Friday 7 March

Having a morning of nasty weather here. As I type, snow is falling, after a couple of heavy hail showers, all propelled by a force 7 westerly wind, which is gusting in excess of 65 mph in the southern isles. The ferry is off until at least this evening, due to adverse weather I should add. The Tarbert ferry is off as well, as is the Sound of Harris service. During a hailshower, visibility falls to barely 200 yards - flurries of snow follow. Temperature 2C / 36F. The contrast with the south of England is remarkable; a station in Oxfordshire reports 14C / 57F!

After two substantial hail showers, the sun is out - and behind glass, it's feeling quite warm. However, outside it remains perishing cold. The wind has abated somewhat, now blowing at force 6 from the west. Mercury in the south of England now crossing the 60F mark, with four locations at 16C. Here in the Western Isles, it's between 4 and 6C (39 to 43F). That temperature contrast is generating all this interesting weather. At the end of the day, there was just wall-to-wall sunshine... Strange day

Was watching the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi. Supreme irony - one of the pieces of music played is Mussorgsky's "Grand Gate of Kiev".

Thursday 6 March

The Royal British Legion pub on South Beach is closing on March 16th. That's the third or fourth pub in Stornoway that has closed down in recent years for economic reasons. My theory is that people now drink at home, using much cheaper alcohol bought in the supermarket. A pint in the pub costs more than £3; a pint in a can is only a little over £1.

Was watching the little Isle of Arran coming in (and going out) for its final call, before the Isle of Lewis takes up the run again tomorrow morning. The latter boat came in at around 2.30pm.

Wednesday 5 March

This is the image of the tanker leaving port in streaming rain.Worse than that was the wind, which caused the cancellation of the lunchtime ferry crossings - the Isle of Arran did come back from Ullapool in the evening.  The Isle of Lewis has left drydock at Birkenhead after repairs to her rudder and should be back here in Stornoway on Thursday afternoon.

Can we talk about something else but the flipping referendum on BBC Scotland please? I'm getting mighty tired of it, and we're in for another * SIX * months of that sh*te.

Things calmed down in the evening, with the wind shifting to the west and abating to force 4. Down in southern England, daytime maxima will exceed 60F over the next few days, but we are not likely to exceed 50F by very much. Don't mind, we have a very temperate climate with relatively minor fluctuations in temperatures. Saturday night into Sunday could see a brief but severe gale.

Tuesday 4 March

Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day - the last day before Lent in the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches. It was the day that Pope Francis was revealed to have mispronounced a word in Italian (his first language is Spanish), making it sound like the F-word.

A day of varying fortunes in terms of cloud cover. Tomorrow will be less favourable, and I won't be able to make it to the open day for the Isle of Harris Distillery. This is due to be built on the foreshore at Tarbert.  It will be the second distillery on the landmass that is Lewis and Harris, the first being the Abhainn Dearg [Red River] distillery at Carnish, Uig in Lewis.

Although the day started out cloudy, we had a bright interlude until about 3pm. That is when the cloud cover increased rapidly, to be followed by rain at 4pm. 

Monday 3 March

Turned on the TV at 10 am to catch updates on the Ukraine crisis. Instead I got continuous coverage of the trial of South African "blade-runner" Oscar Pistorius, who has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend. I want to hear the main points of that, and instead wall-to-wall coverage of the crisis in the Ukrain, thanks BBC. And Sky.

Beautiful afternoon, first day of spring - at least, that's the way it felt on a 4½ mile jaunt round the Castle Grounds. Recommend the new path from the Marybank Gate to Strawberry Hill. Was standing right on the tideline at Cuddy Point - and suddenly I felt the waves lapping under, at, over my boots... Slowly, but inexorably.

Winter Paralympics

The opening ceremony for the Winter Paralympics was held in Sochi yesterday. One piece of music struck me as supremely ironical, if not (as my friend Daan suggested) cynical. "The Grand Gate at Kiev". The athletes will be doing their level best for the next eight days or so. The closing ceremony will be held on Sunday, 16th March.

