It’s been a wet and windy start to 2012 up in the north west, but the news that we have been included in the latest edition of Peter Irvine's acclaimed guidebook 'Scotland the Best' has brightened us inwardly!

The book, which is republished every two years, is considered the definitive guide to Scotland. It lists the best of everything from Edinburgh bars to scenic drives to the best cafes and Islands! Pete came to visit Tanera's cafe last summer, and we're delighted that he chose to include a photo of Lizzie and Rich at the entrance to the café in the very select photo spread in the centre of the book.

We are in the ‘Magical Islands’ section alongside such colossus as Jura, Iona and St Kilda. A great accolade for wee Tanera Mór and an association which we hope will continue for many a year to come. Pete’s entry for Tanera concludes; “They also have their own summer Isles stamps (yes, they do!) Climb their hill, Meall Mór, or just chill. Theirs is truly an Island life.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
 

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

So. Here in the north west Highlands, here in this 'drowned landscape', we are having a November drought. It hasn't rained for two whole weeks. (Unless you count a few minutes on Sunday morning, and I don't.)

We've been doing a fair bit of work - looking for the leak in the Island's water system (excellent fun), collecting rubbish off the beaches (genuinely excellent fun) and dealing with the astonishing influx of bookings for next Autumn's knitting retreat (so much interest that we've had to make another week!)

But it would be heretical to let this weather pass and not go out and play in it. So that's what we did today. Just for the afternoon. And it was lovely. I put some photos up on our facebook page, but here's a taster:

I'll add some more photos of our spectacular beach-cleaning efforts shortly, when Rich's usefully enormous cousin sends them to me...

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

Gosh. I can’t believe we haven’t written a news story since May, and now it’s nearly November! It’s not as if there haven’t been many news-worthy happenings on the Island... but sometimes there’s not much time to write about it.

The leaves have now turned and the clocks have gone back; the season is most certainly over. But it’s been a happy one. I couldn’t cover it all just now, but here are a few of the highlights...

We had an astonishing spring: dry, sunny and warm. This miraculous spell of weather culminated in the wedding of our friends Isla and Pete on the Island. Many of their friends and family had travelled from New Zealand, so it was kind of the weather to show off the area at its loveliest. In all our months of planning we never dreamt we would be using our umbrellas to protect the Bride from sunstroke!

The luck was not to hold for the inaugural Coigach Coastal Rowing Regatta, however. Wild wet weather prevented the planned Sunday leisurely row over to Tanera from the mainland, but some brave boatmen (my dad and husband) ferried lots of brave boaters over to the Island for some well deserved hot grub and good banter in the cafe.

May also saw the arrival of the reprinted books by Frank Fraser Darling: ‘Island Years’ and ‘Island Farm’, together in one volume. This lovely edition has a foreword by Iain Stewart and an introduction by Frank’s son Alasdair, and various new photos of the time the pioneering naturalist and conservationist spent on Tanera Mòr, Priest Island and other islands in the 1930s and ‘40s. The books have sold well, and we have been privileged to be visited by various Fraser Darlings this summer: Alasdair with his daughter and grandson, and Alasdair’s half-brother Richard. They both gave us fascinating insights into what must have been an amazing and hard life here for Frank and his wife Bobby.

We had lots of happy residential courses this summer. Some have been going for a while – Eleanor White of Bridge House Art has been running a very successful course for 8 years now, no one knows how long Jane and Derry have been teaching us willow weaving, and the NorWest Sea Kayaking courses had a good 2nd year. We also added a few new ones; Kitty Jones ran another Bridge House Art course, Mandy Haggith facilitated a Creative Retreat, and Patricia and Rowena Birkett Jones tutored a Sketchbook course. We have had great feedback from participants of all the courses, about the standard of tuition, the accommodation and the food, which makes all the hard work very worthwhile. Have a look on our courses page for our many plans for next year!

Talking of hard work, we’ve had some great workers this summer. Our system of Working Holidays (‘Whols’ for short) has been a great success again, with pairs of people (or even families) running the cafe and post office for us in return for the use of a house. I won’t list all our wonderful Whols here – perhaps I should write a whole news story about them - but we feel extremely lucky to have such happy, helpful and competent helpers again this summer.

