Carol Purves

For those of you who follow my blogs regularly, you might have noticed that I haven’t included any of my ‘doings’ since my holiday. That is because there haven’t been many ‘doings’. Having pulled a muscle in my back I’ve been taking it easily. But there have been advantages.

I’ve had time to listen to the blackbird singing his heart out outside my window. I’ve been able to study the changing patterns of the sky. For many days it was deep blue, today it has many fluffy clouds. The small patch of garden border I’ve been lying back and looking at, is full of increasing blooms. There is something to be said for taking life at a slower pace. I will miss it when life gets back to normal.

Carol

Every day our senses are bombarded through all forms of media about the destruction of our planet. Our hearts break at the destruction of God’s wonderful world and the small amount we can to do help. At most we can give a little money, write to politicians and of course pray.

I give thanks for my small garden surrounding my house. It is full of flowers, soft fruit and small apple trees.  I tend it with love and devotion. I cannot save the whole world but I can care for this small part of God’s world and give enjoyment to others.

Carol

This whole holiday was a journey moving southwards all the time. Along yet another causeway we arrived on the island of Eriskay, famous for it’s semi wild ponies and the shipwreck of SS Politician with its load of 260,000 bottles of whisky, bound for Jamaica. Hence the film Whiskey Galore.

Another ferry, this time to the Isle of Skye, a green, more inhabited island. The return to mainland Scotland was over the bridge, not the ferry which I used last time I was in the area.

Carol

We then moved down to Harris, although it is all one island with Lewis. Here the weather became unkind to us so we were not able to visit any of the beautiful beaches, some of the most spectacular in Britain.. We could enjoy the colours, however, with the sea changing colours with the rhythm of sun and rain.

The north of the island is rugged and mountainous and has a Lunar feel to it. The east coast is more isolated and has some of the oldest rocks in the world. The town of Tarbert led us on to South Harris and then the ferry at Leverburgh to North Uist. We were then able to explore Berneray and Benbecula.

Carol

On our holiday we had plenty of time to explore the ferry town of Stornaway. Then before leaving Lewis we visited the lighthouse on the Ness of the island, a desolate spot with a strong wind. The Dun Carloway Broch was an Iron Age structure designed to impress and defend. A visit to the Black House Village  (named because of the black walls caused by their heating system) showed how the people of the area lived in the last century.

The most spectacular sight of the whole holiday was the Callanish Standing Stones. It is one of the most significant and important megalithic complexes in Europe. It consists of rows of large pieces of Lewisian gneiss arranged in a cross shape. At the centre of the cross is a monolith and a small chambered cairn.(I copied this bit from the brochure).

Carol

A holiday in  the Outer Hebrides, also known as the Westward Isles. Our first stop was Strathpeffer, a small wee Victorian spa town, which I last visited about 30 years ago. In those days I was on a walking holiday, today my holiday is of a different kind.

We drove through the northern part of Scotland which was crying out for rain, reservoirs low and gushing streams just trickles. We then sailed from Ullapool to Stornaway. What a different way of life. Away from the main towns the population is very scattered. Most houses or crofts owned a strip of land which they put mostly to sheep or cattle. It seems there is no scrappage system on the island as machinery which is broken down is just left in the fields and houses left as ruins with their roofs missing.

Amongst the beauty there is an eerie feeling of abandonment.

Carol

For those of you who follow our bi-monthly meetings I can report that we have just had another very special meeting. Our subject was ‘Overcoming’ , something I thought would be difficult to write about but our members managed brilliantly. Two people based their work on the fact that Jesus has overcome, overcome Death, an uplifting thought. The psalms were referred to a great deal while one member wrote of her son’s overcoming cancer. Some writing was dark and reminded us of the outpourings of David in his psalms.

We also shared books we had read during the last two months, with one member explaining when he returned to the work of Wordsworth, it was like having a nice piece of cake.’ Isn’t that lovely!

Carol

Even here in the wettest part of the country we have been having near drought conditions. My garden water butt has been empty for days and I’m having to use expensive water on my garden (that’s water that I have to pay for through my water meter)

Pictures on the news show that the river at Seathwaite has dried up. I remember learning at school that Seathwaite is the wettest part of England. We just take rain for granted until we don’t get any and then when it does rain we complain. How fickle we are.

Carol

Wigtown – not to be confused with the Cumbrian Wigton. As I had a friend who lives in this famous town I went to visit her one day last week. It was a beautiful ride with hardly any traffic around (though if you time it wrong you have to contend with all the lorries coming from Ireland via Stranraer )

I seemed to be travelling along an endless yellow ribbon as the gorse was in full bloom. The views across the Solway Firth were stunning with the Lake District hills as the backdrop. The Book Festival is not until September but I think then there is a lack of parking places, so I shall only continue to visit out of the book season.

Carol

My friend was nursing in a hospital in east London. She had one patient who she will never forget. Although the patient had recently had a serious operation, she insisted on getting out of bed too early. My friend wasn’t too happy about this and did nothing to help her.

She was then amazed to see the patient get down on her knees with difficulty and give thanks to God for her safe and successful operation. If my nurse friend had known what she was going to do, she would have helped her.

Carol