Roy

Roy and Zig are off on their hols soon and we will miss him. Met them on the beach this morning in between rain showers.

Having fun on the cheap

The road winds down through the Glen driving back home from work and I'm feeling the need to fire the shutter. Here we go.......... done .... ah, that feels a lot better.

Wy aye cannee lad

.. or something equally unfair to our incomers from NewcAstle . I'm referring to Mr Paul Pharmacy husband man of Bac who, I'm just about to BIG UP on account of his forthcoming swimming of Broadbay [sans fish-farm] from Point to Bac. Eh? For charity. Bethesda I think.

Now, get down to the Bac Pharmacy today, Saturday or Monday and sign up to sponsor him. Paul will be swimming Tuesday if; and here's the rub, if the water is right - tides or something like that!

New camera

The TDF did not pass this way.

Did I tell you I have a new camera? Its brill too. Costs me £2.50 including postage - and that's what I call a bargain. It takes both normal 35mm snaps and panoramics eh? I have no idea what sort it is but it is plastic, was cheap and does work. What more do you want?

Street

We have a street in the Isle of Lewis and its called Francis Street. The mass dance took place there the other day and here's two more snaps from that! Esme and Zoe enjoying themselves in the melee .

Willow and all that.

The Star performer [on the right].

Out in t'darkroom making a right old mess. A mouldy, meandering mess of gross proportions. People in images disappearing before the eyes, whites become greys and blacks very nearly very black. It's the willow I tell you. Tis taking over the place. One moment we are stripping the brown sticky stuff in dance then we are looking at Woman in Willow built by the Somerset based Serena de la Hay. Eh? It's Stornoway for goodness sakes, not the Levels !!!!!!

dancing in the streets

The festival is on at the moment. All big tents and rain. But there's some great music here - not least in An Lanntair and, more importantly, outside inthe streets. I emerged blinking into Francis Street from an afternoon concert straight into the this mass 'stripping of the willow' to a live ceilidh band. What a brilliant atmosphere there was. Within moments all were dancing, tapping their feet and smiling. Would be lovely to have this every day at Festival time so that by the time Saturday came around everyone had got into the swing of it and the line could be right across Stornoway. Brilliant!

Getting the peats in

While most have broughtthe peats in already, there's a few, including me who have not. And looking at the present weather, it may be a few more weeks before mine are in! Mr Crofter is still cutting his.

Anyway, on my way out to the peats to bag up the small amount I have cut, I came across a couple of Tolsta villagers bringing some peats in.

Snap taking on polypan-f developed in Bromophen, print on Kentmere Select in Bromophen

TDF

The Tour De France is on at the moment. No doubt, the hardest sporting event of them all. And there is a British managed team in this year - although i will not mention their sponsor. And 9 British riders in various teams in total. Brilliant.

Since we have no TV I have to keep up on the pooter - live streaming and all that.

Stage 9 was just brilliant! As you can see.

There's a really nice blog on painting the tour here too. Well worth a moment or two

en fete

Produce and people

The sun shone, not quite your 30 degree of England but enough. Enough so one didn't need a coat and a visit to a 'show' might be rather pleasant. Off we jolly well went up to Point - a place we can see from home over the bay but generally venture. Paid our entrance fee and took off to see the exhibits. Sheep and Coows were being judged as were the clootie dumplings and harris tweed pies. Then the show was opened by some hack who lives locally. After he had been through the first three pages of the speech, we gave up and went to see the produce. As you do. We missed the Highland dancing and the Lewis pipe band - but never mind, we'll see that at the Tong Show.

For the photo geeks among you, I used and old Kiev -Soviet rangefinder camera loaded it transpired with Kodak Fine Grained Positive film. A film coated with a paper emulsion with a speed of about 5 asa . I developed it in print developer for 4 mins and got lovely results despite the fact I exposed it at 100asa!

Colour from the UW&S

Big goldfish things

Yep, someone put a bell 'there'!

I just sat and was.

So, here I am eating too many things I shouldn't, monitoring the TDF and Cav's exploits - not forgetting those of Cummings, Wigan, Thomas et al - whilst I wait for the chest congestion to clear up. I am getting cabin fever. However, I did manage a little trip to pick up some colour negs from the old Ultra-wide-&-slim this morning. Nice.

Went through to the Village shop in North Tolsta too. Looks lovely what with its new coat of paint, new shelf things, lovely staff and things. Give it a try!

I took a stroll...

Last winters peat stack dwindling

A view in the village

The kids are out of school. One left their transport outside my neighbours for later collection

... down t'road to the village shop - buy the Guardian, peruse Peat Weavers weekly and all that - then a quick walk to the cemetery to pay my respects to a recently departed neighbour whom I had a great regard for.

Twas lovely to get out and it made my chest feel a little better. I took a little plastic panoramic camera. A wonder from China or somewhere.

Oh dear

Ullapool. Yes, it's really like that!

Apologies for the complete lack of input into this 'ere thing recently but I am a bit indisposed with another cold/sore throat/chest infection thing. I blame it on Inverness where Eve and I spent an enjoyable couple of days last week. Ever since then I have been under the weather.

As a result I getting up late, mooching around home feeling sorry for myself and only venturing into the darkroom to check its still there. It is. The peats remain on the moor.

Luckily, work has not been too busy this week so my lack of rude health has not caused any issues in that department.

Meanwhile, the wind has abated a little this morning and there is a little brightness in the air. Must be summer!