Hard to believe...

...that just a month ago we were in the Hebrides! I've been too busy to really think about it much for the past few weeks, but thought it was about time I took a look at some more of the photos. Here's some of my favourites from the first week...

One thing we did this year was spent a fair bit of time on the beach - in fact our first Sunday, and our final full day were spent on the same beach - the one within walking distance of the cottage. That was one thing we really appreciated this year, that a stroll down the track could get us to this...

That was just a tiny bit of it too - it stretches for miles in each direction! The following day we headed south to South Uist, and visited the beautiful little community garden at Lochboisdale, which was just FULL of chives this year...

...just gorgeous! It's really nicely done, and just such a blaze of colours! Talking of a blaze of colour, there was more of that the next day at RSPB Balranald too...

That's fairly standard for late May on the Machair - just an astonishing carpet of flowers. The daisies appear first, then the yellow of the Birds Foot Trefoil, and the purple of the pansies...a perfect harmonious blend of colours. It doesn't stop there either because as June arrives the orchids appear - their colours from white through to a deep bright purple - just stunning.

The following day was our long awaited boat trip out with Nick on the Lady Anne - we were just so pleased to finally get out on one of these trips - it's felt like a conspiracy these last few years with things stopping us doing it! It must be said that it entirely lived up to expectations, especially seeing this amazing White Tailed Eagle so close up...

Yes, you don't need to be a bird expert to recognise that one, do you!  The weather went a bit grey and gloomy the next day...not though we let that stop us getting out and about. We headed back to South Uist again and climbed a hill....views weren't bad but better was spotting this Golden plover and it's mate...

They head to the hills to have their chicks, no sign of babies yet with these two but they were clearly thinking about it! Absolutely stunning birds in their full breeding plumage - and unmistakable once you've seen them the once, too!

Last shot for now, and it's one from one of our favourite hills on the Islands - Rueval on Benbecula. I don't think there's a year gone by since we first climbed up it that we've not gone back - it's only quite a small one but the views are phenomenal...

...this is the advantage of Benbecula being a quite flat island! I suspect that next time we're there though we'll probably have to give it a miss as the winter isn't the most ideal time for hill climbing - we'll see though!

Expect to see some more shots of RAF fast jets coming up over the next few weeks, as we have several airshow trips planned and a visit to Scampton for an In Season Practise with the Reds. July is looking hectic, and while I do intend to carry on with Frugal Friday posts if I miss another week please do bear with me!

Robyn

Wow!

I'm still struggling to believe this myself...but, on Sunday, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to spend 2 hours on the ground at Bristol Airport photographing the Red Arrows jets, Pilots, and Engineers at work - honestly, I'm still grinning and there has been a LOT of pinching myself over the last few days, just in case it was all a dream...

I arrived at the airport for 9am and was collected by the chap who'd arranged things for me - the very kind and lovely Ross - also known as "Circus 8". The "Circus" engineers are those who are allocated to work with a particular pilot for the season (in theory with a particular jet too, but that doesn't always quite work out!). Ross's "Driver" is Red 8 -Flt. Lt. Martin Pert - known as "Perty" - and "their" jet is XX311 - this one...

...yes, she really IS that shiny!

Clearance gained from the airport for me, we walked across to the pan where the jets were lined up - another "wow!" moment for sure....I tried to play it cool but almost certainly failed, and suspect that my awestruck grin may have given me away. I had a chat with Ross while he carried on the work of getting the jet ready to go - there's only a limited amount of storage space onboard one of those Hawks so getting everything in place is a precise art, and you certainly must need to master the art of travelling light too!  The jets themselves are just immaculate - spotlessly clean and highly polished to a state of reflectiveness that almost hurts your eyes. The other thing that immediately strikes you is the precision - all 9 were perfectly lined up, flying helmets sitting on the open canopies in each jet. That brings me to my first chosen shot of the day...

