Preparing for Christmas!

I had hoped to be able to share with you a recipe for sweet chilli sauce that I made at the weekend, however, my attempts at making it, or else the recipe itself, were severely flawed. But I will work on it, and then I will share it with you :) I promise!

Instead, just a few photos of recent stuff.

I got a haircut - here's my adorable face :p This vintage effect makes me look like a doll!

The bus journey up to my parents house was very restful. We all slept most of the way! (Andrew has this photo as his profile picture on facebook at the moment, so I'm sure he won't mind me sharing it here as well!)

It was pretty snowy in some places on the way up, but there's not much in Tongue at the moment.


Obviously Mum and Dad were very pleased to see us, although they were only in Edinburgh a few weeks ago! We had lunch in the Tesco cafe, nom nom nom.

If you remember that windy weather we had a week or two ago (nicknamed Hurricane Bawbag by all the Scottish people on twitter), it managed to knock over a big tree in my parents' garden! There was some discussion as to whether or not we could turn it in to a Christmas tree, but we figured it's probably a bit big...

And even the tree we did use was too tall! We had to cut off another four inches to get it to fit in and I literally had to trim the tree to get the angel to fit in as well!

You'll have to wait for my proper Christmas post on Saturday to see the tree in full, and the adorable marzipan nativity I made today for the top of the cake.

Love and hugs

Rosal Township - Highland Clearances

Today was my last day in Tongue - early bus home tomorrow as I have an important afternoon appointment. This afternoon, I went with mum and dad to the township of Rosal, which was left after the highland clearances. It was a big field with stones and signs in it, but if you like that sort of thing, it's pretty good. The information boards are frequent and very interesting, and told things from the point of view of the people who lived in the township and were eventually cleared out of them. Life there was by no means easy, but it was much better than living by the coast, which was where they had to go.



The clearances occurred because the people who owned the land, who were mostly rich enough to start with, didn't make enormous profits from their tenants, who were mostly crofters and worked enough to feed and clothe themselves but weren't interested in profits and property and such nonsense. However the landowners realised they could make a lot more money by grazing sheep on the land - not the wee highland sheep that the crofters looked after, but big, hardy ones. Demand for meat and wool were increasing as the country industrialised, and so the highlanders were cleared and moved to the coasts, to the cities, or emigrated to America or New Zealand mostly.



The sheep still graze on the land here - apparently descendants of the ones that were the reason for the clearances. They didn't seem as interested in the stones as we were.


On the whole I'd say it was a really good site. The walk from the car park through the forest was lovely, and it would be a great place to visit if you have kids studying the clearances, like I did when I was 14, or just an interest of your own.

Clambering upon Archaeological Artefacts

I still haven't stitched our panorama so today's post will be about the end of the day on Friday, rather than the main event.

After we'd come down of the mountain we drove a few minutes up the road to see the remains of another Iron Age structure - this time Dun Dornagil broch.


These were probably defensive/offensive places, with hollow outer walls that had staircases in them to take you up to various galleries with different rooms that people lived in. There was a space in the centre which went right up to the top, so that they could have a fire quite safely. The wikipedia article on brochs is quite informative so do direct your general enquiries in that direction.


The one that we saw was intact only as the outer structure, and it had been filled up with earth, perhaps to protect what remained of the structure from people like me who clambered all over it. The tall remaining wall had been reinforced as well, to stop it collapsing into the road, and to preserve it for interested people.


To be fair I only climbed up to see if I could see inside it. Which I could not. It was just too fun to come down right away. And the view was pretty!

A Teeny Weeny Tiny Underground Adventure

Today's adventure in real life was a "yomp" (Mum's favourite hill-walking related word) up a Munro, but I'm going to save that til later. I took a 360 panorama from the top which I'm working very hard on stitching, but it might be a day or so yet and I reeeeally want to show you.


So instead I'm going to tell you about something I missed out previously - the day Mum and I walked to the Iron Age wheel house, we also went along to see this thing called the souterrain.


Those of you with an elementary understanding of French may have worked out that this is an underground thing, and in fact, apart from its age, that's the only remarkable thing about it. It's also, I believe an iron age structure, and happens to be just off the road from Laid to Durness, so not a two hour round trip like the wheel house.


