J-land's anniversary

On 21 August 2003, AOL opened a facility called "AOL Journals". Over the following months and years, several hundreds if not thousands of AOL subscribers around the world opened a blog and started writing in it. What about? Their daily lives, their personal opinions, their creations - anything. Soon, people discovered each other's blogs and started leaving comments. It quickly developed into a community, one that was eventually called J-land. Journals-land. The majority were based in the USA, but quite a few others in the United Kingdom as well - myself among the latter.

Over the following five years, the community spirit blossomed, with all its attending highs and lows. The rows, the drama - the support, the laughter. Sharing each other's highs and lows as well. And accompanying several of our community members on their final days, hopefully making them more bearable.

I joined the community proper at Easter 2006, with the death of Pamela Hilger (his1desire). I'd like to think I was among friends during the following 2½ years, and still am. It was a cruel blow when AOL closed down their journals service. I wouldn't like to dwell on that - I'd rather, with Donna, stick with the positive. Saturday 21 August 2010 would have been the 7th anniversary of J-land. On October 8th, it will be 6 years since I started blogging (as a diary). Things have changed since we moved to Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and whatever - many J-landers no longer keep a blog, or are socially active on the Internet. But here is to what we had.

With thanks to Donna (and all the other tag artists) for many of the tags.

Wednesday 18 August

One of those non-descript days. Some sun, some rain, some mosquitoes. Zillions of them, as there is no wind.
Our freight ferry, the Muirneag, sprung a leak on its overnight crossing to the mainland. An investigation found the leak after many hours, and we'll be treated to the spectacle of the old tub sailing away at 11.30 pm tonight.

Above image was taken at 11.54pm on 17 February 2006. The triangle of lights is the Muirneag.

This evening the coastguard helicopter was directed to the Doune Braes hotel near Carloway, to attend the victims of a serious road-traffic accident. Two cars were involved, and two occupants were airlifted to Stornoway. One other followed by road ambulance. The A858 Westside road is closed, leading to a lengthy tailback at nearby Carloway.

Doune Braes Hotel from the A858

Tuesday 17 August

As it is a bit brighter today, I wind my way towards the Eye Cemetery at Aignish, 4 miles east of Stornoway, to retake some gravestone pictures and look for new ones. The total harvest is 50, of which 17 are new ones that I did not discover on previous visits. The Eye Cemetery is a large burial ground, and on previous occasions I may have been clockwatching. This time round I had left myself plenty of time (between 2.45 and 4.15) to criss-cross the graveyard. I should also mention that across the way from the Eye (more correctly: Aoidh) Cemetery lies the ancient church of Aoidh, which is now a roofless ruin. It has its own graveyard, which is in rather a sad state of maintenance. I questioned it with a local man, in charge of the Eye Church Trust, but he advised me that strimming the grass could damage the gravestones, and presently securing and restoring the church building has a higher priority than keeping the grass down. It was a bit of a contrast with the Eye Cemetery, where a man with a mower was busy keeping the place in order.


Old Cemetery, Aoidh Church (Aignish)


View from the cemetery east to Knock and Swordale


Left of the gravestone: man with a mower


Aignish


Muirneag and the villages of Broadbay

Monday 16 August

An overcast morning has given way to a wet afternoon. Nuff said - this is summer.

The North Atlantic hurricane season is not as active as previously forecast, but we're yet to reach the peak. The customary tropical waves are moving across the Atlantic, and certainly are having an impact. One of these surges of moisture is east of Nicaragua, and its associated thunderstorms are thought to have contributed to the crash of a Colombian airliner on a Caribbean island last night. A Boeing 737 crashed on the island of San Andres at 0649 GMT (0149 local time) after being struck by lightning. The latest NHC report mentions a tropical wave, with thunderstorm activity between Colombia and western Caribbean waters. San Andres, off the coast of Nicaragua, is directly under said wave. Nobody was killed, although 114 passengers were hurt.

If you are using Mcafee for your internet security, please think again. One of my relatives mistakenly clicked on a pop-up, upon which Mcafee did not alert to the fact that malware was being downloaded. A few minutes later, the Mcafee programme (firewall, antivirus, anti-malware) had been deleted from their computer, common behaviour for malware. Having complained to the company, 3 weeks ago, they are yet to receive a response. Zero out of ten to Mcafee.

