White Christmas come early...

After a couple of days of acheingly cold weather, at last we have had some snow! This morning we awoke to find a white Scalpay much to the surprise of the livestock. The hens won't come out and demanded breakfast in bed (or nest) today, and the sheep are digging about looking for food. Actually they had a good feed of shredded beet and Lewis mix earlier, but they do enjoy playing up to the camera! Little Heather, who had a short back and sides last week, is curled up in a warm spot trying to look invisible in case she has to go for a walk, and Pippin was a bit surprised at his first sight of snow. Bramble, who is an old hand at such matters takes it all in her stride.
Changing the subject, I don't know if you've ever come across those amusing publications called "Luxury Caravan Calendar", "Luxury Shed Calendar" etc. (If not, googling should take you there on Amazon).
Well, here on the islands there has always been a tradition of re-cycling materials and utilising found items in an imaginative way. I guess it is because the supply of raw materials has always been finite and expensive to import so the necessity to make do and mend is still alive and well amongst some sectors of the community. This is especially true of crofters. So when my O/H said he was about to build a sheep fold on the croft to gather the Hebridean sheep into for their dip and drench, my heart skipped with joy.
For this monumental construction we are talking re-cycled corrugated tin which came from someones (possibly our) old shed, and a variety of posts and wood which originated either from the shoreline or from the electricity companys leavings after they took down some of the light poles locally.
As you can see from the picture below, the work was started but,sadly, completion has been delayed by weather (a common occurrence here). I can't wait to see the final result as it looks like it will be a triumph of traditional architecture. You can't see from the photo here but it is in an impressive location with commanding 360 degree views (as the estate agents would say!), O/H reckons it will knock at least 15% off the value of all the houses round about.....
When its finished I will definitely be featuring it again.

Someone who has a good eye for these sort of constructions is Donnie Mackay from Skye - see his http://hebphoto.blogspot.com/.