And of course there have been lots of lovely visitors – some for just a day, others for a week, or even three! It gives us so much pleasure to see families relaxing and unwinding as the days go by, and going away at the end of their holiday happy and refreshed. Lots of families have already booked for 2012, so don't delay if you would like to come and join the fun!

Well, that’s just a quick snapshot of our summer; I’ll try not to leave it too long until the next update from Tanera. Five months until visitors return ... but I’m sure we’ll find plenty to do in the meantime...

[You can read more about the Island and various happenings throughout the year in my Scottish Island Explorer magazine column; see the Tanera in the Press page.]

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

Thursday 5th May saw the launch of 2011's stamp issue, a set of reproduced photos recording life on Tanera during Frank Fraser Darling's stay at Tigh-an-Quay in the late 1930's/early 1940's.
 
The title of the issue is taken from the well-loved and well-kent true story of life on the Summer Isles during the early years of World War II. The author, the distinguised naturalist-philosopher Sir Frank Fraser Darling, set up home at Tigh-an-Quay with his family in 1939 to breathe new life into the derelict surroundings that remained after the failure of the herring industry on Tanera.

Sir Frank believed that a single family unit was too small to exist in isolation, dependent only upon its own resources. He aspired to the view that groups of like minded pioneers could bring prosperity and produce leaders who could inspire and promote Gaelic culture which is the bedrock of crofting communities. Sir Frank left Tanera in 1943 at the behest of the Department of Agriculture to establish demonstration crofts and advise the crofters.

Alasdair Fraser Darling, the son of Sir Frank and Bobbie, remembers happy school holidays on the islands and has very kindly allowed us to use illustrations from the 1943 edition of 'Island Farm'. These were delicately mainpulated by photographic expert Nick Tonkin to create images suitable for high quality stamp production.

The book 'Island Farm' is currently being re-published by The Dovecote Press, in omnibus format together with one of Sir Frank's other books; 'Island Years', a story of life on various Scottish Islands, including Priest Island, another of the Summer Isles archipeligo. The books will be ready from 18th May, and can be ordered from Dovecote Press; for more information, see: 

http://dovecotepress.com/island-years-island-farm-1810-0.html

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

Our first course of the season has been a wonderful, sunny success.

Last weekend, as we prepared the cottages and the cafe (a workshop for the weekend) for our annual willow basket weaving weekend we weren't feeling particularly enthused: the rest of the country seemed to be basking in sunshine whilst we in the north west wallowed in rain and battled against wind. But the wind dropped for our 9 happy weavers to arrive on Friday, and on Saturday we woke to a beautiful soft, calm, sunny morning. As I walked around the bay to start weaving I saw the first wren and first violet of the season, and mum says she heard a willow warbler and saw a wheatear. It's all go.

This year Jane gave us the choice of weaving a creel (a traditional basket used for carrying loads of seaweed or peat; like a rucksack but much, much less comfortable) or a round basket. Those of us less sure of our weaving talents chose baskets whilst three brave ladies grappled with the more complex creel. We started on Friday afternoon (rather than Saturday morning as in previous years) and the extra hours made all the difference; we could spend more time enjoying the sunshine, and our visitors had an extra night on the Island which made it an altogether more relaxing weekend.

The first steps of making a basket are the hardest but once the bases were in place the sides grew up with satisfying speed. It's such a lovely rhythmic activity; the cool smooth strands of willow snaking in and out of the uprights creating beautiful patterns. The creel ladies seemed to be having a harder time; their hardest part was on the second day, but despite occasional wails of anguish they turned out some pretty fine creations in the end.

We were kept going with hearty lunches of soup, local salad and Lizzie's bread, plenty of homemade cakes throughout the day and happy convivial suppers altogether in the Schoolhouse. It was - as ever - brilliant to welcome back so many faithful 'Tanerans' visitors, and watch them enjoy our lovely home together with new Tanera visitors. Everyone went away delighted with their weekend's happy work, justifiably proud of their creations, and looking forward to being back soon...

The next course is our Flora, Fauna and Foraging weekend with Viv Halcrow (who made an impressive creel this weekend), and then there's the Wildtiles Creative Journals for which we have a special offer: a 10% discount if you book before the end of April.

