Homeland-Scotland

Browsing Archive: November, 2009

Listen to the Music - 19th Nov 2009

Posted by John McKenna on Tuesday, November 24, 2009, In : Crofting 

Broadcasting “across the Western Isles from the heart of the Hebrides,” Isles FM is a bit of misnomer. Based in a tiny Stornoway studio, our community and volunteer-run radio station, 103 MHz on the dial (not that anyone has dials these days), is more than slightly preoccupied with the Isle of Lewis. Generally speaking the station’s signal disappears once you’re in Harris (though people on the western coastal mainland apparently hear it loud and clear).


Isles FM might strike the unknow...

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Moving backwards in front - 5th Nov 2009

Posted by John McKenna on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, In : Crofting 
.  .  .  When I'm in the middle of a dream, stay in bed and float upstream . . .

I was sitting by the peat fire recently when I heard some news of February Burns. Some of you may remember him.

peat fire


He was the one mixed up in that strange but appealing scheme to “fight fur with fur” back in the late 1980s. Homeless people in the East Village and Lower East Side of NYC were paid to catch rats. Then Burns and some cohorts sewed the pelts into odd bits of garments. Gloves were the least o...

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Just Ducky - 2nd Nov 2009

Posted by John McKenna on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, In : Crofting 

Last night was our first carnivorous meal featuring croft livestock. The Indian Runners are not ideal for the table, but seeing as how we need to cull a couple of drakes, we might as well not let them go to waste. I followed the basic outlines of a Jamie Oliver recipe.


before



Roughly chopped veg (onions, carrots, celery, garlic) go in the bottom of the pan. Fresh sage leaves are mashed with salt using mortar and pestal, and then rubbed all over the bird. Citrus (lemon or orange, halved) gets ...

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 Colin Macleod - Local Lad + Landscapes:

Again in the music-videologue-of-Lewis-vein: this one features the rather frightfully handsome lad, Colin Macleod. Pal of Dotjr, apparently. New CD (on Geffen) due out soon.

 

 

About Me


Barry Shelby Barry Shelby, American-gone-native-Scotsperson, Journalist , Photographer, Author and....Crofter located now at Earshader on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Barry, based for years in Glasgow, is now with his wife Elizabeth on the Islands off the North-West Coast of Scotland.

Images 

 

Lewis (Scottish Gaelic: Leòdhas,  also Isle of Lewis) is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides (an archipelago) of Scotland. The total area of Lewis is 683 square miles (1,770 km2).

Lewis is, in general, the lower lying part of Lewis and Harris, with the other part, Harris, being more mountainous. The flatter, more fertile land means Lewis contains the only town, Stornoway and three-quarters of the population of the Western Isles. Beyond human habitation, the island's diverse habitats are home to an assortment of flora and fauna, such as the golden eagle, red deer and seals and are recognised in a number of conservation areas.

Lewis is of Presbyterian tradition with a rich history, having once been part of the Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles. Today, life is very different to elsewhere in Scotland with Sabbath observance, the Gaelic language and peat cutting retaining more importance than elsewhere. Lewis has a rich cultural heritage as can be seen from its myths and legends as well as the local literary and musical traditions.

 

(source Wikipedia)

So where is Earshader?

 

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