Tuesday 4 August

Overcast but with a fair amount of brightness among the clouds towards the southeast. The odd shower is possible, as shown on the rainfall radar. You'd have to be very unlucky to catch one.

I've been extracting some statistics from the transcription of the Roll of Honour for Lewis. Of the 6,030 names on the roll, nearly 570 served in a Canadian unit. More than 700 came from Stornoway, not surprising as this was (and still is) the largest centre of population in Lewis.

The most common surnames were Macleod and Macdonald, which combined comprise one third of the Lewis contingent.

Half of the men from Lewis served in the Navy, including Naval reserves (2,400). The other half were in the landarmy, in units like the Seaforth, Gordon and Cameron Highlanders as well as the Ross Mountain Battery.

Some 1,150 died, and each year of the war (excluding 1914, but including 1919) claimed about 200 of them. Half of the fatalities were killed in action, either on land or at sea. According to the Roll of Honour (sic), 172 lost their lives in the Iolaire disaster (see disclaimer at the end of this post). The majority of those that died were aged 18-23.

The vast majority of medals awarded were Mons Star and 1914 Star, both given to those involved in the fight for Antwerp and the withdrawal from Mons to the Marne in late 1914.

As the Isle of Lewis has more than 100 villages (including Stornoway), it will take me a number of days to compile the webpages for each village. They will appear under my own website, which will be fully revamped with a shift towards local history.

Monday 3 August

Another overcast, slightly muggy day. Temperature reached 19C / 66F earlier on. Rain is heading north out of Ireland, but will not reach us before nightfall (10pm). Tomorrow, the mercury could well cross the 20C mark.

Jland (or what's left of it) has a few health concerns around: Jeannette (see Call for Support) and Krissy both have relatives who require hospital treatment. I can also not help noticing some in the southwest of the USA suffering from sky-high temperatures, well above 30C. Keep cool!

Just to plug a new venture of myself, if you're in the Outer Hebrides (or interested in the place): my Dipity has links to a few dozen blogs, news- and photosites in the area - including my own.

Also, I am currently working my way through the transcripts of the Roll of Honour. I have put a trial-page on my website. Feedback welcome.

Sunday 2 August

Overcast day, with a bit of drizzle and a bit of sunshine here and there.

Archbishop Vincent Nicols, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England, has sounded a warning bell against the (over)use of social networking sites on the Internet, particularly by young people. He claims that sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter give people a false sense of belonging to a group, a group that can sometimes turn out to be as ephemeral as the air itself. And when it all collapses, suicide is only just around the corner.

I know people who are strongly opposed to social networking sites for that reason, claiming that they prey on the vulnerable and leading to disaster should a meeting face-to-face ever ensue. All the people that I correspond with through the internet, with only a few exceptions, I have never met in person. There is exactly one person that I met as a direct result of a meeting on-line. I am no longer in touch (haven't been for 4-5 years), but will say that my impression face-to-face was little different from what I had been led to believe on AOL (as was). Although you miss the non-verbal communication (which makes up 70% of any face-to-face communication), I was surprised at the outcome. We were both aware of mutual vulnerability, and both took that into account. We parted as friends; circumstances led to a drifting apart.

There are a few people that I have "met" through AOL Journals, Facebook and Twitter I would like to meet in person. As in real life, you get close friends, "ordinary" friends and acquaintances on-line. I am wary of making the transition.

Cory Aquino

I was alerted by a Twitter trending topic that former Philippines president Corazon Aquino has passed away at the age of 76. She was propelled to power in 1986 after dictator Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in a popular uprising following the murder of opposition leader Benigno Aquino. The Philippines are in mourning for Asia's first female president, and for an icon for the return to democracy. Mrs Aquino died yesterday after battling colon cancer for more than a year; she had recently refused further treatment. She is to be buried next to her husband.

Last month of summer

August is here, and meteorologically speaking, it's the last month of summer. We were told this past week that tornadoes tend to occur in autumn, and the weather here has certainly been very autumnal. Out in the tropics, the Atlantic hurricane season is yet to produce a named storm, although the Antilles have seen their seasonal progression of tropical waves, with heavy rain and gusty winds. Tropical storm Lana is east of Hawaii, but not posing a threat to that US state.

