Saturday 11 July

Today, the Norwegian sailing ship Anna af Sand (Anna of Sand) was open to the public in the marina area of the port. She is a relatively small vessel, but extra crew were flown in and there were 14 crew on board. The crew were most welcoming, although getting on board required a bit of agility.

A few pics from the marina, affording an unusual angle on familiar scenes

The big tent for next week's Hebridean Celtic Festival has meanwhile been put up on the Castle Lawn.

Friday 10 July

The less said about today's weather, the better.

Thursday 9 July

The Isle of Lewis is pictured above, leaving port at 10.40 am on a supplementary sailing. This is scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays to provide extra capacity for arriving and departing self-catering holidaymakers.

Marco Polo is a regular visitor to Stornoway during the summer months

Wednesday 8 July

Le Soleal
This French cruiseliner appeared early in the morning, and did not leave until 11pm at night.
Another interesting vessel was this two-masted sailing ship, the Leader, which left port at 8.25pm.

Tuesday 7 July

A foggy day, and there was only brightness towards the very end of the day. It did not deter our resident population of herons.

Monday 6 July

The day started foggy. We were woken up at 5 o'clock by the ferry blasting its horn upon return from Ullapool - and again at 7, when she went out again. The sea haar quickly burned away later that morning, leaving us with sunny conditions.

The sea-haar briefly returned later, but the weather is now changing so it will not linger into the night.

Today's cruiseliner, Island Sky, arrived late, 9pm

Sunday 5 July

Years ago, a washing line was hung over a tree branch. In recent years, the branch has grown over the line, forcing it upwards as the tree grows.

After yesterday's scare with the sparrowhawk, a male blackbird ventures out on the grass to look for worms for his second brood of the season. Later, he was taking an ant-bath. The bird irritates an ants' nest, and the insects crawl all over his features, killing parasites.

Saturday 4 July

The day started quite early, with a breathtaking sunrise - this pic was taken at 4.08am.

A little later, whilst having breakfast, a sparrowhawk swooped in for some breakfast of his own, in the shape of a sparrow (or two). The chorus of chittering sparrows has since been silenced, and they do not venture anywhere near the garden.

Cruiseliner Corinthian also called round, to afford its passengers a cursory glance at the delights of Lewis (and Harris). Not as sunny as yesterday, although the sun did come out by evening.