...had to be done that one - albeit it took me a couple of attempts because for the first few minutes I was so nervous I was shaking like a leaf and struggling to hold the camera still. I took a few deep breaths - no point in screwing things up now, and settled for just shooting XX311 and what Ross was doing until I'd got more comfortable and was able to get my "work time" head on and just crack on. Once I'd relaxed enough to feel I could wander about a bit I began to work as I always used to with candid shots at speedway, and for the couple of weddings I've done...working methodically through the mental list I already had in my head but at the same time scanning around for other shots that will work. Take a shot - check exposure and framing, if OK, move on, otherwise re-take. Some shots you are sure will work, don't, and others that just jump out at you work brilliantly. Around the jets, anything with reflections is a fairly safe bet...although this was a slightly different take on that thought...

...and then of course there is those stunning "50th Display Season" tails - every time I see them they just look more impressive, and seeing them right up close, and being able to take the time to line up the shots I wanted to accentuate that precision I mentioned earlier was fantastic...

I'd been there 45 minutes or so and had worked my way to the very far end of the line and was just working back, picking out detail as I went, when the Pilots appeared. I put on my best "I'm not here" face and tried to look like I knew what I was doing, fully expecting to be utterly ignored by all apart from maybe Perty who I thought might have remembered we'd spoken at Biggin Hill...but in fact pretty much all of them gave me cheery grins and bright good mornings, or comments about the gorgeous weather...Perty stopped for a chat, and once again my first impressions of what a nice friendly bunch they are were confirmed. I've heard people describing these guys in the past as arrogant, stand-offish, and saying that they'd look right through you, well not in my experience they wouldn't - gentlemen to a....well, man!

I was introduced to another of the Circus engineers - Nicky Cunningham, Circus 4, who's often retweeted some of my photos, and to one of the team's Photographers - SAC Adam Fletcher. Interesting talking to someone about the difficulties faced taking photos air to air, for example as soon as you apply any "G" whatsoever everything gets heavier...so your hands and of course the camera. Now a pro-spec camera like the Canon 5D's these guys are using isn't the lightest thing in the first place, and bearing in mind that some of the Reds display moves pull up to 5G it's mind boggling how they manage to get the amazing shots they do! The view they see through the viewfinder is also distorted as of course there is a visor stopping them getting the camera to their eye, something I'd never have thought of.  I wandered a bit more - by this time I was aware that there was a problem with one of the jets - XX245 had sprung a nasty hydraulic leak and there were several of the Blues desperately trying to fix the problem. Due to mechanical issues over the previous few days they'd arrived at Bristol with only the bare 9 jets - not a situation that anyone is comfortable with, and as they were then due to fly out for a display in Denmark the next day, then on to Estonia - the 56th country that the team have displayed in - the day after, getting it fixed if at all possible was imperative. Perty called out to tell me that there was a half hour delay on departure to try to get things sorted - good for me as it meant I had extra time, but frustrating for everyone else as so much hangs on timings being met.

Time for a lens change. I'd started off with my 100-400mm on the 7D body - great for "papping" people at a distance and also for cropping right in to get detail shots - and the ever reliable 50mm 1.8 on the 40D - this was definitely one of those times when I was hugely glad I had two camera bodies to play with! As I had a gorgeous bright blue sky with some nice clouds as a backdrop though it was time for the 50mm to be replaced by the 24-70mm to enable some wider angle shots...

With repair attempts on XX245 being unsuccessful the decision was taken that she was going to have to stay behind as further work and spare parts were required. This meant that a Pilot & Circus Engineer also had to stay, and Red 10 and Circus 6 were the unlucky individuals. "The Boss" - Red 1 - who I believe had been intending to fly the unserviceable aircraft elected instead to take Perty's XX311, which in turn meant that all their gear, so carefully stowed away by Ross just a short while previously had to be taken out and repacked elsewhere. You'd have expected a mad rush but no, calmly panniers were undone and everything removed. There was a moment of apparent confusion when it seemed that nobody was quite sure how Perty & Ross were getting to Karup, but in the end Ross took the spare seat of the unlucky Circus 6, and Perty got an unaccustomed chauffeur-driven transit with Red 7 who also had an empty backseat. I was assured by Red 6 - Flt Lt James McMillan - that "It's not always this chaotic" but quite honestly it didn't appear chaotic at all, teamwork and people working together as one unit made it all appear quite calm, and anyone watching from over by the fence would have been utterly unaware of the reason for the delay.

