A day for a laugh or vice versa

 

 

St Moluag’s

This is St Moluag’s Church (Teamphull Mor) at Eoropie (Eoropaidh) on the Isle of Lewis. 

Saint Moluag, (c.530 - 592) (also known as Lua, Luan, Luanus, Lugaidh, Moloag, Molluog, Molua, Murlach), was a Scottish missionary, and a contemporary of Saint Columba, who evangelized the Picts of Scotland in the sixth century.   The present church is said to date from the 12th century but the site is believed to have been consecrated since the 6th century.  One story suggests it was St Ronan who founded the church before travelling back to the Isle of Rona on the back of  a whale.

For some centuries it was dedicated to St Maelrubha who was regarded as a healer and this church was one of the four places of pilgrimage in Scotland for both healing insanity and wounds and sores.

Because it was so remote the sufferer from wounds and sores could send instead a wooden limb with an indication of where the wound was.  A visitor to the church in 1610 saw these lying on the altar.

The insane had to visit in person. Their treatment involved being given water from the nearby St Ronan’s well; led seven times sunwise around the building; laid, bound hand and foot, before the altar with their head resting on the stone pillow of the saint; and not allowed up until the next morning.  I suspect a number must have acted sane for fear of there being worse to come!  If, upon recovery, they were still insane they were declared incurable.   The expression ‘take you to the temple’ as a threat to anyone behaving foolishly was still in use as recently as 1912.

 
There can’t be that many churches in the UK (in which services are still regularly held) which do not have electricity and are lit by oil lamps and candles.

The modern stained glass window in the East is not actually a window at all but a panel suspended before the window.  

 The thread of St Moulag and St Rona follows through both this and the altar hangings and curtains which were all commissioned at the same time. 

 This old alms box is still in use and has a Flemish padlock 

The church is cruciform with the main body of the building having a sacristy at the North-east and a small (in fact minute) chapel to the North-west. 

The sacristy door is only four foot six high so the clergy had to approach the altar in a humble crouch - the mitred Bishop having to do so on hands and knees.

The chapel is only connected to the church by a small squint. The door into it from the outside is tiny.

As GB pointed out to me, there can’t be many Chapels this small.  The altar was put in in 1912 during a restoration and a stone puplit of similar freestone was put in the church at the same time. Fortunately it was not only considered too large and modern but it also caused damp in the adjacent wall so it was removed in 1998 and the church is now more as it was originally.

It's well worth a visit next time you happen to be passing on your way to...     

Well, it's  worth a visit.

I think GB is planning a post on St Moluag's some time so watch out for more about it and some different shots of the church over on Eagleton Notes.  (And, if he doesn't, his blog is always worth a visit any way...)

Thoughts in the middle of the night… the longest post I've ever written

Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and feel really good.  Take this morning for example.  At 12.30 I awoke and felt bright and breezy.  No body pains – well, unless you count some minor twinges caused by various injuries.  My head was fine – no migraine.  Not even a background headache.  And I felt as though I’d slept for a whole day. Sadly I only went to bed an hour and half ago but what the heck. Live in the moment Scriptor…

What do you mean the spellchecker rejected ‘Scriptor’.  Like how many times have I written that???  How many more times do I have to write it before the Spillchucker realises it’s my name??  OK, so I’ll press ‘Add to dictionary’ but I don’t see why the darn Spillchucker has to be so thick.  After all, it accepts Spillchucker.

 

Here’s a Columbine.  It was outside the Morven Gallery.  Isn’t it beautiful.  (In case you hadn’t noticed I’m only half concentrating on this post, the other half of me is sorting through some photos…)

I asked GB to stop the car here so I could photograph this harrow.  It’s not old but it’s attractive and somehow it reminds me of an old a style of agriculture.  I doubt there’s a combine harvester on the whole Island though I have seen a few rolls of baled hay in their plastic so I may be wrong there.  

 You can tell it’s the early hours of the morning by the degree of rambling…

It’s amazing where you find London buses!   

