Ridge

30Jun08

Via kota1974_jp
 
Ridge’s history begins in 1885, when Osea Perrone, a doctor and prominent member of San Francisco’s Italian community, bought 180 acres near the top of Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He planted vineyards and constructed a winery of redwood and native limestone in time to produce the first vintage of Monte Bello [...]

Filed under: Reference, Wine   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: california, red wine, ridge, Wine, zinfandel

Coos

30Jun08

Highland Cows, Isle of Lewis. Via MacIomhair.
 
The Highland breed has lived for centuries in the rugged remote Scottish Highlands. The extremely harsh conditions created a process of natural selection, where only the fittest and most adaptable animals survived to carry on the breed. Originally there were two distinct classes: the slightly smaller and usually black [...]

Filed under: Crofting, Food, Livestock, Nature, Produce, Reference, Tradition, Wildlife   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: cattle, fold, highland cows, isle of lewis

Lewis Land Struggle – Na Gaisgich

27Jun08

Croftland, Loch Chàrlabhaigh, Isle of Lewis. Via Bluewave
 
The Isle of Lewis, to the present day, retains a substantial rural population for one reason above all others. It is that, at crucial points in the island’s history, its people were prepared to resist the power of landlordism and insist on the right to remain on the land [...]

Filed under: Architecture, Art, Books, Community, Crofting, Culture, Design, Environment, History, Livestock, Living, Politics, Reference   |  Leave a Comment

Land Struggle: Bernera

27Jun08

Bernera Riot Cairn, Bernera, Isle of Lewis. Via xrichx
 
It was the incident at Bernera that set the scene for the Lewis Land Struggle – Na Gaisgich, the term applied to the confrontation that developed in the 1880s between the Island landowners and the crofting community in their struggle for land law reform and emancipation from the cruel oppression of [...]

Filed under: Architecture, Community, Crofting, Culture, Design, History, Living, Reference, Tradition   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: bernera, Crofting, isle of lewis, land, landlords, riot, struggle

Land Struggle: Gress

27Jun08

Gress Raiders Memorial, Gress, Isle Of Lewis. Via abd
 
After having fought and faced the horrors of the First World War on behalf of Queen and country, crofters returned to Lewis to make good the promise of land and homes made to them by the government. However they found none and in their place farms who’s ownership [...]

Filed under: Architecture, Community, Crofting, Culture, Design, History, Politics, Reference, Tradition   |  4 Comments
Tags: bravery, coll, Crofting, gress, isle of lewis, memorial, raiders, socialism

Land Struggle 2: Aignish

27Jun08

Aignish Riot Cairn, Point, Isle of Lewis. Via abd41
 
The Aignish riot of Jan 1888 was one of the most potentially disastrous confrontations of the period. The raiders gathered at Aignish farm on the Eye peninsula, face to face with police backed by Marines with fixed bayonets. 
With traditional croftland being taken from crofters by landlords and [...]

Filed under: Architecture, Community, Crofting, Culture, Design, History, Living, Politics, Reference, Tradition   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: bravery, cairn, crofters, isle of lewis, land riots, marines, memorial, protest

Land Struggle: Pairc

27Jun08

The Parc Memorial. Balallan. District of Lochs
 
In November, 1887, several hundred crofters from the Pairc region staged a deer raid in protest at their treatment by The Matheson’s, landlords of the Lewis Estate.
Prior to the raid, many Pairc townships had been systematically cleared to give greater access to land that was regarded primarily as deer [...]

Filed under: Architecture, Community, Crofting, Culture, History, Livestock, Politics, Reference, Tradition   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: bravery, Crofting, isle of lewis, land riots, socialism

Uig shop

26Jun08

 
A successful community venture in the Western Isles has been hailed as a perfect example in helping to secure the future of rural and remote areas.
Last Friday, the £500,000 extension of Uig Community Shop in Lewis was officially opened by the UK chairman of the Co-op Group, Len Wardle, who said it was a “shining example [...]

Filed under: Community, Culture, Food, Living, Produce   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Community, isle of lewis, remoteness, rural projects, shop

Tadpole

25Jun08

 
This is my faithful North Face Tadpole 23 tent, survivor of Tuscan thunderstorms and Uig gales.
It’s a freestanding, front entry, two person backpacking tent for three season use.
 
Specifications:
[Capacity] 2
[Avg Weight] 4 lbs 14 oz (2.20 kg)
[Poles] number: 3 diameter: 8.84 mm
[Stuffed Size] 23in. x 7in. (58 cm x 18 cm)
[Fabric] canopy: 40 denier, 240T nylon [...]

Filed under: Camping, Design, Living, Reference   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Camping, north face, tadpole 23, tent

Forvik

25Jun08

 
Though a far cry, physically and culturally, from the Island of Lewis, I thought I’d blog a Shetlander’s campaign to secede from the United Kingdom. The crazy genius responsible went ahead and declared his independence from the United Kingdom on Saturday, saying he wanted the territory, population one, to be a crown dependency like the Channel Islands.
In a declaration [...]

Filed under: Culture, History, Living   |  Leave a Comment