It’s the beginning of September, and we have guests at Eight Askernish who are having to stay an extra night. The ferry across the Sound of Barra has been cancelled for the whole of today, and will be ‘on alert’ tomorrow. It’s lucky for them that we have a couple of days free before the next guests arrive ! If it concerns the Hebrides, a Plan B is mandatory. The real question is, do you have a Plan C ?
Continue reading →The Spotted orchids are not so common here, compared to the plentiful Marsh Orchids, and to see this group of six on the croft is particularly pleasing : we hope they multiply and spread, and the ‘purposeful re-wilding’ of our croft should provide the conditions for them to do so.
Continue reading →J > Instructions from Denise : three items to the Hebridean Woolshed, to top up stock on display, and bring back an onion – a red onion from the patch near the compost heaps. Work and pleasure, combined.
Continue reading →This is Crotal, a lichen which is commonly found – throughout the Outer Hebrides – on rocks, gravestones and even on roofs. One traditional recipe involves fermenting an orange-brown lichen in urine, to produce a purple dye!
Continue reading →The garden birds raid the bushes greedily, and if it wasn’t for our rough-and-ready covering of fine netting, the currants would be always ripening … almost ripe … but never a single one ripe – for us, at least. The bushes are slow to mature, but they eventually produce prolific quantities of delicate translucent scarlet-red currants suspended on long racimes.
Continue reading →We prefer to leave our customers to make their own associations between what they see on the displays in the Hebridean Woolshed, and what they see in the landscapes, seas and skies around them, here in Uist. They’ll be all the happier for not being told by us what to think.
Continue reading →The peas-and-beans harvests are in full swing, and it looks like it’s going to be a good year.
Continue reading →This Ladies’ Wrap or Shawl will certainly make a statement, with a generous size of approx. 40cm wide, 260cm long (plus twizzled fringes), hand-woven with hand-spun yarns, and made with luxury fibres – wool from Shetland, Masham and Merino sheep, and natural tussah silk.
Continue reading →Recently, a guest staying at one of our two holiday cottages bought one our largest Harris Tweed cushions ; but on returning home was so pleased with how the cushion complemented her furnishings, she contacted us to request another cushion. She didn’t want identical cushions – she was looking for designs that would contrast with eachother, yet all would settle in well in her home.
Continue reading →In Navarra it’s high summer, very high temperatures, and high time for a fiesta! And at the San Martìn fiestas, as in so many other towns and villages throughout Navarra, high up above the throng of fiesta-goers are the heads of the gigantes – in this case the four kings and queens. Traditionally, the the giant kings walk – or even dance – thanks to a burly-built human inside each of them!
Continue reading →This year I’m making wine with the Careless gooseberries only when they are fully ripe (deep red, soft and sweet). I’m hoping that this method will result in a more appealing wine. Well, the fermentation has now slowed somewhat, and I have transferred the brew from the fermentation bucket to a demi-john : now we have to wait and see!
Continue reading →In the Outer Hebrides, starlings are generally resident year-round, and have developed into a sub-species of starling that retains its summer plumage throughout the year. As elsewhere, they are highly social creatures that flock together in large numbers as the sun sets. They often settle for the night amongst the trees in the walled garden, and on this occasion, having heard a lot of noise coming from the south-west corner of the garden, we went to the east bedroom to investigate.
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