As they made ready to leave it was time for me to retreat to a safe range while they crewed in and the jets fired up, before with that to be expected precision they nosed, one at a time, onto the taxiway and off to the runway. More cheery waves from most of the cockpits..not from Perty though, he was too busy taking pictures on his iPhone...look....

A huge thanks to Ross for sorting it, and for the whole team for just being so absolutely lovely. Possibly the hardest I've worked in the space of two hours photographically for a VERY long time, but well worth the effort! If you want to know more about the life of a Red Arrows Circus Engineer and see some fantastic photos taken from the backseat then follow @RAFCircus8 and @RAFCircus4 on Twitter. For a Pilots eye view follow @RAFRed8 (And for more of my photos, follow @EssexHebridean of course!)

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

Ahhh...I have to admit I'm struggling with this. I'm coming off the back of a week when I've had to buy spare batteries for my camera, an extra memory card, a new external hard-drive, and booking assorted travel arrangements for trips I/we are making later in the year. I don't feel at ALL in a position to be talking about frugality of ANY sort!

Having written that opener, I started adding up/thinking about what I'd spent...and actually, do you know I was surprised - it's not anywhere near as bad as I expected. Why? Well in part at least it's all those years of being used to searching out deals I guess...I'd just not realised how second-nature it had become.

I knew ages ago that we were approaching needing a new backup drive for the computers at home - our existing 320gb & 500gb were both filling up fast, and the new camera with it's 18mb sensor hasn't been helping on that score! I do try to make sure that all the photos I take are backed up - whether initially by leaving them on the cards as well as the download on the PC, or subsequently by backing up from the computer meaning that the cards can then be wiped. At the time, the 1tb drives were retailing for around the £70 mark at the cheapest, but prices did appear to be dropping, and we didn't *quite* need the new one yet, so I decided to hold off for a while. On doing the download of the photos from last weekend I realised that the need had become immediate, so took another look online, and managed to get a 2tb drive, from a brand I trust, for £64.99 - result!

I knew there were camera bits I needed too - and again I've been holding off on buying those while I kept my eye open for a decent deal. While I was processing pics on Sunday an email popped into my inbox with a special offer on Postage from 7Day Shop. Their compatible batteries are excellent - I've used them for years in my cameras and at £12.99 for a pack of two for the ones I need currently they're a fraction of the cost of most others. The only sticking point of late has been that because of their method of despatch the postage charge is now a weighty £5.99 per order! The special offer took the postage cost down to £1.99 though so I wasted no time in placing an order. Better still, I had money in my PayPal account earned from doing surveys, so effectively that one was free!  The remaining PayPal credit was used against the purchase of the memory card too (again buying a brand I know and trust - I have friends who have great results with cheaper makes but I only ever buy Lexar or Sandisk having had a bad experience with a cheap one years ago) cutting the cash cost of that purchase down a little. A friend and I will shortly be photographing all three days of the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford so extra memory cards are a must!

On to the travel...and for train tickets as ever I defaulted to good old Red Spotted Hanky - meaning I could make use of credit I'd gained by converting Clubcard vouchers. First up a single ticket for MrEH for a weekend trip to Norfolk - I'll meet him up there for that so it's only him that needed the travel. £9, and on precisely the train he wanted - that'll do! Next up, I'm planning a trip to Clacton Airshow in August - last year the travel by road for this one turned into a nightmare with long delays and the car getting so hot inside that the iPhone shut itself down in protest - none of that this year though as I'm letting the train take the strain - £8 each way meaning that by the time all is taken into consideration I'll be paying less than the cost of the diesel in the car AND not having to have the hassle of driving! Finally on the train front, a return trip for me from London to Eastbourne in August - on my (part!) day off from the Great British Beer Festival - for the Eastbourne Airshow - at £5 each way it's almost too cheap to turn down, and half of that was covered by the remaining credit in the account too - so cash cost for all that = £5.

