One of the strangest things about Uist was that it never really got dark. Sunrise was about 0400, sunset about 2230. At gone midnight it was still light enough to read by, and all the birds were still calling.
James took this photograph about 2300, calling me out of bed to see the mist curling up the loch. The tide was coming in, and the water was like glass. There was a curlew calling somewhere to the north, and it was enough to raise the hairs on the back of your neck.
The Western Isles are almost completely treeless, and this makes for big skies and endless horizons. What trees there are cower behind their protective houses, and are shorn off at an acute angle where the wind catches them. The wonderful Hebridean Meme sums it up much more succinctly:
We got quite good at taking photos that avoided the inexorable march of technology across the middle of the shot. This is Bana Thighearna nan Eilean - Our Lady of the Isles, who looks out from the slopes of Ruebhal on South Uist. We came back to this statue several times. It's a wonderful peaceful spot, and I love the expression on Mary's face. She was modelled on actual local women, and seems to capture the enduring spirit of the people here.
