Embo splash

A new location for swimming, today. Embo beach (at the north end, by the ramp). To get there, we had to drive through the mobile home park, which is closed for the winter, which was a bizarre experience. Like Shandwick Beach, this beach has suffered in the winter storms, losing a layer of sand and uncovering quite a lot of bare rock (see extra for the view from the car park just after arrival), but it's still got plenty of sand, especially in the water.  Lovely, and also not quite as cold as Portmahomack yesterday. And once out beyond the initial breakers, really quite smooth. I definitely swam more today than at any other time recently.

It was a super wee adventure with some of the swimming crew, and - in retrospect (I'm back blipping this from Sunday morning) - a fitting ending point for February adventures in the North Sea. We shall see, soon enough, what March will bring.

In the evening, Mr A and I got a lift with N and A out to Bonar Bridge for an evening of Gaelic song and poems, organised by Sutherland Sessions. Inevitably much passed us by, but a lot of what was said was narrated or glossed also in English. And there was the sweetest young man who acted as compere, entirely in Gaelic. This isn't an area which I would associate with strong Gaelic traditions (or a present), but looking at Highland Council website I realise there is a full run of Gaelic medium education offered in Tain, so I shouldn't really be surprised to find so many Gaelic speakers around. Quite apart from the historic traditions, it is great to see new poetry and songs being written and performed in Gaelic. Unlike much of the "stuff" that goes on in the Highlands, the median age of both the performers and the audience was quite a bit younger, highlighting that this is a vibrant, albeit minority, culture. And, to top it all, we got talking to a few women in the row behind us, at least one of whom was one of the organisers and obviously a Gaelic speaker herself. Funnily enough, they turned out to be sea swimmers. All the best people are.