Love Conquers All

G’morn, It’s beautiful too, with the air gently floating into the room, filling it with earth-sweet scents after the rain. No, I’m not waxing lyrical, just trying to describe a moment. Like one that touched me yesterday that I should not have been privy to, but through the movement of time and being somewhere, I was. It was of someone still in the depths of and coming to terms with grief. My heart reached out to such an extent that tears filled my eyes, as I know only too well what the person is going through, only far greater in its own way. I wanted so much to comfort them and say everything will ease soon – but it takes time and many a visit to Hades before the light shines through. But it will. I know, because it shines for me. I am blessed to have a husband with whom we share everything. The ups, downs, kicks in the teeth, sorrow, disappointment, hurt, being lied to, stolen from, betrayed and laughs. This is a time in our lives, especially Tom’s, when he should be out enjoying his pleasure of fishing quietly by one of his many favourite lochs. But what is he doing? Being a carer in the truest sense of the word, to me, as I become more unable to do things like I used to. I honestly couldn’t wish for more. While all this is bursting in my heart to shout to the world, here it is on virtual paper – I LOVE YOU TOM! I wish everyone could experience a joy that transcends the mundane, through thick and thin. There. I feel so much lighter having off-loaded that burden of thought. I’ll be taking a pause from chatting for a while to organise my room of creations – can only manage a little bit at a time – but will get there. Have a wonderful day J Susan x

Support needed

I know, it's a wee while since I scribbled, but been busy (ha! with my muscles?) organising (that means delegating lol) the new hobby craft room.  In the meantime ...

This is already on my Facebook page, but well worth adding here too. A petition is available to sign at

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/comhairle-nan-eilean-siar-save-the-barra-benbecula-air-service

which I've already done. Feel free to pass the link on. We need all the support we can get. Thank you kindly.
As the days fly by, as opposed to Barra flights NOT, I get increasingly angrier over a ridiculous situation enforced on the Barra folk. I swear (yeah, I do too lol) that despite being disabled, with my last ounce of energy I will do everything I can to get those flights reinstated. Even if it means I can only lift a pebble to either fling at the council or, more constructively, help build a bridge at least from Eriskay to Barra. I keep getting memories of books read and stories told of the St Kilda folk and the heart wrenching departure they had to make from their beautiful island. It’s now a World Heritage Site. Well, the same is NOT going to happen to the Isle of Barra. Got it?! Good. My husband took film of a Benbecula-Barra flight and it’s worth watching its beauty and unique landing on the tidal renewed beach (twice a day) runway at Barra. Here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1izxLA3Yoc&feature=youtu.be

Sit back and enjoy the journey, noting the little ferry seen en route (weather permitting) is the very one people will have to use to get to the nearest land on Eriskay with a causeway giving a long, but alternative chance of an arduous onward drive to Benbecula, or even further to Stornoway.  Failing that, if someone is in desperate need of hospital treatment and our oft inclement weather permits, there’s always the air ambulance. The Health Board will love footing that bill on a more frequent basis I’m sure, NOT. I wonder if there’s someone out there who could trump the council into shame even more – the operative word being trump. It would be a more entrepreneurial and philanthropic project than, say, a golf course. Just a thought ... now I need that kick start coffee. Enjoy the day all :) Susan

Cosy Up

The weather’s turned windy, cold, dull, with the occasional spot of rain.  So kick off your shoes, snuggle up in your favourite chair with a warming cuppa while enjoying the heat from the stove and watch the flames dance. Have a good and relaxing day everyone :) Susan

Heb Hop!

Who’d-a-thought it eh? hahahahaha My Emperor Hubby doing his stint of gardening lol  Have a good giggle and day, Susan :D

Own Up!