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

I'm not sure the tiny green leaves and just-emerging daffodils are enjoying this week's blizzards and gales. The crocuses which shone out like little jewels in the dead grass have collapsed soggily. But it's ok because we've had a taste of Spring, and it was lovely.

It was also rather well timed, coinciding with a visit from Rowena Birkett-Jones, an art teacher based in Edinburgh who, with her mother Patricia, will be running a course in October creating beautiful sketchbooks.

Rowena had never visited the area before, so we set off on Patricia (the boat) around the other Summer Isles. Rowena was beginning to soak in the wonder of a clear, sunny Saturday in Coigach when a small dark dorsal fin appeared just away from the boat. The first porpoise sighting of the season! Beautiful.

We headed on towards Tanera Beg, hoping to show Rowena the resident Common and Grey seals, but before we could find them I noticed a rather large bird circling about the north end of Tanera. A bit like a flying barn door. Unmistakably a White-tailed (or Sea) eagle.

The shallow water between Tanera Beg and Fadha Mor reflecting off white sand from the nearby mearl beds, is an inviting turquoise. Tempting though it was, we remembered the chill of snorkelling there back in August, so were content to watch starfish and the odd seal from the dry desk. Around the cliffs of Tanera Beg hoards of fulmars are arriving to breed. They fly close to Patricia, peering at us inquisitively.

So, we had a great weekend: it’s always a delight to show off our home to people who so clearly appreciate this lovely place, and what we’re up to. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming Rowena back to Tanera in October with Patricia and lots of students eager to be inspired by the scenery, wildlife, and some excellent tutoring. Let us know if you would like to be one of them!

Rowena and Patricia Birkett-Jones will be running a week-long residential course developing beautiful personal sketchbooks, from 15th to 22nd October 2011. See the Sketchbook page for more information, or read more about our creative and active courses.

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

Far from hunkering down by the fire for the winter (which, admittedly, has been tempting at times), we've been keeping ourselves busy here on Tanera with all sorts of things.

Firstly there are a couple of new features on the website this year...we’ve added an Availability Calendar so that you can see at a glance whether your favourite cottage is free at your favourite time of year. And one rainy afternoon Lizzie got out her crayons and sketched a map of Tanera which will be handy for people who are unfamiliar with the Island.

There’s also a ‘Tanera in the Press’ page where we can show off all the nice things that people have been writing about us, or even the nice things we’ve been writing about ourselves! Lizzie is enjoying writing her column for the Scottish Islands Explorer magazine, describing the highs (and occasional lows) of life on the Island through the seasons of this year.

But it hasn't all been websiting; there are other new things for 2011 too...
...well, many of our stalwart creative and active courses are still running this summer: Willow Weaving with Jane Wilkinson, NorWest Sea Kayaking with Jules Macleod, Wild Tiles with Jan Kilpatrick, and Bridge House Art with Eleanor White. But we also have a few NEW courses this year... two Flora, Fauna and Foraging courses (a weekend in May and a week in September) with local ecologist Viv Halcrow; another Bridge House Art course with Kitty Jones; a Writers’ Retreat with Mandy Haggith of Top Left Corner and a Sketch Book art course with Rowena Birkett-Jones. Lots to look forward to for the spring, summer and autumn months.

We were quite proud the our courses had a mention in January's Coast magazine - have a look at the new 'Tanera in the Press' page for details.

But in the meantime, we are working on various little developments on the Island, which we’ll tell you about as they happen...
 

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

People visiting in the Summer months often ask us what Tanera is like in Winter...

Well, there are lots of things we could say, but for now we thought we'd just show you a few photos so you can see for yourself.

Just like everywhere else in the country we are smothered in snow. Luckily we have also been smothered in sunshine. And we think it's rather pretty.

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

Tanera is to feature in an upcoming BBC Scotland Series, 'Making Scotland's Landscapes', presented by Dr Iain Stewart. The series starts on Sunday 24th October, at 8:00 pm on BBC Scotland, and runs for 5 episodes. Tanera is due to feature in episode 2, to be aired on Sunday 31st October, at 8:00 pm. 

