back to ben speck

bleary, weary and beery we took our leave of Barra and boarded the Eriskay ferry to head back to Benbecula. We rolled over Eriskay's rocky green hills, curved over the causeway, zigzagged around South Uist's blue hills, swept through the rain speckling the sea lochs, rattled over the cow grids of another causeway, closed the windows to the stench of Stinky bay (the seaweed smell is genuinely overpowering there) until we could see the familiar sand dunes and blue roof welcoming us home.

Just as we pulled up the SUN, the actual SUN, that fabled fiery globe long amiss this summer, came out. A more remarkable discovery than the higgs boson for me that day..

We skipped (I hobbled like a cowboy actually) over the machair fields to Culla bay to get some sand in our toes, poke storm debris and check out the ducks through Sheen's dad's binoculars. My fair isle jumper / hebridean summer wear was still needed but still.. it was spectacular to just feel a bit of warmth, see a bit of dazzle on the water and hear the waves crashing. Think I've found my ashes spot.

Sheen's become obsessed with an LCD Soundsystem song I played on the road up It was on repeat for days and we danced about to it as we cooked up a feast, got into our PJ's, got a fire going and settled down to watch a DVD with some wine. Can't tell you how long it's been since I've done that - felt like the benbecula sanatorium for the rehabilitation of tired ladies. Only I kept running outside to take snaps of the melting sun. It took until 23:00 ish but eventually it hit the sea behind the old briar.