The tractor boys

A new sport may be about to take Bardsey by storm; tractor tyre rolling! This afternoon Steve and Jim were to be found practising down at Cafn perfecting their technique in time for the inaugural event. Return match as soon as the tyre is patched and returned to the island!

Elaine

We now live in a gated community!

Out with the old . . .

. . . . and in with the new.

We’re now living in a gated community, but not the sort that is socially exclusive. Over the last week or so, the Trust has been replacing some of the battered (literally) wooden gates and rusted out iron gates around the houses with new replicas. They are a bit shiny at the minute, but once the galvanised finish has weathered for a couple of years they will be painted black as before.

Jim

Change in the weather

The delayed spring has retreated and bird migration has pretty much stopped. The spell of sunny, settled days has left us for a bit, and we have fog and wind.

Jim

Blue sky thinking

The skies over Bardsey are often streaked with contrails from passing aircraft heading to Ireland and beyond. They fan out over the Irish Sea and sometimes provide stunning sunsets. However, it has been quite lovely without them; we have been blessed with very blue skies and the lack of white plumes has added to our sense of isolation. Whilst feeling for those inconvenienced by the volcanic out pouring from Iceland, we do think, rather smugly, that we have been lucky to have enjoyed our own blue skies in our special place; no passport or airport waiting room required!

Elaine

Changing rooms

We have an ambulant lawnmower!

Jim and I have been moving house again; we are back where we began back in October, Plas Lloft. The Observatory last week welcomed the first of the season’s visitors and they have been treated to a freshly decorated and newly furnished accommodation; Cristin looks lovely. The seasonal migrants are also making a return to the island, we now fall asleep most nights to the wonderful, unique call of the returning Manx Shearwaters. Already some are in their burrows on the mountain and in the field banks.

We like our new home; it gives us a different aspect to the island, a different alignment of the walls and a different view of the beaches and lighthouse. Our barn is part of the wonderful vernacular Plas outbuildings and we are set more into the fields which are currently full of expectant ewes. Just over the wall is the birthing field, then the lambs and their mums get moved the day after giving birth to the nursery field, which is next door. I never realised lambs were so mad; they form little groups of up to about half a dozen, and rush headlong about playing ‘follow my leader’ along the tops of the banks, so madcap and so funny. Steve and Jo, the farmers, regularly patrol the fields during the day, late into the night and early every morning to ensure that all is going well or to help out where needed. The cows have also started to calve this week, up at Nant, so we hear the quad going up and down the track as they are checked each watch too.

We have had some of the worst weather of the winter in the last week, snow, sleet and strong winds. The barn is small and fairly easy to heat up, but as we have no electricity we are missing the luxury of our electric blanket at bedtime! However, we keep hoping that spring will arrive soon and that we can really enjoy the warmer weather before we leave Bardsey in seven weeks time.

Elaine