Muckdate 11: Spectacular Skies
Apologies for the delay in Muckdates - my blogging and writing time is restricted to that magical Venn diagram of baby napping/daughter at nursery/not feeding time at the zoo, so because I've been busy working on fifth-round edits for my second book I have had a bit less time to be writing here. I've also been working on my Muck-inspired knitting patterns, and we've had guests to stay, whose holiday also coincided with some spectacular natural phenomena…
One thing we never anticipated seeing during our time on Muck were the northern lights. Tom and I have seen them before, when we travelled to Tromsø in Northern Norway, but even there we saw only a faint pale ribbon in the sky, undulating with a slow, steady pulse. On Saturday night, not long before midnight, our neighbour was wending her way home from a party when she noticed a pale glow in the sky to the north. She messaged us to say she could see the aurora, but we had already gone to bed. Fortunately she was able to capture the lights in this wonderful photograph, taken from the bay outside our houses.
Having missed the action in our first night, we were determined to see the Lights if we possibly could the following evening. The (meteorological and auroral) forecast for Sunday was good, with clear skies and a high probably of solar activity so once darkness fell we kept popping outside to see if there were any visible. Our daughter wanted to see them too, so we agreed that if they came out whilst she was asleep we would get her up so she could see them. Thus placated, she and her baby brother went to sleep so Tom and I hurriedly did the chores and then settled ourselves outside to watch the sky.
Aurora borealis as viewed from the garden, with our cottage in the foreground
Almost as soon as we were out we could see a long glowing arc, faint at first but getting brighter, forming over the islands of Rum, Skye and Eigg. As we watched, these got brighter and more vividly green, with individual 'flares' that leaped up like smoke from gigantic candles hanging in the sky. The curtain of greenish-yellow lights waved and pulsed, and after a while we could see some pinkish red lights further to the north-west. It really was spectacular, and although the colours in my photographs show the lights more vividly than they appeared to the naked eye, it was still a remarkable display. Halfway through I bundled our daughter out of bed in a blanket and carried her outside to see them, but she was so sleepy I think she was half-dreaming as she looked at them. It reminded me of when my Dad had been taken outside by his Dad, as a little boy in the early 1950s, to see the lights when they were visible as far south as Suffolk. Dad always remembers them looking like 'a white curtain blowing in the wind', and I hope Rose will also have some memories of her magical night under the northern lights.
Aurora borealis above the Isle of Eigg
Days have been as spectacular as the nights, with sunshine, little wind, and temperatures just sneaking in to double figures. When our friends Cat and Robert arrived on Monday morning (having watched the lights from the mainland near Mallaig), one of the first things they did was to for a swim - and I did too! When I got in the cold water felt like knives on my feet, but after a little time spent splashing around and running in and out of the shallows, the actual temperature was pretty bearable (and borrowing Cat's neoprene gloves made things a lot more pleasant.) It was my first swim of 2023, my first since arriving on the island, and my first since having the baby, so it felt like a Rubicon crossed.
Swimming at Gallanach Bay
We've also had two days without nursery because of teacher strikes (I completely support these, so this is not a complaint), so me and the littles have spent plenty of time down on the beach, splashing about and collecting treasures. My daughter loves drawing so we've been recording our finds and educating ourselves about seashells using the old Ladybird book I had has a child, which my Mum brought up with her when she came to stay a few weeks ago. And the baby has been gnawing on the (washed) scallop shell - think he’s not far from cutting some teeth.
We have more guests arriving today so hopefully this calm, bright weather will hold for them too…
