Household items

The plan for today WAS to go to the south and see Harris today. Harris is the home of Harris Tweed (very fashionable just now as well as being very traditional). The land looks much different to Lewis. Heavy rain is forcing a postponement of the journey, though.

Instead, I'll show you some of my kitchen...the parts that are different from most US kitchens.

Are you still there? Not really exciting, but...

Here is the cause of some embarrassment on my part. Yesterday a nice man came to "fix" my oven that wouldn't work. It took him about 1 minute to locate the "trouble." A tiny dial next to the clock. Here's what I have to do to turn on the "cooker."

Flip the switch on the wall to release the electricity. The big orange one even says "cooker."

Check. And turn on the dials on the cooker.

Check. But then there's one more thing...I could have searched for hours and not thought this had anything to do with the oven. See the clock? There is a little indicator just to the left of it and it must be in the proper position for the oven to work. It wasn't. Now it is.

You can't see it, can you. I couldn't get a close enough photo. Well. Problem solved thanks to Calum, the electrician.

Have a look around the rest of the room...

Very efficient fridge tucked under the counter.

Requisite kettle.

Back to the outlets...every single outlet in the house has an on/off switch because the current here is so much stronger. Can't take any chances of it escaping and dancing around by itself!! So each time you turn something on you've really two switches to remember.

The one above is also in my kitchen. Regular outlet on the left. One for the thermostat in the middle. The thermostat on the right - controls not only heat, but when I want the hot water heated, too. Though it always seems hot whether I hit the switch or not.

I do like radiator heat and here's mine in the kitchen with a handy drying rack.

My favorite mug...belongs to the house.

Hopefully, Harris on Saturday and then I'll have some beautiful Hebridean scenery to show you.

Spring spruce up

I don't know if you noticed in the first post from the house I'm staying in here that the clothesline out back was sadly drooping and had pins still in it. I'd been thinking, "First sunny, still day that I'm home when its daylight, I have to get out and fix that."

Before...

After...Mom, I thought you might like this!

Now, after I get a utility knife and some gloves I will start cutting this up and throwing it out piece by piece. Bit pieces of carpet just left there when the upstairs was redone sometime in the past......

Sounds simple enough...we'll see.

Boating Break

Today, Tuesday, March 22, was a beautiful day here on the island. After 48 hours of 45 mph wind we got the payoff!!! And it happened to be the day that we had planned to take the children from school five minutes down the road to the Castle Grounds to sail some boats they'd each made at home.

Here we go...

Students receiving instructions from Linda, teacher of the younger class.

They'd let their boats go in this little cement stream...

follow them down a ways...

run back up and try again.

All of the boats floated and it was a really good time. We went to the playground after that for a bit and then we were all exhausted and ready to go back for lunch!

Interpretation

Allow me to give you (if you are American) a little lesson in Heating and Electric up here on the I of L. If you have oil heat at home in the US you probably are on the schedule of you oil supplier and they somehow know when to come and fill up the tank. No bother at all. And you pay your electric bill after you've used the electricity. Bill comes in the mail, write a check or pay online. Done.

Imagine this...it isn't the same here. Not at all - for some of us.

You must keep an eye on your own oil tank and order more oil when it is low. I did try to do this and was told by friends I'm sure had good intentions not to give it another thought, they'd sort it for me. . . I ran out of oil this weekend. I'm using these to stay warm.

And the way my house is set up to pay for electric, I must say I quite like! There's a box in the closet that is a meter, but kind of in reverse of ours. I'll put the picture below. I go to the gas station and give the lady at the register (petrol station; lady at the til for the Scots) and give her the green and blue "key" you'll see laying on top of the meter. She puts on any amount of money I ask her to; I pay; I go home and plug the key into the meter and I'm electrified, well, the house is. It is quite good for monitoring your use. 

For example, I've guzzled pound after pound using my electric heaters this weekend. Gone in two days what I thought would last at least a week and a half. Oil tomorrow!!!!

Butt of Lewis

So here are some photos of the top edge of Lewis - the Butt. Yes, really. Isn't it lovely?

I could put more and more up, but I'll stop here. Just ask if you want more!

My classroom

Yesterday, Friday, was the end of my first full week of teaching. It felt very natural to be back in this classroom. We had our ups and downs of trying to work out a new routine and I need to be very intentional about laying that in place now. Anyway, here's what it looks like in my classroom.

And after school I came up to Ness, at the Butt of Lewis to spend a day with a wonderful family-ful of friends! It was very misty/foggy all afternoon. Here are the crofts outside of their house.

There's still plenty of time to book your ticket to come on over! How can you resist??????