Swarm The World

Final day of swarming in my back garden to bid the butterflies farewell. A heart on the fence and my beach combed beastie.

My twin sister wanted to be swarmed herself with butterflies and although it was a bit breezy, we managed to outline her before they started to flutter away.

On the way to Stornoway, my twin sister and I stopped off on the moor to swarm John Dee’s peat iron as he was out cutting peat, not far from the boulder that Angus Graham lifted off the road with his bare hands, or so the legend goes.

It was a rainy dreich day so my twin sister and I headed over to Comunn Eachdraidh Nis at Cross old school to look at the artefacts in the museum and ended up swarming the old peat wagon with butterflies. Peat is still cut here on the island and used as fuel for the fires over the long dark winter months.

My twin sister and I had a lovely wander around Lews Castle Grounds in Stornoway and swarmed a few  random places. The replica of the King from Lews Chessmen guarding the entrance to the Woodlands Cafe actually had a drawing pin in his mouth so I added a butterfly which is not dissimilar to The Silence of the Lamb film poster.

There’s a shipwreck on the beach at Swainbost that was torpedo off The Butt during the war and washed up on the shore. My twin sister and I covered what was left of the hull with a few butterflies as it was quite breezy that day.

My twin sister and I popped to the local shop and spied a perfect rusty relic in a croft across the road to swarm. There are so many rusty cars rotting here on Lewis as the salt and rain drift in off the Atlantic.

My friend Lesley who lives just outside Stornoway in Tong, wanted to collaborate with the swarming so we covered the bonnet of her beautiful yellow VW Beetle with butterflies. Like the colour of sunshine.

I had to go and get my washing done at the local launderette in Cross so while I was waiting, I decided to swarm the Speed Queen tumble dryer.

We then swarmed the No Entry sign at the end of the road as quite a poignant symbol for the current refugee crisis, though migration is a natural process.

My dear friend Ashleigh who lives in Stornoway wanted to collaborate with a swarming so we wrapped a tree in her beautiful garden with wire mesh and covered it in butterflies, as this is what they do in the wild! 

I decided to swarm the local post office in Cross as it’s such an eclectic tin shack. It was closed half day Wednesday so I swarmed the red shutter with butterflies in the shape of a heart. Love is local.

One of the girls working at Heb Hostel was heading over to Uig to stay overnight in a Bunkhouse so I offered to drive her there. On our way, we visited an independent weaver, Norman Mackenzie in Carloway. He weaves the infamous Harris Tweed on his single width Hattersley loom which I swarmed with butterflies.

A friend who owns and runs the Heb Hostel in Stornoway mentioned that she had a dream about me the night before and so I took this cue to swarm the hostel’s magical fairy garden and BBQ hut with butterflies.