A birthday in Barra…

Glorious weather for my birthday…

I awoke to yet another fabulous sky and calm turquoise water this morning.

Very lucky to receive such thoughtful gifts from our lovely family.

We went down to the airport as usual – lots of customers today and the plane was waiting preparing to accept more travellers.  Strangely, behind the counter the lovely Marie said “isn’t it your birthdays soon?”  Two years ago (although everyone at the café thinks it was just last year!) our birthdays came up in conversation and we had free cakes, much to our amazement.  Of course I had to admit that mine was actually today!  “Oh well then – you’re not paying for these!”  I can only think that amongst the vast numbers of travellers they serve at this time of the year we must have made some sort of impression – probably because we were in every day!  What lovely people they are.  Thank you Airport Cafe!

The beautiful coast was made even more magical today with its blues and turquoises heightened under the clear skies of another lovely sunny day.

We drove to Castlebay and stopped at the Hebridean Toffee place with its outdoor terraced seating.  They make their version of that Scottish favourite, ‘tablet’ – a sort of hard and crumbly fudge that melts in your mouth and is totally delicious.  We had lovely ice creams with chunks of tablet on the top.  Mmmmm…

Over on Vatersay, another of our favourite houses on the edge of a cliff shone out in the sunshine.

We went down onto the pure white sand so Alfie could have a good run – he loves it here.

Round at the rocks the Great Northern Diver was performing for us and actually caught a crab.

Nearby, a seal yawned and a cormorant was sent packing by the Diver.

We eventually tore ourselves away and went briefly back to the campsite before setting off again for Castlebay and the Cafe Kisimul where we ate cockles in garlic sauce and prawn curry of some sort.  It was music night and a lovely girl all in white sat in the corner playing traditional Gaelic music on a fiddle.  Lovely atmosphere and a decent meal if you don’t count the tinned fruit cocktail, squirty ice cream and squirty cream on top, aka ice cream sundae!

A lovely birthday!