Finally - another weekend away - this time combining an airshow (yes, another one - I'm making the most of the Red Arrows 50th Display season to see as much as possible of them with that stunning tailfin design!) with a visit to somewhere I've always been interested to see - Northern Ireland. I debated my options - flying was obviously going to be easiest, with Stansted so close to us, but would it be the most budget-friendly way of making the trip? I was always going to have to fly back due to time constraints, but I added up the cost of using the train, then boat...and quickly realised that it wouldn't work anyway as the timings of the sailings were all wrong. So, back to the tried and trusted MoneysavingExpert Cheap Flight Checker, paired up with Skyscanner to properly explore all the options, and I managed to grab myself a return ticket from Stansted to Belfast for £67 - I'll travel hand luggage only of course, and paid using a debit card to keep the extortionate add-on fees to a minimum too. (Note - a 2 day trip hand luggage only, when also carrying a bag full of camera gear, is a challenge - however, bear in mind it's cheaper to buy a couple of basic tee-shirts at your destination , and either discard them or wear layers on the way back, than it is to pay the charge for a checked bag).

All in all, not bad - and it's nice to feel that the habit of looking for the best prices on things like travel is so firmly ingrained now that I barely even noticed I was doing it. The decision on the external hard-drive could have gone either way, but technology prices generally fall over time and so it was a reasonable bet that I was either going to save some money, or get more capacity, by waiting. With train travel as ever booking ahead is key - 12 weeks ahead is the holy grail but even after that there are often deals to be found.

Do you have times when you feel that you're just struggling with the whole frugal thing, only to realise afterwards that actually you're doing better than you thought? If so, take a pat on the back from me!

Robyn

Neglected...

...oops, poor little blog, I know I've neglected you since we got back from the Hebrides, and I'm sorry...last week got a little hectic though...here's why...

Two days at RAF Scampton in the company of a brilliant pal - photographing three great In Season Practises including the flat display which we'd not actually seen so far this year. Then a full day Saturday (a very full day as it turns out - thanks to the carpark chaos!) at the Biggin Hill Festival of Flight where thanks to the positioning of the Reds jets I was able to get the sort of "behind the scenes" shots that are my favourite subjects to focus on given the chance. Amazing, and to be honest I'm still grinning now.  I also got to meet some absolutely lovely people which was just the icing on the cake.  I've returned with in the region of 2,000 photos to go through and process, which is taking time, but the reaction the shots of the engineers at work, and just the jets themselves, have had on Twitter has helped the process along no end!

I'll pop some more pics up in due course, but in the meantime keep checking the Facebook page and website as there will be updates to both of those over the next few days too.

Right now, I'm off to bed....still grinning!

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

"Don't sweat the small stuff" - there's a phrase. So often this can be really relevant, but sometimes, in money-saving terms, rather less so - it can in fact be the "small stuff" that can make all the difference, and "sweating it" just a bit can make a real boost to your finances.

These chaps are responsible for the late appearance of this post! 

Later this year Scotland will be following Wales and Northern Ireland in introducing a 5p charge for supply of single-use bags. OK, 5p isn't much is it, but let's say your weekly shop uses 5 of them each time - that's 25p per shop, or a whopping £13 a year assuming you shop every week. A Supermarket "Bag for life" meanwhile costs 10p - and takes roughly twice as much as one of those "single use" bags, I reckon. And of course once bought,m when it bursts a handle or springs a leak, you can replace it with a brand new one for absolutely nothing - now that's got to be a bargain hasn't it - the new season's must-have bag for a lifetime one off spend of just 10p? Where do I sign!  If you want something a little more unique, robust and "you" then there are many different designs of shopping bags too - from the big jute tote-bags to the foldable "pouch style" ones available in so many fab colours and designs. I have LOTS, and do try to make sure I always have one or more in my handbag, and a good selection in my car. Mostly when asked if I want a bag I say "No thanks, I've got my own" but yes, sometimes I DO slip up and forget. the new charge being introduced in Scotland is now pretty much certain to transfer over to England in due course, meaning that wherever we are, down south or Oop North, forgetting to pick up a bag to take in with me is going to start costing money, so I'm committing to focus more on this in the future and join Fay in not being a "(Disposable) bag lady" any more!

