Category: shore

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Doors and turquoise seas

It’s been a busy and successful day. I managed to drive the car for the first time since my recent operation, and drove to lunch at a local community cafe with a friend. It felt so good to just get up and go, and not to have any pain. I almost felt normal again!

Ha. As if I’ve ever been normal..

Our local community cafe, An Crubh

We had a great coffee, sandwich and catch-up, in the way that only two women can, and on the way out I remembered that I had a loaf of Mallaig Bakery Sourdough waiting for me at the community shop.

Driving back along the empty road on the way to pick it up I watched the sun break through the heavy clouds over the mainland and illuminate the Sound, turning the water a glorious, luminescent turquoise.

Gloriously turquoise seas

I pulled over and just had to snap a few pictures. The iPhone can only capture a fraction of the magic of the moment, so fleeting and so transient as it is.

The Sound

It’s at times like these that I hug myself in disbelief that we live here, and that we have this stunning natural beauty on our doorstep.

However, back to earth and home again after the bread collection I was pleased to see that we had the start of the oak doors going up in the house. They still need architraves, skirting boards and a couple of protective coats of Osmo oil, but it suddenly seemed like a proper house. Doors!

It doesn’t take much 😊

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Seafood feast

I love living on this island. The waters around it are cold and clean, and the seafood fished in its waters can’t be beaten.

Kind neighbours alerted us to the fact that we could buy rope grown mussels fresh from a small mussel farm a few villages away some weeks back. I’ve always loved shellfish, but these were a revelation. Small and sweet.

This morning we got a text from them again to say that fresh langoustine would be landed today, and would we like some? Would we ever!

They arrived as the sun was setting, with a carrier bag holding two kilos of live langoustine. For less money than a tiny bowl of these, should you even be able to get them, in London..

When we opened the bag I have to say that my heart quailed a bit. They were very alive…snapping their pincers and looking very angry. Quite rightly so. Thankfully husband is made of sterner stuff and he stepped in and cooked and prepared them for us.

Supper tonight was a feast. Simply cooked and dipped in garlic and coriander butter, they were sweet and succulent. I’ve never had fresher or tasted better.

I suspect most of these make their way abroad usually, but with Covid meaning that hotels and restaurants are closed, the local fishermen are offering them to locals.

Definitely our gain.

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From the shore

Some days appear magical, and although I know that they may only happen rarely between the many more frequent grey, rainy days, I think it’s important to recognise and celebrate them when they do.

This was taken from the shore on Skye by husband, no filters, no enhancement, just a phone camera.

I think it looks like a Japanese watercolour.

And a capture of a misty moment that we hope to be seeing much more of soon.