On Sunday, 16th March, this referendum will be held in Crimea whether to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. So far, Ukraine has not reacted to the armed provocation by the Putin's Russia, thereby preventing a disaster. Thus far. However, we all know what the outcome of the Crimean referendum will be - to join Russia. Ukraine has said it will not let go of Crimea. I've marked Sunday 16th March in my diary, and I barely dare look.

Sunday 2 March

Quite a nice afternoon here in Stornoway, with a good collection of lens-shaped clouds about. There is also a southerly breeze going, with the weatherglass on its way down. Am expecting rain in the evening. Meanwhile, I'm also looking out as the tide recedes. Low tide at 1.50pm. Went for a walk round town, but found the wind very cold. Did find a mollusc at the tideline, but did not want to eat it, so it went back into the sea.

Monday 3 March

A beautiful spring day, so I went for a 4½ mile jaunt round the Castle Grounds. Went along the bank of the Bayhead River to the Waterwheel, thence via the new mountain bike trail to the Marybank Gate, and on to Strawberry Hill. Some very nice vistas to be had at the higher points. Noticed that the crossing at Bennadrove had been broken through the wall, to give access to mountain bikers. Not many of them about. Returned via Cuddy Point, where the tide was just beginning to rise.

Saturday 1 March

Quite a bright morning here, but the sky is what I call messy, with lots of mid-level cloud about (altocumulus), cirrocumulus at higher level - and the dreaded cumulonimbus, also known as showerclouds. In plain English, I don't trust the weather one bit today. However, the sun is nice and getting warm behind glass. 7C / 45F is no great shakes for March, but we're only 12 hours into the month so not complaining. Yet.

Friday 28 February

Morning all, it's grey here, but the rain has stopped and it's getting slightly less dreich. Very worried about the situation in the Crimea, where a Russian (backed) intervention in all but name appears to be underway. Actions speak louder than words.

Spent a wee while in Stornoway library, browsing the columns of the Inverness Courier and offshoot The Highland News. I was looking for an obituary or a death notice for a South Uist soldier, who had died of TB in February 1917. A death notice in the paper costs money, and people in the South Uist of 1917 did not have money. There is no gravestone over the grave in Hallan Cemetery, Daliburgh, mute testimony to their poverty.

I was pleased to see they are finally widening the right-hand pavement (as you come up from South Beach) on Kenneth Street, outside An Lanntair. It was so narrow that two people could not pass each other without one having to step into the roadway. A disabled parking bay? Don't make me laugh. It'll be a free for all parking bay.

This weekend will see another springtide, with the highest and lowest tides occurring on Sunday and Monday. I'm pleased that here in SY the ebb tides occur in the afternoon, giving me a chance to go down and look for shellfish.

Thursday 27 February

Morning all from Stornoway, where the weather is very changeable this morning. Plenty of showers (when are we getting our radar back?!). I am currently unable to locate our ferry MV Isle of Lewis on AIS, but she is due to return to Liverpool for further repairs. Been up since half past five this morning (don't ask), so that will catch up with me at some stage today. Done a few more searches on Hebridean Connections.

The woman who kept a horse in her living room returned home this morning - to find that the equine had been removed to a more suitable location. A stables in Benbecula. This made national news headlines.

An interesting day from a point of view of weather. As I type this (10pm), a rogue shower is passing through, whilst the rest of Lewis is ogling the Aurora Borealis. The day did start wet as well, but cleared up to heavy showers, which gradually faded in the second half of the afternoon. Gorgeous cloudscapes.

Wednesday 26 February

Quite a nice, bright day here, with a few attempts at showers - not coming to very much at all. We're managing double digit temperatures this afternoon, and the daffs and crocuses are out. Very cheery. Only three days of (meteorological) winter left, but to be honest, we have not seen much winter at all this year.

