Tobermory Tales - January 2004

We still need another 50 people to register their interest in broadband internet for BT to upgrade the Tobermroy exchange. You can register at either of the following websites:

British Telecom
Highland & Islands Enterprise

If you're a small business you may also be eligible for a grant from HIE.

Registering doesn't commit you to anything so all it will cost you is a few minutes online.

Cheers
Gary

Another damp day in Tobermory.

We've reached that time of year when lots of the shops and businesses have closed down for a while to carry out maintenance or just take a rest from the busy tourist season.

The restaurants are shut and so are some of the shops and most of the B&Bs. The chip van closed down before Christmas and the curry-house even earlier.

Even MacGochon's pub is shut for the week while it undergoes a re-fit.

Presumably it's the same throughout the islands. This is the quiet time when few people visit us from the mainland - sort of the calm before the storm.

Some businesses continue apace though - fish still need catching, cars need servicing or repairing, cattle and sheep still need feeding, and the bins still need emptying, and I'm tucked-up in my warm little office bashing the keyboard to earn a crust.

Speaking of which, I'd better get back to work!

Cheerio
Gary

A line from Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.

With a little editing he could have been referring to Mull: 'Land, land everywhere nor any plot to build.'

High on our list of priorities after moving to Mull was to buy a bit of land and build our own home but we're becoming increasingly frustrated in our search. Mull is the third largest Hebridean island yet despite having huge amounts of unused land building plots are rarer than hen's teeth.

When plots do come up they're priced out of the reach of ordinary people such as ourselves - especially when you add the cost of building materials and labour on top.

Much as we've come to love Mull in the relatively short time we've been here we're having to think carefully about moving to one of the less accessible islands, such as Coll or Tiree, where land is more sensibly priced and perhaps more readily available.

Regards
Gary & Steph

Just remembered it's my gaelic class this evening. First one since Christmas.

Never being very good at languages I'm not finding it easy going but I can just about say "Hello" and "How are you?" and a few other bits and pieces though.

Cheers
Gary

Unfortunately it's probably a souwester!

It's a bright, crisp, and sunny day in Tobermory today - in between the showers of hail stones, that is.

Our youngest daughter has gone down with Chicken Pox and the eldest is complaining of earache so I've sought half an hour's sanctuary in my tiny office.

To cap it all my Landrover wouldn't start this morning so I had to walk Spike to nursery - I think the recent cold weather has drained the battery and my charger is still in storage down in England. Curses!

Cheers
Gary

Unfortunately it's probably a souwester!

It's a bright, crisp, and sunny day in Tobermory today - in between the showers of hail stones, that is.

Our youngest daughter has gone down with Chicken Pox and the eldest is complaining of earache so I've sought half an hour's sanctuary in my tiny office.

To cap it all my Landrover wouldn't start this morning so I had to walk Spike to nursery - I think the recent cold weather has drained the battery and my charger is still in storage down in England. Curses!

Cheers
Gary

As you can (hopefully) see, it's a lovely morning in Tobermory today. The sun is out and the sky is blue. The harbour is mirror calm. 'Tis a mite fresh though.

Friends back in England ask why we wanted to move to a place like Mull. Hopefully this picture will make our decision clearer to them.

Cheers
Gary

...has been falling on Tobermory the last few days. Well, actually it's been tipping it down!

The burn that runs alongside Eas Brae and down to the harbour is close to bursting, as these pictures maybe show.





Nothing much else to say today. Bit of a 'no news' day.

Gary & Steph

I am doing this for Gary today so sorry all those that appreciate his humour?

I went out yesterday with some friends from the HWDT with Pam who runs Discover Mull Tours. Well I expected a good laugh with friends and some interesting stories of Mull what I didn't expect was to become fascinated by our feathered wildlife. To me they have always been 'birds', they have wings and they fly. (Sorry all you twitchers).

That was just the start, after several times of getting in and out the landrover looking at specks in the distant sky I began to get fairly interested. 'What is it?' Invariably Pam would answer confidently,'Oh that, its a buzzard'. How did she know? It was just a speck. Apparently for those of you who don't know its in the way it flies.

Driving around a corner we suddenly stopped,'Get out' said Pam 'its a goldie' (Golden Eagle). There on the horizon was yet another speck. But after half an hour looking through the telescope I was hooked. They are beautiful birds. I don't know how Pam did it but by the end of the day we had seen four Golden eagles and four white tailed sea eagles, as well as an otter, deer,curlew,red legged shanks and many others that were until then just names in a book to me. All this and some history, geography and geology thrown in. I don't know how I will spot them or when I will get the chance again to escape Gary and the four kids but I know I will go searching again and they will never again just be birds.
So thanks Pam.
steph

Whilst rattling around the island in my tatty old Landrover on Sunday Steph and I passed by "Tragedy Rock" and I thought it might be nice to recount the tale for you blog-readers.

Tragedy Rock is one of the local names for a huge boulder which lies beside the road as it passes close to the Gribun cliffs on the Ross of Mull. It is also known as the Rock of the Couple. (Picture Below)



The tale goes how in or around the year 1700 a young man by the name of John came across to Mull from the nearby isle of Erraid to take up the job of shepherd at Gribun and to marry the girl to whom he was engaged, Rona.

Now a great storm was blowing on the day of their wedding but this didn't stop people celebrating well into the night whereafter the young couple took themselves off to their nearby cottage, hard under the cliffs.

Now the storm continued to rage and succeeded in dislodging a great rock which came crashing down the cliffs to land squarely a-top their cottage, flattening the house and killing the newly-wed couple on their wedding night.

It is said their bodies were never recovered from the wreckage of the ruined cottage; the ravaged walls of which are still visible around the great bulk of the rock and flowers still bloom in the tiny garden in memory of the tragic couple.

Gary

Phew! What a week! Steph's been away each day this week doing a training course in Oban leaving me to look after the children.

We've four children - ages 2, 3 10 and 14. The elder two are becoming more and more self-sufficient but the younger two still take a lot of looking after.

As a result of which I haven't got very much work done this week - most of what I have done has been in the evenings or early hours when Steph's home or the babes are in bed.

I'm looking forward to a nice lay-in tomorrow and maybe even breakfast in bed.

Cheers
Gary