Summer Holidays - Week Four

Week four of our summer started with a special breakfast at my dad's church on the Sunday morning. I loved the wild flowers in bobbins as table decorations.

I love the charity shops in Stornoway. We've found so many great bargains over the years. My latest find was the beautiful bundle of Spode China for just £12.

We headed over to the west side to watch Point play again. It was beautiful when we left Stornoway and pouring rain when we reached the west side! Still, we watched Point win again so it wasn't all bad.

We spent another day at our favourite beach.

While the boys played shinty I had a new crochet project on my hook.

We found a huge jellyfish on the shore line.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner out with my mum and dad.

We called in to visit my uncle and aunt and Fraser loved seeing my uncle's old tractors.

And the boys all enjoyed a quick spin on his quad.

I managed to catch up with a few of my cousins this summer which was really lovely. One of these catch ups was at the beach where we spent out summers hanging about together as kids.

At the end of week four we packed up and had a super early drive down to Harris to catch the ferry down to Skye for this year's Shinty Camp. I drove down with most of the boys, and James' girlfriend, while my husband Andy and David took the Ullapool ferry as he had to go to Inverness first to pick up a minibus for the camp.

It was a really beautiful morning, it almost made getting up at 5am not quite so bad.

Like last year I was the cook at camp. This year my assistant cook was James' girlfriend.

This was where I would be spending most of my time for week five of our summer.

I had organised and booked all of our food to arrive in three separate huge Tesco deliveries over three different days and so the first of these deliveries arrived and needed put away a few hours after we arrived in Portree. 

The hostel where the camp is held is a lovely place. The dining room is so cheery.

Campers arrived by about 5pm and then it was all go for the next 8 days.

The boys had all been looking forward to shinty camp as they had enjoyed it so much last year. 

Fraser was particularly excited when he saw that his little bed was right next to my one!

By 11pm I was more than ready for bed, after being up at 5am and having such a non stop day.

Summer Holidays - Week Three

(Click on the week you want to see if you missed week 1, week 2, or Show Day)

At the start of week 3 of our holidays my brother and his family arrived at my mum and dad's too. Fraser and his cousin Joanna were soon out on their bikes together.

While all the other cousins spent hours playing football.

We all headed to the beach one day, which started off over-cast and a little chilly.

I had brought some crochet with me to work on though, so it kept my knees cosy while the sun remained hidden.

The colours in this blanket have been inspired by Hebridean beaches and machair so I thought I should get a progress shot of it on a Hebridean beach.

When the tide was all the way out we walked over to see the caves.

This is the boys and all their cousins.

By now the sun had come out too.

For a couple of hours every day of week 3 David and Ally went to the shinty coaching run by Camanachd Leodhais. This was the first year that Ally was old enough to go along and he absolutely loved it, showing as much skill for the game as his brothers have.

One evening there were skiff races out by the harbour, organised by the Stornoway Sailing Club. They had a barbecue, home baking and a face painter.

I don't imagine the face painter gets asked to do too many giraffes, but Fraser insisted that he wanted to be his favourite animal and she did a pretty good job of it.

I think Fraser is so funny in this picture my dad took of him and his cousin. Fraser has his lollipop in his mouth, but it looks like he is smoking and he reminds me of some old vintage sailor!

I continued working on my Hebridean Machair blanket. The pattern for this was released four rows each week so it was all up to date here. (It's a little behind again now, but it's a nice quick one to catch up on)

The boys love playing this old Game of Life that was ours as kids.

We all went along to watch my other brother play for Point.

And when the match was finished the boys and their cousins had a quick kick around on the pitch.

Fraser did a spot of baking.

The older boys played a long, and pretty complicated, game with their cousins and uncle. Calum didn't remain as confused as he looks here, and after they stayed up till about midnight playing just one game of it he actually won.

Fraser and his cousin are great company for each other.

One afternoon we went along to Back Sports Centre where they were offering use of the hall for anyone to just drop in whenever they wanted, for the price of a donation only. The boys all enjoyed it so much that we actually went back a second afternoon too.

I wasn't just working on crochet but also my year long cross stitch project. The animal patterns are released at the start of each month and July's animal was this monkey.

David and Ally loved their week of shinty.

Towards the end of week 3 dad came across to join us and so we tracked his ship as it headed across the minch.

With us all together again, we took advantage of having Shen's photography skills and he took this lovely photo of all of us.

Week 3 ended with the annual Stornoway Lifeboat Open Day and 5k fundraiser. We had set our sights on winning the prize for the family with the most entrants in the 5k again this year. Just in case anyone had tried to equal our total of last year we asked my mum and dad to come along too, so our total taking part were 15, plus a dog.

I took Fraser's bike with us as I thought his little legs would get a bit tired walking 5k. He managed to cycle the whole way, although he did need a few pushes up the steeper hills in the castle grounds. 

The older three boys ran the 5k with their cousins and all finished in respectable times of between 20 and 25 minutes - my 14 year old nephew was actually 3rd over all! We took up the rear and walked the course, finishing in about 56 minutes, which beat our time of 58 minutes last year.

After the 5k the Open Day started, and going onto the Lifeboat is a highlight for Ally and Fraser.

James was so hot after his run that he volunteered to stand in the stocks for his brothers and cousins to throw cold sponges at, and then some other random kids started joining in too 😂 

15 people was enough to win the prize for the family with the most members taking part and so we went home with another lovely slate plaque this year. It's now hanging alongside last year's one in my mum and dad's living room.