Russia, the Crimea and the Ukraine (II)

Strange. Earlier today, I was watching parts of that press conference with Vladimir Putin, and he looked as if he had suffered a disappointment. Yes, his troops have taken possession of the Crimea. Not a single person has been wounded or killed - thus far - although some hot heads did discharge their weapons outside an airforce base earlier today. The hot heads being some Russian soldiers who were confronted by a column of 300 Ukrainean soldiers marching towards them - unarmed. By not offering any resistance to this profound provocation, being the invasion of what was their territory since 1954, has most likely taken the sting out of the situation. The Ukraineans knew they could never stand up to the might of the Russian armed forces. So they offered no resistance. And that deprived Putin of the pretext he wanted for launching an all-out assault. We ain't there yet. But suddenly, the sun seems to be reappearing behind the clouds over the Ukraine. Keep your heads cool there. Oh, Yanukovich, you ask? He has been ruled out by Putin.

Russia, the Crimea and the Ukraine

The Crimea, a peninsula in the north of the Black Sea, has been part of the Ukraine since 1954, with a section being used by the Russian Federation for its Black Sea fleet under treaties signed in 1994. The Crimea, scene of a war in the 1850s, has a mixed population, consisting of 55% Russians, 21% Crimean Tartars and the rest Ukraineans. Although the regional government of the Crimea is appointed by the Ukrainean government in Kiev, armed men loyal to the Russian majority have now seized power and have requested (and are getting) support from Vladimir Putin's Russia. Russian troops have deployed outside the naval base at Sevastopol, and have mounted a de-facto invasion of Ukrainean territory, although no combat appears to be taking place.

It is also interesting to place this in the context of recent events in the Ukraine. This large country (which spans 800 miles east to west) has a Russian speaking minority in the east. Late last year, president Yanukovich turned down a trade deal with the EU in favour of a much more appealing offer from Russia. If memory serves, the EU offered £1bn, whereas Russia's carrot was £17bn. At the time, I commented that I did not fault Yanukovich for taking that deal. However, the population in the west of Ukraine was very unhappy, and started demonstrations in Kiev which have lasted since November. They have resulted in more than 70 deaths as well as the de-facto deposing of Mr Yanukovich. He appears to have been enriching himself not unlike Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and seems to have fallen out of favour with even the Russian minority in the east of his country. Yanukovich appears to have been spirited out of the Crimea into Russia.

Last Sunday, during the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia's president Vladimir Putin could be seen looking decidedly glum. Do not forget that Yanukovich was his man, and his replacement (referred to by the Kremlin as "Ukrainean ultra-nationalists" poses a "direct threat to the live (sic) and health of Russian citizens". We can therefore expect the Crimea to be placed under Russian control (never mind those treaties), to safeguard the health and safety of Russian citizens. That will create tensions, as the Crimean Tartars are not enamoured with the Russians. Under Stalin, a large number of them were deported from the Crimea and murdered. However, Mr Putin appears to be flexing the muscles of the Russian Federation in the face of the popular uprising in Kiev. He will regard the Ukraine as his backyard, to be ruled by who he approves - and if that no longer is the case, he will take whatever is required to remedy that situation. Including the use of force.

Russia appears to be in a strong position. The Western powers cannot do anything to intervene, without risking a direct confrontation with the Russian Federation. At the end of the day, we may well find Russian forces onto Ukrainean territory proper, north of the Crimea, to reinstate Yanukovich in Kiev - at whatever cost. Barack Obama was talking about 'costs'. Like what? Mr Obama needs Mr Putin more than Mr Putin needs Mr Obama. Instances of note are the civil war in Syria and the question of Iran's nuclear programme. I have to laugh when I watch David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama in earnest telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin, who pledges to uphold the territorial integrity of the Ukraine - aye, he will. But our Vladimir, who is a clever political player, will not rest until the politics of his western neighbour are aligned to serve his interests best. If anybody starts to make a real fuss, all he has to do is turn off the gas.

Putin will enjoy large support on the home front. There are many people in Russia today who long for the lost days when the Soviet Union was a superpower, with a sphere of influence to match. The Russian bear has woken up and finds it is strong. Beware.