No your eyes do not deceive you. There’s no travel vlog to see here, though I hope you find a nice surprise in its place. If you’re new round these parts then WELCOME and for those who’ve been with me since way back it’s lovely to have you here again. So let’s settle in, get comfy and take a trip or two back in time as I introduce you to my number one travel buddy.
One of my fondest memories of my most recent visit home is a walk my mum and I took down at the Tide Bank, not far from our house. It’s one of our favourite places to visit and if you walk right out to where the winding path comes to a halt and turn back on your heel to the car park you can cover almost 5 miles.
Before I head across the Irish Sea for pastures new I want to tell you about one of my favourite places on this side of the pond, should you ever be in the area looking for somewhere lovely to visit! Unfortunately, time is not on my side so I am writing this post in the wee hours between bedtime and daylight. I’ve mentioned the focus of this post a few times before but it’s such a special place it really deserves a post all of its own.
Ever since I was a wee girl I’ve loved to visit Mount Stewart. I can feel myself beginning to smile in the car on the way there. Our journey sees us snake round the bends of the Portaferry Road with fields on our left and Strangford Lough on our right. As a child I can remember walks around the lake with our dog, Lucky and picnics on the lawn with my nanny in front of the house. Each time I visit I’m reminded of many happy memories. More recently I enjoyed taking pictures of the gardens as I helped a friend in search for some last minute seasonal inspiration ahead of her autumnal wedding which I wrote about here. Incidentally, my friend found the beautiful lace shawl she is wearing in the picture at the Autumn fair!
…or something along those lines. I’ve been a pretty irregular blogger up until now so I thought I would set myself a wee challenge to post every day for a week. I’ll kick it off with a video I stumbled upon about a week ago.
I mentioned in a previous post that I have family in the Faroe Islands. My grandmother was born and grew up there. During the war she met my grandfather who tempted her with his Belfast brogue to cross over the ocean and set up home in Northern Ireland. She’s lived here ever since but she’s never forgotten her home. A few years ago we discovered she has dementia and it’s slowly eaten away at her memories as time has progressed. But one place she never forgets is the Faroes.
This video features the grandmother of a man named Heiðrik á Heygum. He directed the True Love video I posted a couple of weeks ago. Following the birth of her daughter, Runa, Maria felt herself becoming very weak. I think nowadays she’d probably be diagnosed with post partum depression but back then these things didn’t exist. Or rather they did but weren’t diagnosed. Maria’s husband recommended she swim in the ocean to try and heal herself. She did and she’s been swimming in the Atlantic ocean daily ever since.
When I first saw this video I was filled with admiration for Maria but I also felt a pang of sadness. My nanny used to love the ocean. When she was still able to go out in the car her favourite thing to do was enjoy an ice cream or a bun and watch the boats sail across the Lough. I remember her telling me stories of how she used to row from Torshavn to Nolsoy as a young girl and how she loved the freedom of moving through the open water. How she and her friends were scolded by angry fishermen for rowing in rough tides. She still remembers some of those stories in her more lucid moments but those are fewer and farther between each day.
I hope you enjoy the video. It’s in Faroese but has English subtitles. It’s under ten minutes long, give it a watch. It might just uplift you like it did me. If you fancy watching more of Heiðrik’s work check out his vimeo channel. My particular favourite is a short film called Sigarett. It’s pretty brilliant. Enjoy.
…but before I go I thought I would share a little something with you. This evening, (when I really ought to have been packing), I was scrolling down my newsfeed on Facebook and spied a video a friend had shared of the Faroe Islands. I have some family living there so naturally was curious to take a peek. The Faroes is an amazing place and deserves, at the very least, a post all of its own but this one is about the singer featured in the video – which you can view here.
I was looking for some new music for my Stockholm trip playlist and Eivør’s haunting tunes will be the perfect antidote to the 2.5 hour bus journey to airport that awaits me in the morning. Here’s a favourite, called ‘True Love’. The video is pretty cool – filmed in the Faroes as well I think, directed by Heiðrik á Heygum. Obviously I don’t own any rights to these videos but they are just too good not to share with you!
Tales of adventure 