Of course that's far from the only place where small savings can make a difference. We've been getting things organised for our next trip to the Hebrides - it's some way off yet but things need booking some way in advance - so far we've saved £50 from our budget figure by looking at an area we'd not thought of before for accommodation - and managed to combine actually getting from mainland Scotland to the Hebrides AND doing the flights we've wanted to do for a long while (landing on the beach at Barra) for a bargain price. While we were up there we did a little research on car hire, and have pinned that down to a price we're happy with too. It didn't take long out of our holiday, but will save us around £40 over having just accepted the list prices as advertised. That trip is even being paid for from "small stuff" as well - the odd pennies and pounds being "swept" across from our current accounts, interest earned on savings, and the cashback earned by taking the little extra time to click through from TopCashBack when booking or buying things are all being saved in order to make the trip as "cash neutral" as we can manage. Free holiday? Oh go on then! Just taking a few extra moments to research options and "shop around" can make a big difference to the money in your pocket for tea and cake - and let's face it, I'm not a rocket-scientist or a brain-surgeon whose every waking moment is vital to humanity - it's vital to me, yes, but not so much so that I'm too grand to take a couple of hours out to save myself  a few £'s!

Other "small stuff" - food waste - now here's one that bugs me. I know folk who think nothing of happily buying a big pack of bread rolls or a loaf of bread to have with lunch in the office...a few slices or a couple of rolls get eaten, the rest generally get discarded or left to go stale. How infuriating is that? Never mind the money waste on this one - what about all that precious food being left to rot, and then thrown into landfill? Another tooth-grinding irritation is the office milk - many times I've realised just too late that half of a 4pt bottle has been thrown down the sink...why? Because it's "out of date". Have anyone smelled it to see if it's OK? No, of course not, the bottle says its out of date so it must be off, right? Wrong! Food's clever stuff, mostly it will tell you if it's not OK any more, either by the way it looks or smells. Packaging is NOT clever stuff, and can only repeat to you what someone else has told it. Use your eyes, nose and brain and you can save a packet (or a loaf, or a tub...). Before we went on holiday we meal-planned carefully to use up anything that needed using from the fridge, as well as as much as possible from the freezer, and while we were away we shopped carefully again to ensure that things got used up before we left. What was left over (either because we bought the smallest size we could but there was still too much, or in one case because it was cheaper to buy a larger pack or an item) either got brought back with us or was donated to chums, who were very happy to receive it judging by the cry of "goodies!" when we appeared with the bag!

Thinking laterally can work too - we're attending a couple of events later in the summer - a music festival one day followed by an airshow the next. Both are off to the South west of us, so staying overnight is the logical answer - one of the events offers on site camping for a charge which is less than we'd pay elsewhere, so we'll book that when we book the tickets - job done! For another airshow I'm visiting, driving last year took hours as the traffic was terrible. I decided to check the cost of train travel and discovered that tickets are available for £16 return - but as this has been booked via Red Spotted Hanky using credit gained by converting Clubcard Points, it's actually only costing me half, that, which is less than the diesel would cost, and I get to sit back and enjoy the ride rather than getting hot and bothered in the car!

Are you happy to sweat some "small stuff" to make a saving? Or maybe you think that sort of thing is all to much hassle and you're happy to go with the flow regardless of whether it might cost you more?

Robyn

Oops - wrote this, then promptly forgot to add a photo and schedule it to post while I was up in Lincolnshire today - sorry!

All over for another...SIX MONTHS!