Finally, I would like to highlight this fascinating article on Wikipedia on the star Vega. Vega is one of the brightest stars in northern skies, currently high up as the main star in the constellation Lyra. It is one of the three stars (the others being Deneb (Cygnus the Swan) and Altair (Aquila the Eagle)) which make up the Summer Triangle. This swings through the southern skies in summer, finally dipping behind the horizon in November.

VJ Day

It is 65 years today that the Empire of Japan surrendered to American forces, bringing an end to the Second World War. Japan had been brought to its knees by the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; without those devices, the war could have dragged on for months to follow, with hundreds of thousands more casualties.

Although the fighting was over, the controversy was not. Emperor Hirohito only acceded to surrender if he was not to be held to account over the actions of his forces. This is something that those who suffered at the hands of the Japanese during WW2 have never found easy to swallow. A formal apology, like the one proferred by Germany in past decades, has never been given by the Japanese government or imperial family.

As I stated in the first line of my post, it is now 65 years ago since the events that brought the war to a close. Japan has worked its way up in the world as a respectable member of the family of nations, being one of the economic powerhouses. Those that died in WW2 will continue to be remembered into the future, as their sacrifice cannot be held to be in vain.

One of the lessons learned from WW1 and WW2 is that it is eminently destructive to humiliate the vanquished, as demonstrated in the case of Germany in 1919. Whilst Germany as a single country was not wholly responsible for the outbreak of WW1, it was apportioned with all the blame. Post war reparations were exacted, which caused an economic meltdown, at one point leaving the Deutschmark at an exchange rate of 4,200,000,000,000 to the dollar. So, when Adolf Hitler came along to salvage the wreckage a decade later, his ideas were embraced, practically without question.

VJ Day follows VE Day (Victory in Europe) by 3 months and 7 days. It heralded a whole new world order, which the cataclysm of WW2 had forged. A non-violent cataclysm, which occurred in 1989 with the fall of communism in Europe, brought another wave of change. We should learn from history, as it has forged our today, and will assist us to mould our tomorrow. At our peril - to our advantage.

Sunday 15 August

A strange day, weatherwise. It started quite bright, but as we set forth on a foray by car, a heavy shower developed over Harris and drifted north. Giving us a rather wet passage through Dalmore and Dalbeg. The sun returned at 6pm, and a second trip by car in Point was conducted in bright sunshine. It even felt warm.


Still with me? Good, come with me on the journey :-)

In reverse chronological order.


Lower Bayble


Tiumpan Head Lighthouse


Cottage at Portnaguran


Dalbeg Beach


Dalmore Beach


Happy campers in the rain at Dalmore


Dalmore in the rain


Carloway Broch


Carloway Broch


Loch an Duin, Dun Carloway


Callanish Stones


Callanish


Beinn a'Bhuinne

Saturday 14 August

Today fell into two segments: first of all a visit to an art gallery in Barvas, 13 miles from Stornoway, and secondly a visit to Luskentyre and West Harris in the afternoon / early evening. The weather was grey, and later drizzly. It was not really cold. The contrast to my previous visit to Luskentyre, exactly a week ago, could not be greater. Whereas on the 7th, my father and I lounged in the dunes, my companions and I were today chased off the beach by a fine drizzle - and the presence of a dead, drowned rabbit in a nearby river. The beachscapes on the Westside of Harris remain as spectacular as ever.

In reverse chronological order

Ardhasaig


At the Luskentyre road-end


Between Seilebost and Horgabost


Luskentyre


Luskentyre Beach (looking north)


Luskentyre Beach, looking southwest to Taransay


Tarbert


Above Maraig


Arivruaich


Morven (Barvas): Prince


Inside Morven Gallery, Barvas

Friday 13 August

Friday the 13th today. Well, it hasn't been any happier or unhappier than usual - still 40-odd minutes to go, so am furiously knocking any bare wood within reach. Black cats never bothered me, had one for 15 years.


Thomas passed over the Rainbow Bridge in 1988. His successor, Strider, was with us for 16 years.