The focus of episode 2 is the 'Land' and in particular the work and legacy of conservationist Frank Fraser Darling who was resident on Tanera for a number of years in the 1930/40s. A film crew visited Tanera in July and spent an afternoon at Tigh-an-Quay, much of which was concerned with getting just the right shot of the MV Patricia (skippered by Rich) dropping Dr Iain on the pier. Its not the easiest pier in the world to come alongside, solo, and with a rapidly falling tide, but hopefully my endeavours will be rewarded with a few brief moments on fame! Tune in for what promises to be an interesting and evocative series; some good autumnal Sunday evening viewing.

Oh, and two books written by Frank Fraser Darling (Island Years which tells of his time on islands including Priest Island, and Island Farm about his time on Tanera) are going to be re-published in 2011 (to mark the centenary of his birth), alongside a series of Summer Isles stamps featuring photos from his time on Tanera... watch this space.

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website

Yesterday afternoon I sat down to write about the brilliant Ecology Adventure that we held this weekend on Tanera. Unfortunately the sunshine was just too too tempting, and we absolutely had to go out for a paddle.

And blimey! what a paddle it was. Just as we were rounding the South East corner of Tanera, discussing where to take ourselves, a small silhouette bounced up onto the glistening surface and started swimming towards us. A seal? No! An otter! Confirmed by the short dark back and flick of the tail as he headed back under. Soon afterwards he popped up again nearer our boats with a large back-lit orange fish fin sticking out of his mouth. He dropped away again and appeared just once more, heading for the shore.

Keen to make the most of the miraculous weather we pointed our bows for Bottle Island – about five miles South West of Tanera, directly into the blinding sunshine. After a lovely quiet float between Carn Iar and Carn Deas, surrounded by fluffy first year common seals, we rounded the rocks of Bottle to face ANOTHER otter, just as startled as we were, frozen on a wrack-covered rock. He gave me just enough time to get over my shock and take a (terrible) photograph before he shot off the rock and into the sea.

As if that wasn’t quite enough excitement, high on the cliffs around the next corner of Bottle Island was a great big bird which I’m sure must have been a juvenile eagle of some sort. But I’ll probably be told it was just a buzzard. Then we headed home, trying to beat the sunset. What a day.

Anyway, back to the Ecology Adventure. We could not have been luckier: golden autumnal sunshine provided the perfect conditions for learning about the wildlife on our little island. There may not be special species ‘endemic’ to Tanera but we do have a great range of habitats: broadleaf woodland, dry heath, bog and intertidal to name just a few. And we explored them all excitedly – making particular use of the extra exposed shore during the Spring tides - learning wonderful new things about the world we hurry past every day in our yellow wellies.

Our tutor Viv Halcrow has the perfect manner for keeping her students engaged: deep knowledge of the plants and animals (including an amazing array of Latin names) and how they interact, combined with a liveliness and sense of humour to help our brains keep up with her. It’s impossible not to be infected by her enthusiasm for all things living, and soon we could distinguish hair moss from teddy bear moss; bladder wrack from channelled wrack, and I developed a whole new level of respect for the 'edible' sea urchin as I learnt about its five-way symmetry, its Aristotle's Lantern, and saw its legs emerge from tinytiny holes when put back in the sea. I'm still not sure I fancy eating one though.

But Viv didn’t just show us the wildlife and explain how the creatures interact with each other; we also learnt the importance of various plants and animals to humans, and how the land has been managed over the millennia. Fascinating stuff.

Our days out in the fresh air were rewarded with good wholesome vegetarian meals (even if I do say so myself) in the cosy conservatory of Fuchsia Cottage, sometimes watched by a seal on a rock outside. And, to celebrate the eve of 10:10 – the global initiative encouraging people to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 - Saturday’s supper was prettily candlelit to save electricity. It seemed appropriate that, after a day marvelling at the wonders of the natural world (a very low carbon activity in itself!), we should make a gesture towards looking after it on a more global scale. Of course, it’s what we’re trying to do every day here...but that’s another story...

A great first ecology course on Tanera. But there’s so much more to know and see, particularly when Spring comes...so we all agree there should be a Part 2. We’re looking forward to it already.

This feed was drawn from the Summer Isles website