Well that's it - we're back, everything is unpacked, the car is breathing a sigh of relief outside, and the washing machine is set ready to run later with the first load of washing. We left the cottage at 10am yesterday - packing up never takes us long these days, we're well practised at it, and by 10 not only was the car fully loaded but the cottage was returned to the spotless state in which we found it. The nice thing about taking the later ferry is that we have a lovely relaxed final day - so we stopped at Baleshare on the way through and look....

...I promised I'd try to show you what all that lovely yellow Iris looks like when it's in bloom - it gets better than this but it didn't quite make it while we were there - still pretty good though no? From there we carried on South down through the islands - arriving at Lochboisdale where the ferry to Oban leaves from in plenty of time. As usual, we ditched the car in the ferry queue (in spite of being VERY early - they're used to that!) and went to grab some lunch - actually warm enough to sit outside too - amazing! Wandered back towards the ferry - still very early, but bumped into a pal who'd just driven down to drop some folk off for the boat so we had a nice chat with him while we waited! The boat arrived bang on time and we were one of the first few on thanks to the extreme earlyness! This has the advantage that on a busy day you are up on deck in time to watch the loading of the final vehicles - which can sometimes be entertaining - they cram cars into the smallest of gaps...

Oddly enough we were further forward in that line, and I commented to MrEH when we got out that I was surprised they'd not put me another couple of inches forward - I bet the driver of that red car wishes they had! Once everyone is on they waste no time in getting away...

...always a little sad seeing the Hebrides slipping away behind us like that, but at least this time we knew it's only a few months, rather than a whole year, until we're back again! Anyway, for the next 5 hours we had a ferry crossing to distract us - and for the first part of it the weather was just lovely - hardly any wind, water like a millpond, and lots of birds to look out for - Razorbills, Guillemots, Black Guillemots, Gannets and puffins can all be seen easily from this crossing, and with a bit more practise Manx Shearwaters and Storm Petrels too. The Petrels are the toughest to spot - tiny birds, a little bigger than a sparrow, and they rarely come in close to the boat either! Our favourite spot from the boat this time round though was a little easier to see...

...a Basking Shark! They're seen in Hebridean waters quite often during the summer, but this was the first time we'd seen one - amazing! There were Dolphins too - always lovely to watch them leaping and diving. A little after that the rain started falling and the decks emptied indoors - us too, and the rest of the crossing was spent reading, dozing, and eating surprisingly good fish & chips. We arrived at Oban on time and with the rain still falling quite heavily drove the 2½ hours to our bed for the might just outside Glasgow.

The rest of the journey today is straightforward enough...as usual we share the driving, stopping for a late breakfast/early lunch, and then again to change drivers as required. As we spotted the sign for Doncaster's Robin Hood airport from the A1 I realised that it was only 20 minutes or so until the UK's sole remaining airworthy Vulcan Bomber - XH558 - was due to leave to fly out for a couple of air displays, so we diverted to there to see her leave...

...well if you're that close it would be rude not to really, wouldn't it! Amazing to see her on the ground - but even better to watch this...

...the local residents clearly agreed too as there was a good crowd there watching. She nearly reduced one old chap to tears - he was saying that he remembered living in the area in the 1950's when they used to scramble three of them at a time - flying out right over his house "My, the windows used to rattle and the whole house shook" he said - still gazing at the departing aircraft, now just a faint speck in the sky. Definitely a complete contrast to the past fortnight, but a nice way of ending the holiday nonetheless!

My camera will now get turned back to aviation matters for a while - with a couple of days at Scampton later this week, and then Biggin Hill Airshow next weekend, to start me off. Lots planned, and lots to look forward to!

Robyn

Last day...

And what an excellent last day it's been. The sun has shone ALL day and we've managed to be out enjoying it for most of the day too.  We started with one of these...

 



You'll have to excuse the utterly rubbish photo - of course it's a Corncrake - secretive little birds and at this time of year you're doing well to see one at all as the vegetation has now grown high enough that they can stay under cover a lot of the time!  At the same place (Balranald) we also saw what seemed like an entire field of those beautiful purple orchids...