It's just a small structure - only one chamber, and only just underground, with a few steps down, which was likely used for storage rather than dwelling, I would have thought. I don't have a useful tourist leaflet beside me to confirm the details, but it was an interesting wee hole in the ground anyway. It had a few inches of water in it, as it floods in the rain, and since it's pretty low to start with and we weren't wearing wellies, we just took a few photos from the bottom of the steps and headed back out again. It was only about a metre across at the widest, and maybe a metre and a half high, and it was about 4 metres long (I'm guessing, size/quantity estimates are a massive failing point of mine).



My favourite part was the way the entrance was so hidden from the road, but really nearby, and even if you were going that way you might almost walk past it.

The Tongue Hotel

My younger brother, Andrew, had his last day at work yesterday, so in order to celebrate his freedom we went for lunch at the Tongue Hotel with my parents. It's about 100 yards down the road so it was about 20 seconds walk, and there was no one else in the restaurant when we arrived (which is nothing against them, its just that this is the middle of nowhere and people don't "do lunch" on a Thursday.

We had two courses each but it was a bit of a jumble.

Andrew had a smoked salmon starter and a steak and ale pie with mash and veg and a side of chips (glutton! And he couldn't eat them all).


Dad had a smoked salmon bagel and then cranachan for dessert. For those who don't know, its made of raspberries, whipped cream (sweetened if you like), oatmeal and usually some whisky too, and it's absolutely delicious!


Mum had potato and leek soup with crusty bread and then a warm chocolate muffin with cream.


And I had a roast beef sandwich and then a piece of white chocolate and marshmallow cheesecake. The menu had said toblerone cheesecake but they'd only just made that and it hadn't set yet, so I got a bit of yesterday's instead, but the chef put two triangles of toblerone on as garnish to make up for it. No complaints here!

A Quiet Day

It would be fair to say that it was a quiet day up here today. I didn't really do anything at all, except dissect the more exciting social lives (at least at present) of some of my nearest and dearest.

So in honour of my quiet day I'm going to keep this a quiet post. Instead of deafening you all with my chatter I'm going to leave you with this gif of a kitty in a hamster ball. I hope you enjoy it.

This is how I feel when I spend too long up here with no one to cause trouble with... ;)

Wheel-y Tired!

Dear reader, I'm exhausted! Despite my youthfulness and lack of obese-ness, I'm really very unfit. My day has tired me out, so if I seem to doze off and lose track of myself in the middle of this post, you'll know to blame my mother...

Yesterday afternoon wasn't so tiring. We went down to Coldbackie Beach and had a wander around there. No shark wrestling, no picturesque welly boots. Just me and my mum being a bit silly. You can see the results of our silliness in yesterday's blog post if you're curious - today I'll be sharing some of the more sensible photos.


This is the view across the beach which you see walking down the hill from the road. The sand dunes before the beach are about 20ft high, which is very impressive, and there's a stream that comes all the way down to the beach in wetter weather, parts of which make a very good flume (water slide).


This stream at the north end of the beach was pretty, but probably less enjoyable to slide down...


The high water mark is an interesting feature of this beach. It's seems that there is a stream which runs along the edge of the beach - that is, a counter current that runs at right angles to the direction of the tide. The effect of this is to create a sandbank at the edge of the water, which moves up the beach as the tide comes in, and gets left behind, like this, as it goes out.


Some interesting geological features as well - for example, part of this rocky outcrop was shaped and coloured just like me... Kidding. I think we were actually interested by the stripe of quartz in the rock behind me. However, I know nothing about geology, we just thought it was pretty.


There was also a massive cliff at the south end of the beach, about 100ft high, with this wee cave at the bottom. It doesn't go very far back, but its full of reeds that get washed in by the highest tides, and if it wasn't soaking wet, I imagine it would be quite a cosy bed...


Today's expedition was much further away. It's Dad's day off, so he went to play golf over at Durness, and he dropped us off in a place called Laid to go for a walk.

We headed from the tea room there, up the side a very pretty burn (stream), following a path marked by little heaps of stones, called cairns, and big long upright stones balanced in the top of cairns, or stood up by themselves.


The view of Loch Eriboll on the way up was incredible - I just wish I had a better camera for panorama shots.


Anyway, the main reason for our walk up and along the ridge was to see an Iron Age Wheelhouse. Now, I know absolutely nothing about the Iron Age, so instead of trying to say something intelligent off my own bat, I'll quote from a guide leaflet instead (entitled "Laid Heritage Trail" produced by Durness Community Council).


