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[Weaver]

It has been an absolutely stunning week, blue skies and blazing sunshine all day every day, as is usual for this time of year every year for more than the last ten years. Cold nights, down to 4C in the greenhouse even.

Snow is forecast for the weekend, but I doubt it will be down to my level, although the prediction is that it will   be very cold in the day with winds from the arctic.

Janet took this photo from the garden, looking east; the sea and the moor of Druim Fheàrna, on Skye, is visible, with the mainland mountain of Ladhar Bheinn above and behind. If you look very closely - may have to scroll horizontally - there are a couple of houses (on Skye) to be seen at the bottom right hand corner. The bottom of the image is all in the shadow of Skye’s higher mountains cast eastwards from behind the photographer.

[sevenlayermuddle]

My childhood memories of Western Scotland tend to recall month of May heatwaves.

Can’t remember exactly how many times I have visited the western Isles as an adult but on at least two occasions, I have done so in May.   Dragging others along with me on both these trips, I don’t remember any complaints.

Spectacular photo. 

[burakkucat]

Thank you for posting that photograph. I spent a few minutes appreciating the view.

Would I be correct to say the the "ribbon", visible in the shadow at the bottom of the image, is the road from Harrapul to Heasta?

[Weaver]

No, we’re looking directly east and it is in fact the road through the Druim Fheàrna township, a smaller settlement to the east of Heasta, terminating on the sea shore at the head of Loch Eiseoirt. The Harapul-Heasta road is way below the photographer‘s feet, very much out of shot, and would be visible at the bottom of the image all the way across from left-right were the lens not so zoomed in. It confused me too, took me a while to work this out. Janet’s powerful lens revealed this tiny snippet of road which I have never been able to see with the native eye.

If one looks directly south across the western opening of Loch Eiseoirt to the land on the far side, it is possible to see a road with some houses on it in the village of Òrd; at night one can occasionally see the lights of cars on it. I am so high up that I can see these other two settlements; this isn’t possible from lower down the bank into Heasta.

Pangur Bán got stuck outside the house this evening. Neither of the boys has ever learned to use the cat door to get into the house. Fear of meeting another cat could be something to do with it. Perhaps Somhairle doesn’t have the brainpower required, but that doesn’t help us understand Pangur Bán’s inability. He was sitting in a plant pot, watching birds until he nodded off earlier; that could be the reason that he got left behind when Janet and the other animals went back inside. Anyway, Janet luckily realised he was missing at bedtime and went to call him in. No Thomas yet tonight; he will most likely show up at some time in the middle of the night for a brief break from his early morning outdoor activities.

[burakkucat]

Thank you for the descriptions.

Having battled with Google Maps and the Anglicized spellings, I've now found both locations. Assuming that they have not been mapped in incorrect locations, I would suggest that both of your compass headings should be rotated by about 40 degrees, clockwise. So I make the heading to Druim Fheàrna approximately ESE and that to Òrd approximately SSW.

 

[kitz]

beautiful

[Bowdon]

That is a great photo.

[Weaver]

@Burakkucat exactly right about the more precise compass directions. The SMO dictionary will, if you select "Gàidhlig", find anglicised spellings for you given Gaelic placenames, and vice versa; it’s a general bidirectional dictionary too.

[burakkucat]

Thank you for the link, I've bookmarked it for future use.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Doing my bit for my Scottish heritage I hope no contributors to this thread will mind if I point out...  vast majority of Scots don’t speak Gaelic and those that do speak Gaelic don’t expect non-Scots to speak it.   English-spelling of place names have been the norm for many, many years.  The bilingual road signs you see these days are a fairly recent phenomenon, all signs were just English in my youth.

That said, I am envious of anybody with the gift to explore and understand other languages.   For some reason it is a skill that I’ve never had.

[Weaver]

Just as 7LM says, 20 years ago road signs around here and in the mainland only had the anglicised spellings or names used by English-speakers iirc. The Western Isles might be Gaelic- or Gaelicised spelling-only now, my memory fails, and I haven’t been to the Western Isles for nearly ten years, what with being so immobile. Very many spellings in the Western Isles are not Gaelic anyway, but are Norse, and that’s very true around where I am too. Some places, like in Wales, have two names; one used by English speakers and one used by Gaelic speakers and they can be completely different; for example: Drochaid an Aonachain / Spean Bridge; Inbhir Pheofharain / Dingwall.

[sevenlayermuddle]

The distinction between Skye and the Western Isles is interesting.   I instinctively distinguish between Inner and Outer Hebrides, which I regard as strictly defined geographical areas.  But my use of ‘Western Isles’ may be lazy, or wrong.   In my minds eye, I do tend to include Skye in the Western Isles.  Though curiously, I’d not include Mull.  I cannot justify that. 

A quick google suggests that the Western Isles normally means the Outer Hebrides, so my habit is almost certainly wrong.   Friends back home, if I still had any, would be appalled.   But none of the definitions found in Google look more than a couple of decades old, so I wonder, is there such a thing as an authoritative definition?

In any case, apols for confusion, my comments re Gaelic language and place names were intended to be pertinent to all of mainland Scotland, Inner and Outer Hebrides.

The one and only native bilingual fellow Scot I ever knew, from University days, came from Islay.  I’ve never been sure about the pronunciation of that island, but seem to remember,  he used ‘eye la’.

[Weaver]

Your friend was giving you the English pronunciation of Islay [ailə] to rhyme with "smiler" (but without the r).

In Gaelic, Islay is "Ìle" pronounced [iːlə] to rhyme with "feeler" (but without the r). Islay Gaelic is fascinating; vowels are very different and it has glottal stops in various places, the distribution of which I do not yet understand. For example: "math" general pron. [ma], meaning "good" is pronounced in Islay [mɛː] like "fair" in Yorks accent; and this is true across the board, many vowels are different.

7LM’s inclusion of Skye in "Western Isles" is not something I have heard elsewhere.

[sevenlayermuddle]

My friend would most certainly have been giving me the English pronunciation of Islay.  That’s what I’m curious about, as it crept up in conversation a while ago.    I thought he pronounced it as “Island”, without the ”nd”, but have not spoken to him in nearly 40 years, my memory may be wrong.

I remain impressed by, and slightly envious of, your command of languages.   And very envious indeed of the beautiful place you live.

[Weaver]

7LM island without the nd, indeed, in English.

It’s sowing at ground level here. It was thick fog yesterday and as expected the wind turned so it was coming from the North.