Sunday 26 January

Rain and gales sums up today. Windspeeds averaged some 40 mph, force 8 on the Beaufort scale, and gusts in excess of 80 mph in exposed locations. Windy, but nothing to write home about. There was not a ferry out of port in any of the islands, meaning we were all truly islands again for the day. Even the freight ferry, the Clipper Ranger (or Clipper Clanger as I sometimes call it) has not ventured out. I did venture out, to my usual vantage point at the Coastguard Station. The waves slammed into the coastline, creating impressive curtains of spray. Pics below.

It was reported that someone had inverted a line from the speech to the Haggis on Burns Night last night, making it run: "pudding of the chieftain race", referring to Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond. Of course, the original line goes "chieftain of the pudding race".

Saturday 25 January

Burns' Night tonight, commemorating Scotland's National Bard. At formal occasions, the haggis (a sheep's stomach stuffed with various bits of sheep offal) will be piped in, served with neeps and tatties and washed down with copious amounts of the water of life. One of his poems can be read here, there are hundreds more songs and poems in Scots and English.

Today is a much brighter day out here, very welcome after yesterday's dreich conditions. However, it is not much of an improvement, as we have heavy showers of rain, hail, snow and thunder. At 5.30 this morning, a good booming thunderstorm moved through. We normally only get thunderstorms in winter, strangely enough. After tomorrow's gale, the weather will turn colder next week.

Went for a 5 km / 3.1 mile walk along the quays of Stornoway and into the Castle Grounds. Not much had changed there; the old Monaco is slowly being demolished and they have installed new pontoons for pleasure craft.

Friday 24 January

Overcast, windy and wet. No ferry to or from Ullapool today, neither between Leverburgh and Berneray, and the Uig triangle (to Lochmaddy and Tarbert) is disrupted. Spent the afternoon clearing up the hard-disk drive on this computer, which liberated some 12 gigabytes of space. Also performed some surgery on a 10 ft tall indoor yucca, which finally could no longer keep its head up high. Have removed top bit, and put it in water. According to a certain video, it should start to sprout in about 3-4 months. We shall see. Photos? Not in this weather. I don't mind bad weather, but it's not conducive for taking pics. Tomorrow, we shall have showers, which is far more photogenic.

Thursday 23 January

A cold day today, with the mercury stuck between 3 and 5 degrees C, that's 37 to 41 in Fahrenheit. The wind didn't help the conditions, neither did the clatter of hailstones or the flurries of snow that occurred at times. Nonetheless, it was showery, meaning we had some fantastic cloudscapes to enjoy, and even a sundog (parhelion) at lunchtime.

I have little time for celebrities, and now it's another teen idol in the States that has fallen flat on his face. After Miley Cyrus decided to grow up by behaving like an utter Hotel Oscar, we now have the edifying spectacle of Justin Bieber drag racing on a boulevard in Miami and spewing abuse at police officers when being stopped at 4 am. Upon arrest, he was over the drink drive limit and under the influence of cannabis. Celebrities are supposed to be role models. Both Mr Bieber and Ms Cyrus have abandoned their responsibility they had towards their young admirers, and should disappear from the scene. We can do without them.

Wednesday 22 January

Well, after an absence of five weeks, you have to catch up with lots of stuff of course, and I've spent most of today doing just that. Christmas cards, mail, you name it. I was absolutely knackered last night, but feeling better today.

Keen wind blowing through this town this afternoon, but what's new? Nothing appears to have changed, which I wasn't expecting to be honest. Across the bay from me, they are faffing about with boats on the shore of Goat Island, nothing new there either. And they are still burning rhodies in the Castle Grounds, when will that ever get finished. Ah, it's good to be back.

Tuesday 21 January

After a five week sojourn in the Netherlands, I travelled back to Stornoway once more today.

Left my dad's place at 11.40, caught the bus at 11.55 to reach the station at Arnhem with exactly one minute to spare to catch the 12.16 train to Schiphol Airport. Reached there at 13.35, and had quite a bit of time before the plane left for Inverness at 15.35. The 535 miles to Inverness passed off without incident, I was glad I had a book. Reached Inverness at 15.55 local time (that's an hour behind mainland Europe), just as the sun was setting. Although they had to deploy a different aircraft (the original one had broken down in Benbecula or Stornoway), it only delayed us by 20 minutes, meaning I was on the ground at Stornoway at 19.10, and in the door here at 19.30. Although everything went well, I was exhausted, so made it an early night.

Tuesday 17 December

Although updates on this blog have been rather intermittent of late, I am now switching to my alternate blog Shell Gallery, for the duration of a family visit to Holland. I intend to resume updates here on Wednesday 22 January 2014.

Sunday 15 December

It's very wild here this morning and getting worse. Since 7 am, the wind has increased from 30 to 50 mph. Over at Eoropie, 25 miles north of here at the Butt of Lewis, the wind is pushing past the 100 mph mark. Angry white riders march across the harbour, and spindrift is flying, a sure sign that force 9 is nigh. A clearance is marching away east. All ferries from this island are cancelled today.

At lunchtime, the rain moved away east and was followed by sunshine and showers. The wind abated slightly and veered southwest, but remained at stormforce over at Eoropie.As the afternoon and evening wore on, the wind subsided to force 6, although heavy showers continued.

Saturday 14 December

It's turned into a wild day here, with rain being blown along on this galeforce southerly wind. The ferry is staying tied up alongside today, both here in Stornoway and down in Berneray. The triangular service from Skye to North Uist and Harris will make a go this evening, when this gale is expected to subside. The weatherstation at Eoropie Tearoom is showing gusts to 80 mph thus far.

Wind appears to be dropping and the barometer is on its way back up again. Oh well, pity the sun is just setting. Anyway, better get ready for round two tomorrow, which will be a lot worse. The depression that will bring us stormforce winds tomorrow is projected to deepen to 944 mbar.As a result tomorrow's ferries around Lewis and Harris are cancelled.

Friday 13 December

Windy day here, with occasional showers and a force 7 from the south southwest. Tomorrow, we'll have a force 9; on Sunday it could be force 10. This obviously will give rise to disruption on the ferry service. Calmac text updates on this, and it would appear that nothing is going to go (in my neck of the woods) on Saturday.

Thursday 12 December

Awoke this morning to find the force 7 gone. That is just a breathing space. On Saturday as well as Sunday, we are up for a force 9.