"A Wheel House is a dry stone dwelling house used in the Iron Age. Circular in construction with slabs of rock forming the basis of a roof, these slabs also appear to mark interior divisions of a family habitation."


"Considering its age of some 2000 years it is in excellent condition, one of the best preserved in Scotland. It measures 5.5 metres NE-SW by 5 metres NW-SE within its dry built wall, 1.1 metres thick and 1.4 metres high, with the entrance in the east. In the interior a circle of 7 [uprights] set at a distance of about 1 metre from the wall, one of which is lintelled and another partially with roofing slabs lying close by."

This particular Wheel House is the only one of its kind in the area, the rest are in Shetland, the Hebrides and Caithness, for the most part. Also, most of those are much lower down, and seem to be associated with other buildings. This one is high and isolated. The leaflet suggests "one explanation which can never be proved is that it was built by strangers, possibly from Caithness, who were only allowed this spot to make their home." Caithness is east of this area.


Can you imagine how much it would suck if you'd just walked miles and miles from your own home ranges, only to be told by your grumpy new neighbours that you had to go build your house a mile out the way and 900 metres further up hill. I might be moving soon and I have to say, I hope our new neighbours are nicer than that!


Daily picture of Mum, taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me taking a picture...


Love and hugs

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph




Love and hugs

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Dear reader, today is a special day - that's right, a post not about my mum, but about my dad, because it's his birthday today *blows hooter, waves tiny flag*

Well actually, the post isn't about him either, because today was actually an interesting day. As days up here go, that is. We had a party! Not a birthday party though, a painting party!

As my dad is a minister, that leaves him with responsibilities for things like looking after church premises. You would think he'd be quite busy chasing that flock around, but apparently not so much. So today, my mum, dad and myself went to the church at Melness, on the other side of the kyle. It has a gorgeous view!



Along with some of the other church folk, we did some work on the window frames. We scraped off old paint, we dug out rotting wood, we sealed up some draughty gaps, and we put on some shiny new white high gloss top coat. There were a myriad of problems of course - more rot than expected, more peeling paint than expected, no undercoat, bigger draughty gaps than expected etc etc, so the job is only partially done, however the size of the thing (there are 19 windows in the church, and we're working inside and out) and the size of the working party (six) we did about as much as might be expected of us anyway.



I learned how to use silicone sealant, and as such did all the windows. Actually, I lie I only did 13, but that's still quite a lot. I quite enjoyed it. Pretty sure I deserve an NVQ now (national vocational qualification). Jussayin. We had two tea breaks, with cake, and cake with our lunch. I ate a lot of cake. Apparently because I am still a "young thing" I am expected to eat vast quantities of cake. This is why the youth of today are fat, dear reader. We need to start a revolution! No more force-feeding cake. That said, I did what was expected of me without hint of complaint. What? Don't look at me like that, it was good cake!

After we'd cleared up all the mess we made, mum, dad and I headed over to Bettyhill, because there's a chip shop there (it's the closest one, and it's 13 miles away! Talk about the middle of nowhere). Om nom nom nom.



Then we went for a walk along Farr beach, which is actually not very far from anything, it's right behind the chip shop/tourist information centre (yes, they are the same place, officially). It wasn't sunset, but the sun was starting to get low in the sky, in a very photogenic manner. And there was a lost photogenic welly boot lying in the wash of the tide. It was so romantic... (!) check out my ace photo.



Ever wanted to hire a welly boot photographer? I'm thinking of starting a business - boot photography, well-shod AND well-shot. No? I shall continue.

We saw other things on the beach too, like this dead dogfish. Did you know, a dogfish is like a shark's little cousin? They both have five gills and the same kind of skin. Dad moved it. That's right, you heard me. On his birthday this year my dad wrestled a shark... Honest...



It was very pretty generally, so I took lots of pictures - you can see a selection of these below. If you're my facebook friend you can see them all there. If you're not, then that's a shame. I don't think my photography is good enough to deserve a flickr account. Not that other people let that stop them.



Anyways, that's all for today, its WAY past my bedtime, and daughters of the manse must get up for church on Sunday mornings. Therefore dear reader (I have discovered from my blog stats that there are actually other people than my mum out there, so you've been promoted from imaginary, in case you were wondering) I must bid thee adieu and farewell, and on the morrow you shall hear from me again.

Did you know, the more tired I am the more I don't shut up... who knew!

Love and hugs