Today is the 8th anniversary of my blogging activities. It started in 2004 from the computer in the youth hostel at Kyleakin, Isle of Skye, where I tapped out a description of the day's walk on a blog called Northern Trip. That blog remained in existence for 4 years, until AOL pulled the plug on all its blogs in October 2008. This blog, Atlantic Lines, was its successor and I marked its 4th anniversary last Monday, October 1st. Since starting in 2004, my blogging activity has mushroomed. I became involved with the community of bloggers on AOL who were known as J-land. It fell apart in 2008, but regrouped on Blogger and Facebook. A number of those friends are no longer with us, and I shall mark their passing at the start of November. Others have joined us, or merged with J-land from Blogger and Facebook. I have always found this a unique community, which remains as strong as ever, irrespective of its location on the WWW. In the years after 2008, I have embraced Twitter and Facebook as a means of sharing information with people who hold like-minded interests, such as local history and news in the Outer Hebrides.
Today was a nice day in Stornoway, with occasional sunshine and light winds. Temperatures remain low, with the daytime max at 11C / 52F, and a low of 2C / 36F a few hours ago. Locally, the Office of Fair Trading was in Stornoway to take evidence in the on-going row about fuel prices. An independent wholesaler of fuel (Highland Fuels) has started to supply a garage in Back, 7 miles north of Stornoway, and that garage now retails fuel at 9p a litre less than those supplied by the main supplier, Scottish Fuels.
