West Word - August 2026
The start of August was pretty much a wash out but it has fallen away to glorious sunshine and heat. Gone is the low lying cloud and drizzly rain and out come the vest tops, lunchtime snorkels and swims in the sea.
Amy held a World Cup sweepstake earlier in the Summer and the profits made from that are going towards a fund to get some new playground equipment.
We have welcomed baby Aidan to the Shearer family. A little brother for Jeannie. Aidan’s arrival was fairly dramatic with Rona & Tom being whisked away in the helicopter. Thankfully Rona was able to hold on until they got to hospital and Aidan wasn’t born in a helicopter! Everyone is doing well and Jeannie seems to be adapting to her new sibling fairly well.
The shop would like to thank George and Alison Edington for their generous donation of postcards and cards for the community to sell in the shop. The postcards and cards have lots of lovely photos of the Canna landscape and have already sold out!
The farm team has been busy this week sorting lambs getting them ready and organised to go to the sales in September.
Wind & Sun spent a week with us upgrading our renewables grid. They are always a pleasure to have on the island and they absolutely love coming here. It was all hands on deck to remove the old lead acid batteries and install the new lithium batteries which look very smart. They take up much less room than the old ones and there has been some debate about who is going to be able to store things in there now there is space! With a few slight hiccups that system is now operating well.
The NTS Seabird Team is here for the Manx Shearwater Project. The chicks have been brought over from Rum and are now ensconced in their burrows. The team has to feed the chicks daily so there are many trips out to the site and I believe, a lot of pureed sardines!
Only 5 of us made it over to Eigg for the Small Isles Games - 4 on the ferry and 1 under sail. Caroline and I did a three-legged race and managed to come 4th and Canna won its round against Eigg in the tug-o-war.
We hope everyone has had a good Summer and long may this sunshine continue!