 This was in the Eorpie tea rooms on the northwest coast of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.   It is, of course, a small scale model sitting on a wiondow ledge. Turn right out of the tearoom door and you end up with only a few yards of machair and sand between you and America.  (And a few thousand miles of that wet stuff, of course.)  The Spillchucker rejects machair as well which probably means I should explain in detail what it is .  On the other hand I could just say it’s the flowery patch between peat and sea and point anyone who wants to know more to the relevant entry in The Goddess Wiki.  

Who would have believed ten years ago when Wiki was only a sparkle in her Dad’s eye that she would become a Goddess do quickly?  It has 22 million articles and can be accessed in 285 languages – that’s nearly half as many again as there are countries in the Olympics at the moment (204).  

In case you missed the parade at the Opening Ceremony this is who you missed seeing – in all their colour and beauty. If you watched the whole ceremony without even a loo break you are allowed to skip to the end of the list…

Afghanistan

Albania

Andorra

Antigua and Barbuda

Angola

Algeria

Argentina

Armenia

Aruba

Australia

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bahamas

Bangladesh

Barbados

Burundi

Belgium

Belize

Benin

Bermuda

Bhutan

Bolivia

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Bahrain

Botswana

Belarus

Brazil

British Virgin Islands

Bulgaria

Burkina Faso

Cameroon

Cambodia

Canada

Cayman Islands

Central Africa

Chad

Chile

China Republic

Chinese Taipei

Colombia

Comoros

Cape Verde

Congo

Cook Islands

Costa Rica

Cote-d´lvoire

Croatia

Cuba

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Djibouti

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

Arab Rep. of Egypt

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Estonia

Ethiopia

Fiji

Finland

France

Gabon

The Gambia

Germany

Ghana

Great Britain

Guinea-Bissau

Georgia

Greece

Grenada

Guam

Guatemala

Guinea

Guyana

Haiti

Honduras

Hong Kong

Hungary

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Ireland

Italy

Israel

Ivory Coast

Jamaica

Japan

Jordon

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Kenya

Korea people Republic

Korea Democratic People Republic

Kuwait

Laos

Latvia

Saint Lucia

Lebanon

Lesotho

Libya

Lichtenstein

Luxembourg

Rep. of Macedonia

Madagascar

Malawi

Malaysia

Rep. of Moldova

Marshall Islands

Maldives

Malta

Mali

Mauritania

Mauritius

Mexico

Micronesia

Monaco

Montenegro

Mongolia

Morocco

Mozambique

Myanmar

Namibia

Nauru

Nepal

Netherlands

Netherlands Antilles

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Niger

Niger

Norway

Oman

Pakistan

Palau

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Palestine

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Qatar

Rhodesia

Romania

Rwanda

Saint Lucia

St. Vincent & Gr.

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Samoa

American Samoa

Western Samoa

San Marino

Sao Tome and Principe

Saudi Arabia

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Senegal

Slovenia

Solomon Islands

South Africa

Sri Lanka

Slovakia

Swaziland

Serbia

Singapore

Spain

Sudan

Surinam

Syria

Sweden

Switzerland

Tanzania

Tonga

Thailand

Togo

Trinidad & Tobago

Tajikistan

Timor-Leste

Turkmenistan

Tunisia

Turkey

Tuvalu

Uganda

Ukraine

Unified Team

United Arab Emirates

U.S.S.R.

U.S.A.

US Virgin Islands

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Venezuela

Vietnam

Yemen

Zambia

Zimbabwe

 

 

In terms of lineage that has to be the longest post I’ve ever written.  I don’t know if the Unified Team (i.e. stateless people competing under the Olympic Flag) counts as a country (i.e. one of the 204) and I’m not counting how many countries there are above to check. 

 Just be grateful I didn’t show each country’s flag it would be Monday before you finished reading the post.  Of course, it may be Monday when you start in which case…

 {Photos unashamedly pinched from the web without any apology at all - 

this was too good a show not to share and remember for all time.}

You can tell it’s the early hours of the morning by the degree of rambling…  Did I already say that?