 





Fabulous aren't they - they were right across the field!  The we stopped so I could wander up a hill and capture this view...

...that's all four of North Uist's notable hills there - North Lee, South Lee, Burrival and Eaval.

After that and with the weather SO glorious we had the traditional last-day walk on a beach...

...this one was a bit special though as this was the beach that is walking distance from the house we've been staying at - and the whole time we were walking on it there was not another soul on there with us - amazing!

Finally the day ended with the most amazing sunset....

As ever we've had a wonderful time - fabulous to catch up with friends who are lucky enough to live in this fantastic environment all the time. We're very excited to be heading back up in just over 6 months too - and already have this house booked for next year's fortnight too! For this time though, tomorrow morning the car will be packed and we'll drive south down through the Uists, Grimsay and Benbecula to catch the ferry back to Oban...

Robyn

Frugal Friday...

Our last full day of our holiday – as always sad to be leaving but at least this time knowing we’ll be coming back for our “cash neutral” trip over New Year helps a lot with that. We had a little check-over of our finances while we were chatting about things last night, and it looks like we’re going to come in under budget for this year’s fortnight – always a pleasing thought! Mileage, and thus diesel, will be lower thanks to our new base on the West of the Island being far less of a trek in and out each day than where we’ve been based before – we’ve loved staying here and all being well we’ll be looking to book this for next year’s visit too. 

There was also a saving on diesel as well as ferry costs due to our decision not to make the trip north to Lewis and Harris – it was a real experiment to decide not to do it but we’ve both agreed that we didn’t miss it enough to justify doing it until ferry prices fall considerably, which they will, when the RET (Road Equivalent tariff) kicks in on those routes – but until then, the cost of the trip is too much.  

Our food “budget” while we’re here is very fluid in any event – we set ourselves an amount for “main” grocery shops which is spent on the cashback credit card, but there is additional spending outside that for lunches and dinners out, tea & cake (of course!) and extra items of food. There is also the items of foodstuffs we buy to take back – the excellent Stornoway Black Pudding, the Hebridean oatcakes and Water Biscuits we love, salmon and other seafood, and other odds and ends. Those come from our spending money, and then help to feed us for the next few months also.  For the amount on the credit card though, we’re under budget too.

Spending money – as things stand at the moment we’re well under budget on that, too. We’ll withdraw some more today which will cover the last spends, as well as food for the journey home. We’ll eat an early lunch tomorrow before boarding the ferry, and then will eat our evening meal on the boat – CalMac fish & chips is very good! Sunday will be a stop for “brunch” almost certainly at a “Little Chef” or similar on the way down – that means our heavily packed car can be left in sight and saves us time on the long journey searching for somewhere to eat. While not the best food, or the cheapest, on these occasions they serve a purpose! 

All this talk of budgets for a holiday probably seems strange to some – for us it means that we have a fantastic holiday and can still arrive home in the calm certainty that the credit card bill will not deliver a fright. We don’t constantly watch the prices on everything, sit in the dark, or wear our coats indoors to avoid heating the place – we do, however, use the fire (with attendant back-boiler at this cottage) to heat our water where we can, to save using the immersion, and one of the first things we did on arrival was to turn the heaters down to a very low level – it’s storage heaters the same as at home, so we know how to use them, one has been switched off entirely and the other on just very low while we’ve been here – temperatures at this point here have been lower, and with the wind it’s still necessary to have some heating on. We still switch lights off when we leave a room as we would at home. When shopping we keep an eye out for yellow-stickered (or rather here, ORANGE stickered) bargains – particularly if buying veg for that nights meal, or bread – we have a freezer so may as well make use of it. We’re also careful about the amount we buy – no point in packing up here tomorrow morning with piles of food left – the odds and ends that ARE left will get passed to friends, and other than that the freezer and fridge will be emptied with our final dinner here tonight – making use of what we have makes as much sense here, as at home.

