View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Jland as was

I'm seeing graphics around marked "J-land, we'll never forget". Anyone care to share a picture link? I'll transfer said graphic to my own photobucket account and link it from there.

Edit midnight 15/16 October: Got two graphics now (see sidebar), but any others still welcome.

Trip to Orkney - 3 October

From October 3rd to 8th, I went to the Orkney isles. It is quite a scenic journey, and my camera was very busy. Apart from 500 pictures of the journey, I also took 700 photos of wargraves. I'll post a few appetisers on here, and then you can go to Flickr yourself and have a more extensive look.

October 3rd dawned a bit windy, but not as windy as the day before, when the afternoon ferry had been cancelled. The swell had not subsided in the Minch, and there were some high waves about on the 3 hour trip to Ullapool. It had also turned markedly colder, and hail showers strafed the Minch, leaving the mountains quite white. Inverness was reached at midday, and I had 2 hours to wait for the bus to Scrabster, near Thurso, from where the Orkney ferry departs.

I am not very familiar with the east coast of Scotland, although I have travelled by train to Thurso a couple of times. It was nice to see places like Tain

Four hours and 125 miles later, I stepped off the coach at Scrabster, but had to wait a while for the ferry to turn up. It left at 7pm, at sunset, so I did not see much of the Old Man of Hoy, a 120 metres high seastack, which the ferry passes fairly closely. Arrived into Stromness at 8.45 and jumped on the bus to Kirkwall, 16 miles away, where I had arranged my accommodation.

Leaving Stornoway






In the Minch




Rainbow over Loch Broom


Mountain landscape along Loch Broom


Hail shower strafing Loch Broom


Arriving at Ullapool


On the moor south of Ullapool


View north from Inverness


Helmsdale harbour


Departing Scrabster

Recycling

Mention the word recycling round here, and fond (ahem) memories surface of attempts on my part to take bottles to the bottlebank not all that long ago. I had borrowed a trolley from the supermarket down the road and had put a large carrier bag full of empties in it. This was sitting upright, but all seemed to be well as I negotiated the far from level pavements in Stornoway. Things became badly unstuck when I had to cross a side-street. I thought I'd regain the far pavement by tackling it at speed. The trolley did not jump on the kerb, but the bottles did jump. Right out of the bag, out of the trolley to smash onto the street. About half a dozen of the things. Managed to retrieve the largest pieces of broken glass, some held together by lables. Must have presented quite a sight to the passers-by, one of whom did help retrieve the shards from the street. Oh dear. This afternoon, I took a bag of papers to the recycling bank, again in a trolley. Fortunately, papers don't jump, and this time I found a lower piece of kerb to cross the road at.

Wednesday 15 October

I thought it was going to be a nice morning, but hey ho, here is the first shower of the day.

If you're in the Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico, keep a very close eye on Hurricane Omar, which is making its way to a beach near you. By the time he has passed through, you won't have much beach left. Winds may peak over 90 mph, but that will be Thursday's news.

I have now saved blogs for Linda [lsfp1960] as she is still feeling under the weather and unsure when she'll be heading north again from southern CA. Blondepennierae's blog is also safe on my PC. I am awaiting instruction how to upload blogs saved using Backstreet browser.

I should admit to not being a Blogger expert, so if anyone has any technical tips regarding the small matter of templates, I would be very grateful. Leave a comment or email me on the usual.