4. New rental

From: Stokes, Fiona
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2007 10:13 PM

FW: New rental

Hello again !    Sorry for the lack of news lately, there have been a few computer nightmares in the move to our new abode. But for now the computer is up and running - and with broadband at last!! - so I'm taking the opportunity to send out some happenings.  (Mark was mid blog 4 when everything crashed, so he'll send that one out after blog 5.....!)
Well, after a bit of an emotional rollercoaster we finally got the keys to our new rental.  Photo attached of the view and proximity to the water, which means we're managing to get out in the evenings and do some canooing, one at a time though that is.

The sea air is wonderful, the fields (and even our garden sometimes) are full of lickle baby lambs, and we're really feeling privileged to be spending the summer is such a beautiful spot.

The rainbow needs both sun and rain...

However, as mentioned, there is trouble in our paradise... The wonderful planners at Scottish Southern Electric, have decided that a 'preferred' route for their 'Sub-Sea-Interconnector-Cable' (SSIC for short) is to be up the wildlife abundent loch, along the bottom of our garden, accross the hill opposite and up to a newly built 'Converter station' building the size of an IKEA warehouse.  You can imagine the size of this building when I say that all the power generated from every windfarm on Lewis, will in the future be channelled accross miles and miles of extra electricity wires, to converge on Gravir and be zapped accross under the sea to the mainland.  Yes, electro-magnetic radiation is a phrase that has become a part of everyday language here.

the 'proposed route' for the sub sea cable

Previous conversation was mainly undecipherable gaelic (says me, who is trying to learn it) and mostly talk of lambing and the road improvements at Habost (there will be a lane in each direction now!)  Windfarms are a great thing, renewable energy a must, but all the extra dangerous stuff that has to go with mass energy production - like miles of leukemia giving electricity wires - well, 'not in my back yard' please, or in this case, not at the bottom of my garden and accross the lovely loch where I like to go canooing and throw stones with my son!  There have been consultation exercises held - as we all know this is often more of a 'heres how its going to be' exercise than any real opinion collection, but Mark has gone to a meeting at the Teigh Celidh (meeting house) tonight where the village is forming a response to the 'preffered' location for the SSIC (I was told at the consultation presentation, that at the moment the Scottish Southern Electric project group is calling Gravir the 'preferred' route, but in the next phase of the project it will become the 'proposed' route - he made it sound such a 'done deal')  I'll leave it to Mark in his blog to go into the thing in more technical details, he is more of an authority on the specifications, however not quite as much as his local tv starring suggested - only 3 months on Lewis, and already Mark has been beamed accross Scotland!   Still, never mind, it might never 'appen..

Mark mountaineering on Skye - he really missed us....

On a more positive note, here's a whats hot and whats not in our world:
Whats hot for Mark: (Apart from appearing on tv!) Walking mountains on Skye and canooing to its neighbouring islands.
Whats not for Mark: Being away from the family for 4 days to go to Skye... and sub sea interconnector cables.

Whats hot for Fiona: Checking on my boys last thing at night, their little faces are so mesmerizing while they're asleep!
Whats not for Fiona:  Little boys who don't want to go to bed at night because they fell asleep in the car on the way back from town... and sub sea interconnector cables.

Whats hot for Austin:  'Hoppety Hops'  Every night after his bath he loves to skip around in a circle, naked, and we count him ten hoppety hops !  And red playdough, he's tried other colours but red playdough is just the bees knees!
Whats not for Austin: Having to go to bed after getting wired on 10 hoppety hops!...and sub sea interconnector cables.

Whats hot for Morris: Crawling! Hey-hey! He's mobile!  And High-5s, he holds up his chubby little hands for a big high 5 - usually its a bit wet too as he's started sucking his thumb.
Whats not for Morris:  Being woken up by his brother an hour after he's gone to bed, because Austins making such a fuss.  And sub sea interconnector cables and finally

High 5

Whats hot for Sheep in Gravir:  A long strip of the hill opposite leading out to an IKEA warehouse, once this sub sea interconnector cable is buried in their common crazing land!


Bye for now Fiona x