The saving for next year’s trip starts when we're home – and anything left from the budget for this year will be left sitting in the holiday account ready to assist with that, and with any other shorter trip we make over the year. We’ll establish whether our monthly saving figure needs to change at all, and will increase the regular payment on that if so, but best of all, when the Credit Card bill arrives in a fortnight, I’ll be able to quietly shift the money aside, and know that it’s covered, and hopefully the sense of calm and peace we get from this annual trip here will remain….

Robyn

A proper forest walk!

Tuesday brought something a little unexpected...a walk in a forest! Now I admit that may not sound the *most* unexpected thing you might have imagined, but this is the Western Isles remember, where landscapes commonly look a little like this...

...not many trees to be seen there, eh? In a place this exposed, mostly they simply don't survive, so you can almost count on the fingers of one hand how many patches of woodland there are on the islands. The only places where any quantity of trees can be found in one place are the plantations, and it was to one of these that we headed - the Langass Plantation on north Uist. It was originally planted as an experiment to see how the two types of tree originally planted would cope with growing in such a harsh environment - the answer was pretty well, surprisingly, and the plantation is now owned by a community organisation who are working to not only expand the number of tree species growing there but also to make it "visitor friendly" with paths being laid, a small visitor centre, and benches.

In some places where trees have been felled some imagination has been used on the remains...

Less obvious, but still everywhere you look are the amazing mosses and lichens that you see everywhere up here - they grow on anything, pretty much, even the twigs of the trees aren't safe...

 The stars of the show though are the trees themselves - from the tall pines which were the original inhabitants of the plantation, to the slender, fragile new Rowans that have been added recently - it just feels like such a novelty to be walking around under a canopy of real trees! It's reassuring to know that as and when we're here for good, I'll be able to combine the wonderful views with a bit of forest to stomp around, too!

Robyn

A bird explosion!

As we were heading south yesterday morning in any event, we decided to pop into the Salar Smokehouse and buy our packs of their delicious Flaky Smoked Salmon to take back home with us at the end of the week. We always go home laden with the goodies that we can only get when we're here, and that salmon is a firm favourite. The shop isn't *quite* the same now that the business has been bought out by the Loch Duart people, but thankfully they've not meddled with the fish.

Periodically some of the fish "remains" from the smokehouse evidently get lobbed out onto the road for the gulls, as when we drove up we saw this...

...which each time a car drove towards it turned into this...

...a sort of "bird explosion" that could thoroughly freak you out if you'd seen "The Birds" recently!

The weather the last two days - a proper sea fog was drawing in when we went for our late walk along the beach on saturday night, and didn't really lift until the middle of the day yesterday. It's very odd to look out of the windows and not see the usual familar landmarks - from here that's the sea on three sides, and Loch Sandary and Cleattraval (the hill with the internet mast that's enabling these posts) on the other. We didn't let it get in the way of doing things though - Sunday was always going to be a gentle pottering sort of day in any event, and yesterday we headed to South Uist to do one of our favourite walks - a circular one with all sorts of interesting things along the way, as well as a fantastic cafe for lunch.

The wildflowers get more stunning by the day - this field of Buttercups, Marsh Marigolds and fluffy white Marsh Cotton was beautiful...

..and we're yet to identify this intense purple flower - this is probably one of a number of photos that will be winging its way to Fay in due course for an expert eye!

Once we'd got back to the car from our walk we set off to drive along one of our favourite roads - the Uskevagh road on Benbecula which winds out miles across to the east of the Island - the reward for some challenging driving (MrEH behind the wheel on this occasion) being the absolutely stunning views. On this occasion I can't show you I'm afraid as the cloudy weather didn't really make photos that worthwhile - you'll need to take my word for it! We did spot this handsome Snipe standing calmly on some heather just next to the road though...

...and then a little further on this glorious Golden Plover...

...not so easy to see at this time of year these - a few weeks earlier there are entire fields covered with hundreds of them, but once they are in full breeding plumage like this one they head off to the moorland and hills in pairs to breed. The other one was present but wasn't in a position I could photograph the two together. Typically as I got back into the car again the two could be seen standing together in full view!

Robyn