It’s Showtime!

It has been a sociable few weeks with the Carloway and Lochs Agricultural Shows, campsite guests, a village get together, a bridge opening, another SAF course, a music festival and a University visit to the apiary here at Croft 5.

Camp 5

The croft welcomed its first campsite guests. For both couples the weather was, unfortunately, very similar!

It was rather windy on their arrival but they had the whole site to choose where to pitch and didn’t seem to be deterred by the gusts. They were interested in the old blackhouse and impressed by the views, and had booked because of the wild camping experience that Croft 5 offers. After a brave and defiant effort on of the tent poles snapped and they had to leave to following afternoon. I have only had one tent collapse in storm force winds before, and so I know how disappointing it is, but I also know that’s part of the adventure and will make a decent story in the pub back home.

Camp 5 is a wilderness camping experience here on the Isle of Lewis and campers who book with us know they are getting just that: wild views, wild camping, and sometimes wild weather. It all adds to the adventure, and is a great place to explore Uig from without suffering the hustle and bustle of some of the busier local campsites; however camping on a Hebridean Island is always going to have varying degrees of wind and so a sturdy tent is highly recommended for the best experience.

Bridge to Nowhere

The end of July saw a village Ceilidh at Croft 5. Traditionally a social get-together, this continued into the kitchen of Croft 5 where a gathering of the men folk enjoyed a sociable evening of chilli, whisky, poker and just a little tequila. In keeping with my tradition of “all the best ideas come from whisky” words including: built a bridge, quad no road, quickly turned into a challenge. Yes, the bridge shall take a quad, a quad it shall take…

So as another day breaks and the last is gone, three men from Enaclete headed over to the bridge to nowhere (the one built by Dougie and Co. in Ungeshader, not the less impressive tourist hotspot that spans the North of Tolsta). After the ceremonial opening of said bridge Dougie and I continued to explore his croft land, accessible only (now) by bridge or by boat. An interesting parcel with much of its history still evident and even better views over Little Loch Roag than those from Croft 5. A grand day out that was just missing cheese.

Oh…. and yes, the bridge could have taken the weight of the quad bike (or a Land Rover) but it didn’t need me driving over it with muddy tyres to prove it. No, for now the bridge shall remain as new, and somehow wading through the low water was more than enough fun to end this weekend.

Agricultural Shows

The Lochs Show is an annual event held at the Laxay Showground. I attend last year, before I had the keys to the croft, but still want to visit each year. It’s a good opportunity to see some sheep and meet up with friends I made when staying in South Lochs. With livestock judging, various competitions from painting to photography, crochet to cabbages, and jams or preserves, it’s also nice to see the variety of produce and talent the island has to offer. Now I live on the west side my “local” show is held a few weeks later in Carloway.

The Carloway show was held on a wet and windy Wednesday but that didn’t deter people from visiting and the turnout was much larger than I expected. As well as the usual livestock judging there was a dog show, Highland Games, piping completion and BBQ. No one seemed bothered by the weather and soldiered on regardless. Well, if you let the weather stop you enjoying yourself or getting on then it would be a miserable place to live!

Summer is quite a busy time on the island, especially in Stornoway. HebCelt is another annual event, and one that is so big CalMac put an extra ferry on especially. A Scottish music festival that is coming into its 30th year, and one I have yet to attend. There’s also the annual funfair in town and the various other agricultural show across Lewis an Harris.

Bumblebees of the Hebrides

in August we welcomed Dr.Johanna Yourstone and two volunteers from the University of Aberdeen to the croft. Johanna is studying the interactions between honeybees and rare bumblebees and this is the third (and final) year of her project in the Hebrides. Her study includes monitoring numbers of bumblebees and looking at stressors and changes in behaviour where honeybees and bumblebees are found together.

It was great to explore the croft and surrounding grazings with them, and interesting to see her collecting samples of honeybees from my hives. Their knowledge and enthusiasm was wonderful and it was a privilege to have them visit and spend some of their time at the croft.

As a beekeeper I would like to think that my honeybees are not having a detrimental effect on bumblebee populations; looking at the pollinators that share the croft I know the work I put into improving the habitat is beneficial to more than just my honeybees. However it will be interesting to learn from the results of the study.

I was really pleased to chat about the croft and the improvements I have made and witnessed, and it was good to hear how beneficial bringing livestock onto the croft will be for the biodiversity of plant species. I shall also be following their recommendations and adding yellow rattle and birdsfoot trefoil to the shopping list. They even brought some good weather with them. It is rare to have zero windspeed at the croft but typically this was the day. We quickly put on our midge nets and carried on, but maybe the next study could be how to eradicate the Scottish Midge!

If you would like to learn more about the study you can follow her on instagram.

Saturday in the Park

Saturday night was spent with friends at the Stramesh Festival in Stornoway.

For a small island off the West coast of Scotland the Isle of Lewis sure does host some fantastic music. Stramesh is a homegrown music festival supporting charity, local musicians, and provides a platform for great music. Gathered on the dampened grass, we listened to the songs under the Stornoway sky (Bowie/Not Bowie).

This year was Headlined by the Welsh band Scarlet Rebels (who I hadn’t heard of before but have already purchased their album. I also had my first eardrum-bashing debut of the bands Bad Actress and Our Small Capital. A superb line-up for a Saturday night on the town, in a marquee, somewhere on the edge of the Atlantic!

Well worth a visit if you are staying on the island next summer and an event that has been added to my annual calendar.

I stayed at my friends at Croft Seventeen Lemreway who’s lambs shall be heading over to Enaclete in October. These will form part of my starter flock and I’m really looking forward to getting them on the land. Having some livestock grazing and disturbing the ground will really benefit the biodiversity and soil condition, as well as eventually providing another source of meat for the village and Uig; another step towards resilience and self sufficiency as an island community.

The neighbour kindly dropped off some fresh pollock and mackerel that he caught earlier that day which was enjoyed right away with some local samphire from the Uig Community Shop.

Oh, and the newly painted Enaclete Phone Box has become something of a celebrity; not only on facebook but on the BBC news and the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2. It was quite surreal having my lunch and hearing someone on national radio talking about standing in a phone box in the village, so I put down my sandwich and walked out to take a look. Yup, two people on the phone to Jeremy Vine, describing the “hamlet” of Enaclete and the view over the croft towards the Atlantic. We might need to get double yellow lines painted if this continues! You can read more on the BBC, so I won’t repeat it here.

That’s about enough excitement for one month! Don’t forget you can subscribe below, or follow us on facebook for even more content.