I’ve been at GB’s for three weeks and for the first time overnight I’ve seen more than a couple of stars.  I just went out for a cigarette between showers and there were a few dozen stars in one patch of sky.  I hope that clear patch spreads a bit for tomorrow and I’ll get a walk down to the shore again.  One aspect I like (and dislike) about the Outer Hebrides is how quickly the weather can change.  This year the weather has been even crazier than usual, as it has in most of Britain.

(And for anyone inclined to comment on my habit of going out for a smoke may I say what I said to someone I hardly knew who criticised it the other day – “You suffer chronic pain for thirty five years, chronic exhaustion for twenty five and then maybe (just maybe) you’ll begin to have the right to comment on my behaviour”.  Actually I don’t think I finished the sentence because she’d obviously already got the message.  She caught me at a bad moment!)

One thing I have enjoyed about the weather is that it hasn’t been too hot (or in the words of my brother – “Come off it - it’s freezing!”)  I just love it when it’s cool.  I’ve got one blogging friend suffering 82ºF (that’s only 28º in old money but I should point out her humidity is running at 92 %).  Another one in Nebraska has topped 102 ºF.  Even GB thinks that’s a bit warm. I would die. 

It’s a Grand Prix today.  And there are Olympics – though I’m really waiting for the athletics before getting excited. And GB has invited friends around for dinner.  And, most exciting of all, my e-mail server is working properly again after 9 days of playing silly buggers.  What I wasn’t anticipating when I restored it yesterday (by so much messing with it that I still don’t know exactly which bit of my twiddling solved the problem) was how many e-mails were going to pour into my inbox.  There’ll be a lot of writing to be done tomorrow today.

Have a nice day and keep smiling!   

 (I only put that in as an excuse for GB to say “Don’t tell me what kind of a day to have!”)

The London Olympics 2012

The Great British Olympics start today.  London 2012 is here at last.   The Opening Ceremony will be watched by more people than any previous event on earth – at least that’s what folk say and who am I to argue.  I love the Opening Ceremony with its colour, movement and the introduction iof athletes from so many countries walking proudly behind their flags.  A mixture of jingoism and tremendous camaraderie in the spirit of sport. Sport which, for once, does not involve the players in earning millions for simply kicking a ball, or whatever.  A lot of the countries are places which are only a name to me and, I’m ashamed to say, I forget until the next Olympics.

People across the country have tried to get involved in the Olympics in one way or another.  Some of the schools on Lewis have created posters which are proudly displayed around the town.

I hope you enjoy the Games or some aspect thereof.  Whether you like sport or not I suspect even "Bah Humbug" folk like GB will find something positive and enjoyable in them.  I hope so....

Another Ramble on Lewis

One of the things which has changed a lot on the Island of Lewis since I have been visiting from the mid-seventies is the amount of peat dug for fuel. 

In the days when I first came up there were many, many peat banks being dug and everywhere around the island one could see stacks of drying or dried peats. 

 Nowadays most of the banks lie neglected and beginning to grow back into the landscape.   
 

A stack like this is a magnet for tourists to take photos because they are so rare.

 

A Meadow Pipit which visits the garden. 

 These are some of the mainland mountains as seen from GB’s when the weather is kind.  (I did say this was a ramble!)

Seaweeds on the beach below GB’s.  This last week the tides have been lower and higher than I have ever seen them before but then I am never here for the Spring and Neap Tides which must be a lot better.

 One of the best sights of the holiday – a Golden Eagle on the Pentland Road. 

You’ll be pleased to know there is a better photo below…  It was being attacked by a gull.

 Whoopee – my best ever photo of a Golden Eagle.

 We were at the Callanish Stones yesterday.

Friend-über-special is a lover of the Callanish Stones. Friend-über-special knitted me a scarf.  So this photo is for Friend-über-special.

 There will be more Callanish photos when I can get around to processing them.