OK ... who did it?  Who snaffled the last page outa the book?  Yeah, there I was, amongst thousands of others, glued to Dragon’s progress, when the crucial last moment arrived and PINGGGGG! Off went the screen again in a LOS (Loss of Signal) from the ISS.  That’s where I ended up watching most of the berthing process occur, with SpaceX coverage alongside.  But to swipe the last few minutes or even seconds of Dragon’s docking would have miffed me bigtime, but for the fact live coverage at all is such a privilege.  Amazes me that rockets zoom into space and synchronise at high speeds with another array of spacecraft, the result of years of pre-programmed manoeuvres.  Simply fascinating and quite mind boggling.  I loved watching it all (except the LOSs) but eavesdropped on on-screen chatter via the various chat platforms, like Facebook; Twitter etc.  Some of the comments were hilarious and kept us all going.  I couldn’t participate, as ain’t a member of these forums.

After a solid 6 hrs of viewing, I zonked and this morning is pay-up time with every bit of my body grumbling. I guess it’ll be little bursts of exercise throughout the day, whether I like it or not. But sleep beckons.  At least the stove is lit, though am thinking of renaming it the furnace. I put one too many logs on it last night, for an all-night burn, before shutting it down for sleeps.  Hmmm – would have been OK if the wind hadn’t perked up a bit, so windows had to be re-opened in an attempt to cool the place down. However, when I wakened this morning, there were still fragments of embers and the whirry gizmo was still turning.

Didn’t switch the telly on at all yesterday and methinks it might be same again today as I’m becoming reacquainted with the gentle sound of the flames.  Awww they were beautiful last night – great, long, amber streaks of light.  It was very comforting - and amusing as the three of us, me, hubby and Aurora the cat, sat watching the display, speechlessly mesmerised.

This coffee needs to be stronger as it’s not waking me up like it should. Have a good day wherever you are :) Susan

Rocket fuel-strength coffee

Yaaaaawwwwwwwwn! Oh scoos me, that escaped.

Been on automatic pilot this morning – fed the cat, lit the stove, made a cuppa, booted the puter and am all systems go – chuckling. Takes at least an hour to get going, so just as well am up in the wee small hours yet again. Should be well and truly awake by the time the Dragon is grabbed by the ISS. YES! About 9pm GMT last night NASA gave the ‘set to GO’ and I’ve got SpaceX and NASA ready on the monitor.

NASA TV begins live coverage from 8.30am GMT http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

SpaceX from 11am GMT http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Needless to say I’ll be glued to it, probably NASA coverage, as it shows Dragon’s run up to the grappling gizmo. The science, technology and wonder of it all, will never cease to amaze me.

In the meantime, I’ll be on the Shipping site, watching the floating world of fishing boats, ferries and tankers http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?refresh=2&count=10&map=Hebrides I monitored the fishing boat that gave me the giggles yesterday with its destination marked as ‘Prawns!’  Hope their catch was abundant. They deserve a well earned rest.  Jings, but they work long hours! I know the work is hard too and not for the weak-hearted. I am curious about the various boundary lines, some in the middle of nowhere that seem to be distinct traffic lanes.  Also, why some boats appear to go to a pale colour on screen – does that mean they’ve slowed down a bit? Some even vanish from the monitor! Lots to learn, but will have fun doing so. Nearly had kittens watching a monstrous oil tanker plough its way through The Minch – there were a few smaller vessels nearby, which in reality were likely miles apart, but on screen appear close enough for crews to hop aboard and have a cuppa tea and swap some good ole yarns.

