Sunday 30 November

St Andrew's Day in Scotland, not a bad day in terms of weather. Been catching up on old blog posts here on Atlantic Lines. On 11 December, I'm heading over to Holland for my annual Christmas stint, by which time I shall have a clearer idea of various matters that I am currently contemplating.

Saturday 29 November

Afternoon all from Stornoway, where the wind is beginning to pick up after a calm morning. Another beautiful sunrise, but we can expect rain later.



The below image is of a (yellow) clothesline that has been grown into the tree that it was originally hung from. As the tree grows, the line is hoisted higher and higher off the ground.  The person using it (not me) is finding it increasingly difficult to reach it!

Friday 28 November

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and here is this group entitled "Turkey in the First World War". It is only the depiction of the Turkish flag that steers me away from the idea that turkeys (note lowercase) had any role to play in WW1.

Can I also say that I'm profoundly disgusted by the scenes in supermarkets across the UK on the pretext of Black Friday? It is thoroughly disgraceful that this bad custom has wafted across the pond. Thanksgiving is an American custom, only observed in the Isle of Lewis within the UK. Elsewhere in the country, it is an excuse for greedy and grabbing behaviour. Please abolish.

 

Thursday 27 November

Dry and sunny here in SY, as the sun dips further away from us, in the direction of the Tropic of Capricorn. My guess it's only a little over 10 degrees above the horizon by midday, which will decrease to 8° on solstice day. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends; Happy Thanksgiving too to all in Eilean Fhroach, as we also celebrate Thanksgiving here, purely as a religious event.

I'm not a cricket follower (barely understand the game), but am saddened to hear of the death of a player. Phil Hughes was struck on the head by a ball two days ago, and has now succumbed to his injuries.

So they're still mulling over the vexed question of the Ullapool linkspan. Put a smaller ship on the Stornoway to Uig run, which can dock at all states of the tide (including bone dry??). Postpone the revamp of the linkspan until next winter (that won't make much of a difference). Nothing, at least according to Calley Mac, will do the job better than an open-all-hours ferry service. Maybe they should advertise it as a special ferry. "See your island at hours you'd never imagine seeing it."