Thursday in North Tolsta

 in Scotland, the second of January is also a holiday....

 so we visited The Crofter...where work never stops...

 dagging new sheep, because the change of pasture has upset their digestive systems a bit...

 MY bucket....

 Hmff...

 Gress beach walk, before..

 Stornoway lunch at the Bridge Cafe...

 and a walk up to the castle..

 to the ferry leaving for Ullapool, into the coming squalls..

 which arrived home before us

 but lifted in time for a last minute beach walk..

 aim for the rock...

 and get around it with dry feet!

 

 then find beauty at the edge of the sand as it met the road coming down...how I'd not walked on them as we arrived at the beach is a mystery!

New Year's Eve in North Tolsta

 a dry start to the day, thankfully

 Stornoway harbour

 Stornoway castle. When Lord Leverhulme offered the Island of Lewis to the people who lived here, in 1923, only Stornoway accepted...hence the Trust which cares for the castle and grounds.
 He had tried to regenerate the herring industry on the lines of his Port Sunlight project on the Wirrall, but tried to bring the crofting system to an end.  When the government brought in crofts for returning servicemen after 1919, he decided to leave.

 looking towards the town across the harbour

 through the gates for a walk

 rhodedendron ponticum being cleared in the castle grounds so that the trees will regenerate

 a walk around the back streets of the town

 and watching the boat coming in...10 out of 10 for parking!!

 Then we had rain and sun and wind

 and sunlight on the clouds as we awaited the bus home

 now this, miss Hetty shows us, is the most sensible place to be on a day like this!

 but we just thought, one more walk....

 down towards the beach again...

 and a reward of another beautiful sunset

St.Stephens Day

Spindle Bush.    Starkly bright among the twigs.

A still walk that was literally the calm before the storm, and for a change we were not in the worst of it in Scotland, although plenty of older trees have been weeded by the wind.

walk at Loch Doon to the Dark Skies Observatory.