I spent the next week taking full advantage of having a great deal of time to myself. I wrote a second tune (I'd written one right after Wayne left), this one about the big storm we had experienced earlier. I designed and worked on a second weaving, and dabbled with quite a few other creative endeavours.
In the midst of all this, I kept going out for walks or drives to take as much advantage of the location and the countryside as I could. The first of these "adventures" was a trip to the Iolaire Monument. This is a memorial for a shipwreck that occurred after WWI, bringing home the soldiers safe and sound. They were in port when the winds threw them onto the rocks, just offshore, and most of them drowned, right there in their home port. It was a devastating tragedy for the island, and left a huge gap of a generation from which the population has never fully recovered.
The memorial is located on the shore where the shipwreck took place. You can see the rocks where it hit from the shore. It is just North of Stornoway, near the airport. You drive down a lonely farm road until you come to a dead end, park the car, and walk down a trail past a marker explaining the shipwreck. The trail winds down the slope to the shore.
As I was walking this pathway, I noticed a ship listing in the water, looking off-balance, as if it was foundering. It was totally silent here, with no sounds at all, and this listing ship made me feel as if I was looking at a phantom from the past. It was very spooky.
After staring at this startling image for a while, I headed on down the trail, reaching the monument. It is a simple obelisk with an inscription remembering the 205 men who were lost. Beside the monument is a stone cairn, probably erected much earlier. Beyond these markers are the rocks where they hit, and a standing marker on a rock. It is a moving sight.
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While here, I got to observe a great deal of birdlife. There were shags and gulls and hooded crows galore. There was also a black-throated diver (similar to our Common Loon) swimming and fishing just offshore. I had a wonderful time watching all of these birds, and admiring the scenery. The landscape was one of mudflats and green islands of land sticking above, quite picturesque.
On the way back up the hill, I noticed that you could see the Stornoway lighthouse from here, and that the views of the town itself were quite spectacular. It is a wonderful site to visit.
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On my second Sunday since Wayne had left, I again had lunch with my landlady. The first lunch had been quite delicious, but far more than I could eat. She served my plates to the brim, providing me with a soup course (which was enough for me for the full meal); a meat course -- lamb, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower; and a dessert course with a full bowl of ice cream with pears. This was followed by tea. She ate most of the same, but only in small quantities, and then watched me eat, which was also a bit uncomfortable.
It was all delicious, but it was way more than I could really eat, and I didn't want to offend her, so I had eaten everything. When I arrived for my second visit, I told her I had eaten way too much the first time, and asked that she just give me about half of what she gave me the first time. She agreed, but then proceeded to give me just as much if not more than the previous time. So, this time I didn't eat a lot of it, and I think it hurt her feelings. I decided that for both of us it would be better if I didn't accept her invitations to lunch any longer. She has since sent me leftover soup each week to have available.
Sunday evening, after recovering from my large meal, I got word from the harp lesson organizer, and things were set for me to offer lessons on Friday. I was finally able to start teaching! I immediately started calling the students and setting up a schedule for Stornoway lessons that Friday.
We also agreed that I would run an ensemble rehearsal each Friday right after school gets out so that they could start preparing for the National Mod, which is to be held in Stornoway in October. They had one tune for the mod, and I needed to come up with the other for them to learn. This was a good challenge, as it had to be Gaelic in origin and in a contrasting style from the song tune Wendy had taught them earlier.
I spent much of the week preparing for those first lessons and rehearsal -- picking and assembling music, figuring out what to work on, meeting with the organizer to discuss goals, etc. When I wasn't doing this, though, I was out exploring further.
It was raining after my meeting with the harp coordinator, so I went to the Museum of Island Living in Stornoway. I spent hours in there pouring over the exhibits, which had a lot of examples and artifacts of island life, and was well laid-out. I was almost the only person there, besides the staff.
I was astonished to walk out of the museum hours later to find the skies were bright and blue, and no rain in sight. It was also really warm. (I'd gone in without my jacket because I parked right outside and I didn't want to be carrying it the whole time in the museum, and I was quite comfortable without it when I came out.)
So, I ran a few quick errands, and headed home via the back road from Stornoway. This road cuts across the island in the middle of the upper portion, and going this direction you get a wonderful backdrop of row upon row of mountains, all straight ahead of you as you drive. (I'd never driven this road in this direction, and now I will more frequently for the view!) As I drove, the sun started to set, and it got more and more beautiful! During that time a thin layer of clouds had developed across the horizon, leaving the top of the sky clear. As I drove and the sun dipped behind these clouds, it turned a beautiful shade of pink/purple and just continued to look more impressive as I drove.
The clouds started to rise up from the horizon, bringing more behind them, so it was like a trail of puffs of steam rising up from the warm colours coming from behind the purple mountains. It was like something you would dream of. By the time I reached Ach Mor on the main road, it was totally gorgeous. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the camera, and was still almost 20 minutes from home. (Also there are a small group of cows that live right at that end of the road, and they didn't want to move for me, and were quite picturesque as well.)
Friday arrived, and I started my lesson day with the ensemble rehearsal. We had a low turn-out, only three arrived for that week. We hoped it was just because people had forgotten. Those three did well reviewing Wendy's tune and learning the new one I taught, Cuidich an Righ.
After the rehearsal, I had four lessons in a row, one with multiple students. This proved grueling, because each lesson was the equivalent of a "first lesson," where you evaluate where people are, what they want, and then try to figure out how best to teach them. By the time I was done at around 9 pm, I was exhausted. However, I'd agreed to have dinner with the organizer, so I went back to her house and she served me a delicious dinner. (And much more reasonably sized, especially since I was starving by this time.) We had a nice time chatting, and I didn't get away until after 11 pm, getting home around midnight.
I was totally worn out, but it was really nice to have finally fully started
this aspect of my trip.
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