Had to have the windows open nearly all of yesterday and well into nightfall, until a winged bug flew in. Hmph! It took a dive between me eyes and specs! Then flew around goodness knows where. I can’t help but wonder if it got macerated in the whirry thing above the stove. Yuck! Will have to get some sort of window screens for the warmer weather (we live in hope lol)  Aurora constantly jumps on the window sill inspecting the garden for predators (neighbouring cats) with her snout poked through the slightly open window. Ragdoll cats are not blessed with a sense of danger, so letting her out is a no-no, unless on a harness. Once she dragged me across the garden chasing a stray cat – she is big and powerful. I, on t’other hand am not strong and there’s not a lot of me, so I had an involuntary run around the garden while screaming for hubby’s help haha

 
Talking of gardens, there’s a plethora of little spikes appearing rather rapidly. They’re green and ... yep ... the grass has started growing, so mowing will be on the cards soon.  Time for more coffee methinks and an eye on what’s where on the ocean and up in space. Enjoy your day, Susan :)

Now that I remember

I forgot to say t’other day about an interesting site I found.  In truth, I didn’t find it, hubby did.  The sea haar was impeding the arrival/departure of any flights that day when I suddenly heard some sort of aircraft.  Hubby said it was a helicopter and sure enough it sat on the apron for a wee while before silence resumed.  I wondered where it went and what it was – to which hubby said, hold on, I’ll just check. ! He said it was a Coastguard helicopter that had likely come in to medivac someone out to Stornoway.  Blimey, I thought and asked how he knew all this, and he pointed me in the direction of a great website (if yer interested that sort of thing) about ships of all types sailing about in our waters.  I put a link to it in my LINKS list, but in case you missed it, here it is again.  http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?map=Hebrides

This morning while browsing through my usual haunts of weather, cardy stuff and now ships, I had a right good giggle.  There’s a boat (sorry guys if it’s a huge floaty thing) called ‘Nereus Ins172’.  On hovering over the small yellow boat shape, (or any of them) details appear about the name of the vessel, whether it’s moored, underway or fishing, speed, destination and other info.  Well, this one has a destination of ‘Prawns!’ hahahaha  Awww bless, I do hope they get a good catch.

In a previous life, I peeled the lil beggars while living in SW Scotland.  Here on the island, my dear bro used to pack them when they were’t able to go out fishing lobsters owing to weather conditions.  Having travelled all over the UK and abroad, my few months of prawn peeling did not escape entry onto my CV.  It became a great ice-breaker when attending interviews and I’m happy to say did not preclude me from getting the job I was after.  If they could have smelled me after a day’s work at the prawn factory, they might have reconsidered lol  8hrs working in ice-cold water eventually turned my slim fingers into plump sausage-like things.  I really believed typing was something of the past and never be able to do so again.  Ahhh not the case – things heal and I soon began working somewhere else, fingers having returned to normal.  I didn’t half learn a new vocabulary though and was initiated into the throng of workers by a tray full of waste from the peelings being flung over me.  I did the same back to the culprit haha  She didn’t try it again, but my make up was ruined for the day.  Yep, along with the 4 woolly sweaters, 3 pairs of trousers, as many socks as would fit in my wellies, I still put on me mascara and lippy.  Those were the days ...

 
Back to today.  The stove had exhausted itself completely, I managed to gut, polish and light it afresh.  A nice wood aroma is filling the air and I’m going to sit back, sip a cuppa and watch the ships pootle about on the map.  Then it’ll be time to watch the Dragon (yeah I watched the Falcon lift-off yesterday – awesome!) being grappled by the ISS (8am GMT on NASA TV) before docking proper.  Have a good day, Susan :)
p.s. Been watching the ‘Loch Portain’ ferry en route to from Berneray to Leverburgh.  Have travelled that route fairly often; it’s beautiful. One day I asked a crew member (turned out to be the Captain) why the boat made so many zig-zags (13 of them). I was promptly and matter of factly educated out of my ignorance by being told they were ‘Alterations of Course’.  He wasn’t smiling – but I was, and thanked him.  It’s a journey through very rocky waters, and somewhere I have a book that gives the names of most of the rocks.  Fascinating reading. :)

UPDATE!

Oh fiddle-de-de! Owing to the hiccups Dragon endured yesterday, the arrival at the ISS is not expected until Sunday :/ Dunno times yet, but the SpaceX site has an interesting widget showing where Dragon is flying above now. http://www.spacex.com/webcast/