Make do...

I just got back from the Isle of Lewis today. I think i just got here ahead of the gale that's forecast.

I have to confess i didn't take this photo. My friend was wanting to have a look at my telephoto lens, the first time he'd seen it and wanted to have a go (he doesn't own a camera). He took a photo of the old bath down his croft, the one he fills with hay for the cattle to feed with. (He just has the two cows, both in calf, plus the two calves from last year).

My friend also has sheep. We badly need rain. Lewis is looking even drier (if that's possible) than Uist, the vegetation is brown and dry, no green. The rivers and streams have barely any water in them. The ewes are going to be having a hard time producing milk for the lambs if the grass doesn't start to grow soon. It already looks like mid-summer yet it's only mid-April.

The old bath brought to mind the Hebridean ways of "make do and mend". I think the Hebrideans must have invented recycling, long long ago before the term was even thought of. Living offshore in an island community, even now, nothing ever goes to waste, nothing that could be potentially useful is thrown away. My croft fence is an inherited patchwork of wire with repairs from different colour strings, twines and bungy cords.

Bits of driftwood and other stuff collected from the shore - "mmm, might come in useful for something..."