Today is overcast with a soft breeze. The rainfall radar shows a thin line of rain crossing Lewis, and it should be here shortly.

Friday 31 July

July is closing as un-summerlike as you can think of. The Scots call it dreich, with drizzle although not much wind.

I have completed the transcription of the Lewis Roll of Honour for the First World War. There are 6,029 names from the over 100 villages and townships across the island. Some are just listed with their name and unit, others have decorations. Nearly 200 perished in the sinking of HMY Iolaire on their return home on New Year's Day 1919. Another 1,100 or so lost their life in the course of the war, or during the years afterwards. Once I have cleaned up the data, I'll give a further breakdown. I now have to contemplate how to plonk it all on the web. I'll probably do it by village.

140 degrees longitude

Nearly halfway round the globe, and this so-called African tropical wave has spawned a tropical cyclone. African waves are pulses of moist air, which move off the African continent in the summer months, into the Atlantic Ocean. They are the focal point for hurricanes to form in the Atlantic. However, the one that gave rise to tropical depression 6E travelled nearly halfway around the world. Within the hour, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, will issue the second advisory, and it is likely to be for a tropical storm. Satellite images suggest that the system will continue to strengthen for a day or so. It will not directly affect Hawaii, passing 5 degrees of latitude to the south of the Aloha state.

The image shows 6E in the bottom right corner; Hawaii sits in the centre.

Thursday 30 July

Sunshine and showers punctuate this morning, and it's quite breezy as well. The reverberations of Tuesday night's tornado continue, in the shape of daft reports in the press. The obvious take of divine retribution is gratefully taken up by the trashy side of the UK press, although I have to credit the Independent for its objective reporting. If the car, flipped over by the wind, had been flung into the fuel depot across the road (or if the twister had touched down in there), the consequences do not bear thinking about. The talk of relocating the fuel depot (cost about £23m) has resurfaced, but whether that will be followed up with action is another matter. I can't but think back to December 2005, when the Buncefield depot in Hertfordshire (England) exploded. That was far from any major conurbations; our depot is located right in the centre of the town. Don't think we'll have much town left should this depot ignite.

Wednesday 29 July

Mother Nature certainly threw a tantrum last night with that tornado. Damage is greater than I initially thought this lunchtime - regional news shows cars caved in by falling roof tiles, garden sheds blown to bits, trampolines migrated across gardens, trees down and shredded of leaves. A campervan was nearly blown over, but was parked next to a tractor which prevented a disaster. But, I must stress, nobody got hurt.

Local rumour has it that some wisecrack is blaming the tornado on divine retribution following the institution of a ferry on the Sabbath. My reply to that is: god sent us a tornado, God prevented anyone getting hurt.

TORNADO!

Last night at around 9pm, the weather started to deteriorate markedly. Dark showerclouds moved up from the west, the wind (which had already been at force 5 all day) picked up further. The Eoropie private weather station recorded gusts of wind of 57 mph at one point. And just after 10pm, a tornado dropped in for a passing visit. It came ashore near the ferry terminal, overturned a car outside the Sea Angling Club, jumped to James Street to rip gates off a private driveway, then on to Garden Road where the lead flashings came loose on a house - presumably because the rooftiles were being lifted off. Trees had limbs taken off and shredded. Next on to Matheson Road, where two small trees were downed just off Smith Avenue. And Jamieson Drive, a little way further on, also incurred some damage. The twister disappeared in the darkness off Sand Street, 2 miles north of the original point of landfall.

On the Fujita scale, which measures the strength of a tornado, judging by the damage it leaves behind, this one was an F1 tornado. Overturning a car puts it at F1, as does roof damage. The Coastguard reported a sudden increase and decrease of windspeed as the phenomenon passed. The Met Office rainfall radar last night showed a small burst of intense rainfall, moving at high speed from the west coast of Uig to Stornoway between 9pm and 9.30pm.

Ill tempered

Mother Nature is throwing a tantrum here in the Hebrides this evening. A severe squall is passing over, with winds of 60 mph being reported in the north of the island. Thunder is heard here in Stornoway and 10 miles away in Lochs. The rainfall radar shows very bright echoes out west, meaning more is to come.

