The Big Garden and Croft

Jonathan: It’s familiar as a Christmas Carol, but the season it describes – with ‘earth as hard iron, water like a stone’ – is more typical of mid to late January, and this year I’d even say it describes life in Uist. Not that I’ve seen Cherubims and Seraphims appearing in the sky – just snow clouds!  The weather continues cold but calm, and that means no seaweed cast up on the shore; or rather no fresh seaweed, just an accumulation of rotting old stuff, which is little use for feeding the soil, much of the goodness having already leached … Continue reading →

Jonathan: I started re-routing a long line of electric fencing a couple of mornings ago, and finished it this morning. The weather has been grey and windy, but even with light rain I was warm enough working in my boiler suit of thick, tightly-woven cotton and a couple of layers of jumpers.  Before heading home I let the sheep through to the lower half of the ‘pairc’ (or ‘park’ in Scottish English) by the sea, where there’s a good few weeks yet of grazing. Befor lunch – the weather now being so much milder – I took the lids off … Continue reading →

Denise: Phone call, yesterday afternoon, from our guests just arrived at Askernish: No hot water. As in no water coming out of the hot taps.  Oh dear: that means only one thing – frozen feed to or supply from the hot water cylinder, up in the roof.  J puts on boiler suit, collects equipment from the store in Eriskay and then drives to Askernish.  Sets up two 500W halogen lights in the loft, directed at the two pipes and leaves them there – will check again in the morning. Guests seem happy that at least something’s being done.  This morning … Continue reading →

Denise: It’s not so long since going to the aid of a crofting neighbour meant helping with rounding up the sheep or mending the byre roof: but this afternoon J helped our neighbour Joan MacKinnon by getting her computer going again. And whilst he was there he set up workgroup and file/printer sharing. It’s what neighbours are for! They’re about half a mile away, but in the snow it was safer to walk,. He  called in at Mairi-Cait and Padraig on the way back: they were warm and cosy in the kitchen with the Rayburn glowing.

Denise: Baked potato for lunch. Snow and iced up outside, so can’t get to pull fresh carrots and other veg. Usually the winters are so mild, here in Uist, we don’t need to lift in autumn and store for the winter – can leave the vegetables in the ground for picking fresh. Thankfully, potatoes are the exception!

Jonathan: Engineering work has taken up most of my time over the past week. More work for the extension to Roscommon Way in Canvey Island Essex. Fixing problems with the design, even whilst the construction work is under way! Thanks to this I’ve now earned enough to keep our heads above water for another month at least.  If I’d gone to Madeira for the week, as had been proposed, I might have earned a bit more, but would have had to simply abandon all other domestic and croft work for a week.