View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Tuesday 18 May - PM

A stunning day today, which had the mercury soaring to 18C / 64F, something that is our average in summer. As I type this, it is still not fully dark (10.45pm). There were two cruiseliners in, and the passengers of the Spirit of Adventure were apparently (bag)piped into town. Nice welcome. I went round the Inner Harbour between 5 and 6pm to have a wee look.

A friend of mine here in Lewis, who sits on committees, reported  the subjects under discussion this evening.
1. golliwogs 
2. state of crofting 
3. peeing on socks 
4. embalming 
5. cost of curing sheepskins

In my opinion, there isn't that much wrong in the world if that is all that concerns the citizens of this island. 

Hurricane update - 18 May

We have a new tropical cyclone in the world, Laila. This one is located in the Bay of  Bengal, some 350 miles east of Chennai (Madras) in India. It is at tropical storm strength and will impact the coast as a minor hurricane in a few days' time. This is the first system since 25 April, one of the longest cyclone-free intervals in the four years that I've been following these phenomena.

Tuesday 18 May

Bright and sunny, with a breeze and temperatures likely to soar into the 60s Fahrenheit for the first time this year. The forecast is for 19C on the mainland, but we will not get that high due to the surrounding cold waters of the Atlantic. It is once more cruiseliner time, with the Spirit of Adventure coming in at 8 this morning, and the Quest on its way in from the north.


Spirit of Adventure, 25 May 2009

Have joined a site which collates websites of interest for the Western Isles, and it is gradually filling up with interesting links. And I'm continuing to build a website which shows all war(-related) graves in Lewis.

Monday 17 May

Today was one of those strange days, where I found myself fattening the coffers of the local supermarket no fewer than three times. Apart from that, it was quite a nice day, which started with the appearance of another cruiseliner, the Fram. The below picture dates back to last September, at the time of her previous visit.

The Fram is quite a new vessel, only 3 years old. As I type this, the next morning, she is docked at Aberdeen.

Air travel is once more disrupted due to volcanic ash floating around British airspace. Watched an alarmist programme about the volcano involved, what would happen if its big brother blows, what will happen when the 30 volcanoes on the Kamchatka peninsula in the far east of Russia all go off. Wish people would get things into perspective, and not personalise natural phenomena.