wif Panf in Rodinal not 5 mns from home at The Bridge to Nowhere.
Fun Eh???

Winters Tail

Sea 2

Time for the Hassie down at Garry beach on a small headland watching the waves roll in and out - a sort of mediation for me.

The Sea

Captured with love by a box with two lens' made in Russia on old German film developed in print developer and printed on Czech paper.

Winter Parlour

Eve & I decided that the time had come to bring in Rowston & Rowlston to knock the partition wall between the winter parlour and the kitchen down and today the deed was done. Now we have a big Winter Kitchen! Here captured on old Perutz film developed in print developer exposed in the Toots Lubitel which has a surprisingly sharp lens thing. Eh? Russians, who'ed av em :-)

As you can see we have gone rather up-market.

BTW: I notice Mr Windy has been a commenting. Av a look at his blog here

We had a visitation today. Totally unexpected but very pleasant all the same. Not long after returning from walking Ghriet on the road t'nowhere and previously, a fine 'brunch' [do we do brunch here???] wif the Smits, Toots Wilson and the Coelyns arrived. Great excuse for tea and biscuits and a chatette.

This was the second rather unexpected meeting this week since the local MP got to meet me whislt on my morning sunshine-bathed stroll in the week. Nice chap too - and he didn't do too bad at the difficult questions I asked him either. More of that another time - although I'm awaiting to hear his comments on the paper about Sustainable Economics I sent him.

Anyway, the snap shows Toots planning his next gig in the cafe at An Lanntair

Here we go.....

Loaded some out of date Agfa CHROME into the old KIEV 60, shot the whole roll within an hour in Stornoway on Sea, developed it in Print developer for 2 mins30 then printed as Lith on Foma Varient RC.

Well,

Home sky

... I've been having [yet] another crisis of photographic confidence - rubbish results, terrible prints etc. As usual, I turned to my good pals on Filmwasters.com [i say 'pals' but to my knowledge I have only met one of them - they just seem pally sort of people and if you don't believe me, have a look for yourself.] and they soon came with many suggestions for freeing up the creative juices and it didn't take me long to selct one of them to try.
Today - when all seemed much better in the world anyway - I shot hither and thither on my various little outings in the great metropolis that is the Tolsta Head area of the Isle of Lewis & Harris. And I really enjoyed it too.

William's

I work as it happens; proper work but only part-time and William is the chap with whom I sometimes work . He lives in a lovely part of the island and a visitation is always worthwhile - not least for the tea :-) The last visit was as lovely as always and included a fine stroll round the back of their village - Cromor. Must go back on a better/dry/less-windy day with the KOWA or Hassie. I did have the little Zorki with me tho and here's three snaps from that day.

Its Friday

... and as yet I've yet to post anything and I know the Coelyns will be looking so I have post summut.

I suppose I should be pleased that at least two people look at the blimin thing but it does rather put pressure on one to come up with a snap and drivel to match. Its bad enough that the weather has been awful and the dustbins have had to be tied down to prevent them beccoming airborne and then floating off across The Minch. Its bad enough that the fire has had to be lit, the peats brought in and The Visitor had to take his jacket off and move back against the wall before he spontaneously combusted. Eh?

Talking of which, The Visitor took The Table to revision it to a more manageable size that will fit the Winter Parlour which is soon to be joined at the hip with the Kitchen after the removal of The Wall. I see dust. However, I can swing a rabbit in the Summer Parlour - if only Count Wiesmier would let me!

Anyway, the snap; a generic builders pose from the Velodrome in Manchester. The hole is gone and beneath it is a bloke in a bowler hat :-)

Aly & Phil

“Look here Aly, what we gong to do about this thing here?” gestured Mr Cunningham wrinkling his nose at the grey looking congealed gift sitting yet again on the dressing room table. “Surely it’s your turn to get rid of it this year?” retorted a noticeably put out fiddler.
“Isn’t it about time we told them we can’t stand the sight of the Guga let alone the smell or taste. I mean, its not exactly Gravadlax is it?”.
“I know, I know but I think it might come best from you Ally” suggested the pretty one, “you being an islander and everything. They’ll hardly take it from a mainlander eh? Anyway, we should come earlier in the year when they have not brought the blimin things back. That would make life a bit easier”.
“Oh brilliant, shall we just rub out the last 44 days then? Eh?” said Mr Bain, now in a petulant mood after coming dangerously near the dead beast on the plate and spinning round almost flattening his fiddle in the process.


GENTLEMEN, YOUR AUDIENCE AWAITS

“Oh bugger, I’m not going out till we sort this”.
“Nor me; hrumph.”
….
….
“Have you seen it out there ? It looks like a mass séance”

Right!!!; on Lewis?? You have got to be kidding!”