I am building an index for the Napier Commission Report of 1883, which covered the whole of Scotland. I am now halfway through, at question 26,500 or thereabouts, and some 450 witnesses have passed in front of the Commission. Next stop will be Lochinver, a small village across the Minch, some 30 miles north of Ullapool.

Overboard - update

Jozef Foliant, aged 49, has been named as the man who died after falling overboard from the Hebrides ferry at Uig, Skye, last night. Mr Foliant, a Dutch national resident in Aberdeen, was reported to have been in an argument from the moment he arrived at the ferry terminal in Tarbert as well as right the way across to Skye up until the moment he went into the water. When passengers reported Mr Foliant going into the water, the ferry went hard around and launched her rescue boat. He was rescued 15 minutes later, but died. Northern Constabulary have stated that there were no suspicious circumstances. Police interviewed witnesses on board the ferry until 9.30pm last night, after which the Hebrides completed the final sailing of the day, to Lochmaddy in North Uist.

I would like to extend my sympathies to Mr Foliant's relatives and friends at this very sad time.

Thursday 12 August

After a cloudy and wet start, the afternoon has brightened up, although the sun is still at a premium. Following the advent of brightness, at around 3pm, it has grown a little warmer. The mercury at the airport rose from 12C to 15C since midday.

On matters astronomical, the Perseid meteor shower is set to peak tonight - which should make a nice display, with up to 100 meteors (or shooting stars) visible per minute. Let's hope the cloud disappears in time for darkness, around 11pm tonight at my latitude.

Still on matters astronomical, we're having a springtide today. Following a high tide at 5.3m (17 ft 8 in) at 9.19pm tonight, the ebbtide will flow at just 0.1m (4 in) at 3.57 am tomorrow morning. Large springtides tend to occur a month before the equinox, which is of course only 6 weeks away now. The weather is calm, in terms of wind, so out here, no major problems are expected. Please note that the graph (linked to in the first line of this paragraph) will only show the tides from the moment you view them. This entry was posted on August 12th.

Today is the Glorious Twelfth, meaning that lots of people in tweed or camouflage jackets will be roaming the hills and moors of this island blasting their guns at grouse. I once had the pleasure of cycling along a public road, with hunters in an adjacent field taking potshots at pheasant flying overhead. One of the birds was hit, and as it crashed to earth, it nearly landed on my head.

Overboard

A man has fallen overboard from the ferry sailing from Tarbert in Harris to Uig in Skye. He was seen falling at 5.45pm this evening, just as the MV Hebrides was approaching the quay at Uig. The ferry launched its own rescue craft, and the Coastguard helicopter from Stornoway was also summoned. In spite of all the efforts, the man died on the scene. The police are now contacting the next-of-kin, and the Hebrides has remained tied up at Uig pending the completion of investigation. The evening sailing to Lochmaddy in North Uist has been delayed until further notice.


Approaching Uig from Tarbert, 11 October 2007

Wednesday 11 August

After a couple of days with decent weather, we're back to mist and drizzle. Why did my father have to take the nice weather away with him? Anyway, good to see you, nice surprise and glad you arrived home safely.

As the weather is not inviting for going out, I'm inside, chasing up some more WW1 casualties. And I found this old email from December last year, in which Frederick Cyril Crocker is suggested as a WW1 casualties whose roots lie in Stornoway. And so they do. He was born at 18 Newton Street on 22 December 1888 to Lieutenant John Crocker. of Claremont. Portishead, Somerset, formerly of Lerwick and Stornoway. R.N. Divisional Officer of Coast Guards, Southend Division, who was married to Annie, daughter of the late James Bardsley. Cyril was educated at Wexford, and Andemon Institute, Lerwick, Shetland, and prior to the outbreak of war was an Officer of Excise at Gateshead. He married at Glasgow, 10 June, 1011, Janet, daughter of Peter Macleod, of Stornoway, and had two daughters.: Patricia Joan Mary, born 28 April, 1912; and Annie Valerie, born 4 Feb. 1915.

Cyril joined the Northumberland Fusiliers at the beginning of 1914. volunteered for Imperial service when war began, was severely wounded in action at St. Julien, 26 April, 1915, while leading the platoon in a bayonet charge after his platoon officer, Lieut. Garton, had fallen, and died in the East Suffolk Hospital, Ipswich 1 June, following.

With thanks to Alastair Macewen and Anne Brooks' Genealogy. 

