Day Seven--Searching for the White Sands

This post is post-dated for Wednesday, September 5, 2007.

Planasker school house was the original school house for all levels in these parts. In the 1960s it was shut and had since fallen derelict. But thanks to Martin and heather Malcolm, Planasker is now a thriving house and bed and breakfast. Martin noted that the whole of the place was a ruin when he spotted it and through many years they've been able to make it look as it was always inhabited. It's a lovely place now, with big views out to the loch and hills. It seems they have spared no expense to make this home welcoming and homey. Currently there is only one room for hire, so we had the whole of the bed and breakfast side to ourselves. it was like holiday in our own cottage, as the guest quarters are expansive with a drawing room, dining room, a library/study, and a loft area, not to forget the bedroom and bath. I highly recommend this lovely bed and breakfast if you ever find yourself in need of respite and peace in the south lochs of Lewis. Heather and Malcolm prepare fabulous breakfasts and scrumptuous dinners. This morning we had a most unusal grapefruit prepared soaking the grapefruit half over night in Heather honey (honey infused with the Heather flower), then grilled face up in the broiler. It's warm and delicious. It was a divine concotion, and though outstanding, she has prepared us quite a few rivals to it! Heather grew up in Stornoway on Lewis, and Martin in Glasgow. They decided to move back here, which she said was unexpected. Most Hebridean native youth leave for the "bright lights" of the city and never return. Marbig is set in a strangely lunar landscape. It feels like entering another world, so unlike what we are used to. The great lumpy earth is scratched to the bone revealing bald rocks with tough green and Heather splotches bordering them. In these parts, as in most of the islands, fishing and crofting are still alive. Marbig is more of a fishing village, but raising sheep and farming hay and peat the traditional way are done throughout the isles. Peat is farmed in a most unusal way, by digging down a foot or so into the earth and pulling out the peaty ground in rectangular lumps. This will continue on a straight path and when the grassy earth grows back over the exposed earth, it will scar the earth with a straight lip which appears to be a "step" in the earth. Lewis itself is an expansive island, but Heather seems to think the total inhabitants of all the islands is around 20,000. We think our home town is guite small with a toatl county wide population of around 50,000, but she was shocked to know we came from such a place with so many people. Both Lewis and Harris are known for their famous white sand beaches not ulike the Caribbean. On a clear day there the sea is turquoise and calm and clear and the sand sparkling white. it's a most unusual sight for Scotland, but wholly enjoyable. The west side of both islands is where you'll find the sandy beaches. In fact, Lewis has come to be synonymous with surfing. Believe it or not, die hard surfers find Lewis has some of the best waves in Europe. The other side of Harris and Lewis, the east sides, are rocky and unearthly. Dave had the same experience upon viewing the landscape here as he did when he first saw Joshua Tree in college. Both are strange and lunar and enchanting. Today is a warm rainy day. Clouds again fill the sky, so we head out for Stornoway to buy Harris Tweed at the Kenneth MacKenzie Factory Store out towards the airport. In a small part of the factory they keep the "remnants" of larger orders and sell them to the public. There were 4 rows of floor to ceiling bolts and remnants of tweed, and I was in fabric heaven. I told Dave that if he spent money on whiskey I got to spend money on tweed--and so I did. We bought so much we had to go into town to buy a bag to ship back with us to the states. There are so many variations in color and pattern of tweed. Harris is renowned the world over as THE place to get tweed. Tweed makers in Harris still make tweed the old fashioned way in their homes. Each Harris Tweed earns the right to don the Harris Orb label, which ensure the tweed has indeed been created by hand in Harris. Some of the tweeds we bought were very old, made years ago, but they looked new to us. I like to buy things with history to them and things made by hand. It's the personal touch so lost today in a mechanized technologically advanced industrial world. There is still something comforting about someone deciding to begin a new fabric without use of a manufacturing plant. Since most tweed comes from here, I was in heaven to find tweeds that in the US Ralph Lauren would have been marked up to extraordinary expense. In fact, the salesman showed me where they keep their Ralph Lauren tweeds. We ended up spending a good part of the day here, so by the time we left we were tired and decided to head back for a nap and some tea. It reminded us we are on vacation and can relax more than we do anything else. So back we headed. On the way we discussed the unfortunate news that the new owner of the Kenneth MacKenzie factory was changing the way tweed was done on the islands by limiting production to about 4 different patterns. The salesman had told us his plans affected everyone in the industry, and as such many of these lovely patterns that fill the factory store will never be seen again. Tweed is not as in demand as it once was as it's been in decline since the early 90s. Not to mention that in the US people think it's too expensive. So by limiting tweed production to 4 patterns the new owner will ensure the longevity of the patterns in suits and jackets. It's a sad turn of events, really, when an industry begins to die out. We got back and had a lovely afternoon reading and napping. We walked around Marbig a bit. I kept thinking of something I had read about Marbig--that they once had a "seer" in this town who could forecast tragedy--and he was always correct. In a town this small, he wasn't the guy you wanted to run into around the village! We came back to sit by a roaring fire. Heather served us a 3 course dinner about 7:30 and we stayed up to have our coffee and watch two Sherlock Holmes mysteries by the fireside. Being as the two stories were set in Scotland, it made it all the more an enjoyable evening. Today I had read in The Road North an excerpt about Lewis by Bettina Selby where she rightly refers to Lewis as "a marvelous but fragile world on the edge of a wild ocean."
It does seem a fragile world and the ocean is always out there to remind me that its fickle temperment has ruled these people's live for centuries.