“Mmm, good point. Ok, here’s what we do; whoever plays the fastest tonight tells them to stuff their Guga.”

“You’re on. Come on, lets get on before they conjure up the beyond”.

Such was the behind the scene goings on at the recent Bain and Cunningham extravaganza at An Lanntair as the audience waited patiently in the dark. Still, it was worth it when the eventually did come on a the music was terrific and the stories well remembered. I await my source to tell me the outcome of this little tryst!


Oh, and todays snap was taken wif a Contaflex SLR of a certain vintage and loaned to me by The Coelyns - for which many thanks.

BTW; I came across this the other day so, if you want to learn Gealic see here.
and listen to this.

Finishing the roll of film

You know what its like you get near the end of a roll of film - 12 exposures in the case and 10 have been exposed - and you are desperate to develop the thing. Only, because I'm a cheapskate I cannot bring myself to waste the last two shots. So, on the way to see William and Gemma I spy this place where I carefully compose and shoot. Was it worth it??

Walkies

Going for a walk

I've taken on the task of walking a doggie during the week. The doggies name is something like 'Friet' but that's not how you spell or probably pronounce her name. Luckily this is one well behaved doggie so walkies is a real pleasure and this morning was no exception along one of the local beaches. The weather was typical of this place - one moment howling winds and rain and the next warm sunshine.

Port Nis

Of course I took a camera and finished up the film in my old Kiev rangefinder. The walkies picture was he last on the roll and further on in the roll I found this gem - from Port Nis. Might even get in the darkroom for this one .

Even further on the roll I came across this Cartier-Bresson inspired shot taken in Clifton Bristol just adjacent to the place where the recently departed Keith Floyd had a restaurant and I had a flat above. Floyds resturant even sponsored the club for a while!

Aara

Katya Kabanova

Katya Kabanova

By Murdo Janacek

I was pleasantly surprised by this offering of the Scottish Operas at the intimate An Lanntair theatre in downtown Stornoway. I’m not a regular opera goer although I seen a few so I thought I’d go along with my Eve.

Based as it seemed on a modern Hebridean saga of love and infidelity it opens even before it commences with an ex-customer of one of the many ale houses in Kalinovshader sleeping off his tiring imbibing under a copy of the Stornoway Star whilst a tourist ignores him and continues to look for Sammy the Seal in the harbour. A dramatic pianist then swept airily into the auditorium and began to tinkle the ivories beautifully although it was rather unfortunate that he seemed to have a cloud of midges round him that he flapped at from time to time. Still, I was hooked.

The tale unfolded apace with much singing at high volume about love and emotion and so greatly was I moved I can’t actually recall the plot in toto. Suffice to say that a lady was unhappy with her husband – and who can blame her since his mother was a nightmare – and any amount of delicate and lovely singing would not have endeared me to her. In fact, the daughter-law in question got so worked up about it with her friend – or it might have been her sister [being a cheapskate I didn’t have the programme] they had to have a cup of tea – with additives.

Anyway, then the husband goes off for a day or two – business perhaps, or not – and the D-i-L’s friend/sister says she has the key to the garden where D-i-L might meet a man – who happens to be the nephew of the beau of the husbands mother – who has the hots for D-i-L. [I hope you are keeping up with this]. Now, even in opera-world infidelity is a BAD thing Needless to say after a deal of too-ing and fro-ing, wailing and gnashing of teeth and all things expected in this sort of tale, the D-i-L stupidly decides to go along.

At this point the pianist seemed to have an epiphany and he and a singer chappie lapsed into a tuneful song for a few bars. This was be repeated twice more during the performance -apparently.

Well, would you believe it, D-i-L meets said young man in Castle grounds and falls in love – noisily. So noisily that the mother-in-law was never going to sleep through the event despite what they were saying. I was in the third row and my tinnitus was beginning to give me gip. Needless to say, D-i-L couldn’t keep her gob shut about the whole thing – husband comes back and a musical row ensues. Eh? Familiar?

To cap it all Di-L is so fed up she ups and goes to the grounds and downs a bottle of something terrible and falls singing to the floor where she passes out. I suggest this was a bottle of Buckfast since she got up later to take the applause. And all lived miserably ever after.

A great evening of despair and emotion interspersed with musical miserable-ness beautifully sung and acted by Scottish Opera. Many thanks for a lovely evening. Honest! I mean, even An Lanntair’s own technician donned a black suit and shirt for the occasion and looked just so smart I hardly recognised the chap.

Anyway, the snap is of fred [aka; Harry Hunter] ace kart driver from Flamouth.