Tuesday 10 August

Today, my father is returning to Holland. His flight wasn't until 3.45pm, so we had the whole morning for a final walk. Destination: the local war memorial. This sits on a high hill, 300 feet above sealevel, above the northern end of Stornoway. It consist of a tower and 23 bronze plaques outside. These were taken out of the tower after water ingress caused a deterioration in the structure of the tower, rendering it unsafe. It is a nice sunny morning, but there were a few shower clouds in the vicinity. We stayed dry.

Pictures in a following post

Monday 9 August

Although the morning started off wet, we did go off on the 10.30 bus to Ness (North Lewis). The rain had ceased just before we set out, and in spite of some drizzle on the Barvas Moor, it continued to brighten up as we headed north. After some overseas visitors took a long time to extract tourist information from the bus driver at Eoropie, we reached Port of Ness by 11.40. After a cuppa with a local resident of my acquaintance, we set out on a moorland walk to the Butt of Lewis Lighthouse, 3 miles to the west. It was wet underfoot, and you have to be cautious due to the proximity of cliffs. Not terribly high, but 100 feet is high enough. There were lazybeds about, and that's not the sort of beds you lie in at night. They are strips of land with drainage channels in either side, meaning that you are going up and down by one or two feet every few yards. Along the way, we called round at Dun Eisdean, the former home of Clan Morrison, now just an offshore islet. Finally reached the lighthouse at 1.30pm. A fair few tourists about there. Had some lunch at the Eoropie (pronounce Yoropee) Tearoom, then ambled to the nearby beach before the bus was due. This blasted past at 3.20, but returned on schedule at 3.40pm.

In reverse chronological order 

Eoropie Beach


Butt of Lewis lighthouse


Port Sto


At Dun Eisdean


Along the north coast


Port of Ness harbour

Sunday 8 August

Overcast and increasingly breezy as the day wore on. As I'm typing this, the rain has commenced. Nonetheless, I took my dad on a walk to the Arnish Lighthouse, 4 miles away on the other side of the bay. Takes an hour and a half, going through the Castle Grounds and down the Arnish road. We had a look round the lighthouse and the keeper's cottage; its occupant (a private person, not associated with the Northern Lighthouse Board), died recently. The internal shutters were all closed. The grass around the lighthouse was not cut. We had a long, leisurely lunch nearby, then went to the gun emplacements just to the south of the lighthouse. These were erected in the Second World War, but are presently slowly rotting away. A visit to Charlie's Monument closed proceedings. We returned to Stornoway in 90 minutes again. Will put up pics later.

Friday pics

Iolaire memorial


Holm Islands


Cows, Sandwick


Callanish Stones


Callanish


Bragar, Whalebone Arch


Arnol Blackhouse


Derelict house, Arnol

Friday trip

In the morning, my father and I walked to the Iolaire Memorial, about an hour's walk down the coast. After leaving a stone on the cairn, we returned through the nearby village of Sandwick, but heavy traffic on East Street prompted us to divert into Lower Sandwick and the Old Cemetery. Once on the shorepath, we heard a corncrake "crexing" in the tall grass. This one is a bit late; their mating call usually sounds in May or June. After a quick cuppa we went to the bus station. The driver didn't know what we were talking about when asking about a "round trip with two stops", but finally it was translated into a two-stop rover ticket. First call: Callanish. The Harris mountains were wreathed in rainclouds, but strangely enough the rain did not make much northward progress. After lunch at the visitor centre, we had a look at the famous Stones, then walked down the village back street towards the main road near the church. As we headed south along the A858, a coach and a bridal car headed in the opposite direction. Before the next bus arrived, pipes could be heard from the direction of the church, and a large number of vehicles were parked at the church. A slow journey took us to Arnol in 60 minutes, and the sun came out on the way. At Callanish and Carloway, it was raining. Had a look round the Arnol Blackhouse, which I've seen before - my father did not. Upon return to Stornoway, we had a nice supper.

Will post pictures at a later stage.

Friday 6 August

Yes, it's my birthday today. My father turned up unexpectedly last night, and I don't have the time to post regular updates. So, I'll catch up by the middle of next week. Suffice to say, nice day today and I'll try to post things on Facebook by text.