And what did I spy just before the rain started to lash down? The three-masted schooner Oosterschelde leaving port. I wish them a safe passage, but hope they made the right decision in setting forth with this weather heading our way.

Tuesday 28 July

A bright, sunny but windy day - haven't seen a force 5 for some time.

Up here in the Hebrides, there are concerns over a population decline in some of the more remote areas. The island of Scalpay, off Harris, has a population of about 200, but none of them are aged below 7. Following the closure of a fish processing factory there a few years ago, there are no prospects of new employment - and thereby new families arriving. A similar problem caused a terminal decline in population on St Kilda, which was evacuated 79 years ago, in August 1930. Read more here.

The dates have been announced for the switch-over to digital television in Scotland. The Western Isles will transition in July 2010.

Monday 27 July

Breezy day with varying amounts of cloud and the odd downpour. Not cold, the mercury currently at 18C / 64F. Continuing my transcription of the local Roll of Honour for the First World War, bringing the total (at time of posting) to 4,675. I manage up to 700 a day before I turn square-eyed, something that is a normal state of affairs this end. The final total is probably around 6,700, so with a bit of luck it should be done by the end of this week. The Roll of Honour takes you round the Isle of Lewis counter-clockwise, which has left me on Great Bernera. I'll continue into Uig, then across to Lochs, where the listing ends. I intend to post this on the internet, but am running into the daft situation that the conversion from 2 MB Excel file results in a 40 MB HTML file. Ridiculous.

Sunday 26 July

After a grey and dreich start, the sun came through some two hours ago, making it fairly bright this afternoon. The mercury has jumped to 18C, making it a mild day.

It's a quiet Sunday as well, with more in the news following the death of WW1 veteran Harry Patch yesterday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is talking of organising a commemorative service for all those who died as a result of the Great War.

Across in America, a cruiseship made an unusual entry into port, when it was discovered to have a 70 foot whale stuck on its bow. The marine mammal was dead, and it required two tugboats to prise it off the cruise liner.

Pictures 15 July

Your average road in North Uist



Near Baleshare



Scolpaig Tower



Church at Balranald



Berneray to Leverburgh ferry, MV Loch Portain



Northton, Harris



Beach at Scarista, Harris

Harry Patch RIP

Thanks to Jeannette for flagging this up.

Harry Patch, the last remaining British veteran of the First World War has passed away at the age of 111, a week after the death of Henry Allingham at 113. A chapter is closed, and only indirect accounts and photographs remain to remind us of the horrors of the trenches and the senseless slaughter of thousands. It is a strange coincidence that I am currently digitising the Roll of Honour of the Isle of Lewis, now two-thirds done. At least Harry Patch and his mates are all back together again, swapping yarns up there.

Salute to them all.

Saturday 25 July

The day dawned bright and cloudless, but cumulus humulis have appeared and are obscuring the sun. The wind has also started to put in an appearance in the last half hour or so. A shower is possible, according to the forecast, but it should also be fairly warm (by our standards), with a max of 20C / 68F.

This year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Scotland's bard, Robert Burns. In celebration, a Homecoming event has been organised for Scots abroad to gather in Edinburgh today. It will include a gathering of clans and Highland games. If I'm brutally honest, this sort of thing sets my teeth on edge. The history of the Scottish clans is far from memorable, and the demise of their power in 1746 was a disaster waiting to happen. Moreover, having lived in an outpost of Scotland for nearly five years, I have found the entire notion of clans barely relevant nowadays. Although there are plenty of surnames starting with Mac in this part of the world, they are rarely associated with the clan they designate. Usually, the name was adopted by those living on their land.

The history of the Highland Clearances is one that tends to be conveniently forgotten, or glossed over to hail the achievements of Scots in the diaspora. Absolutely correct, great things were wrought by those kicked off their home patch. But why weren't they allowed to build their lives and make great works in places like Skye, Rum, the east coast of South Uist or Sutherland? It is as a result of the Clearances that this whole Homecoming lark has come about. And as it was done under the noses of some of the Clan chiefs, it is hardly something to be proud of.

Photo Video - Uists

This video is a compilation of photos which I took last week on my journey through the Uists, whilst looking for wargraves. The war graves feature on the Scottish War Graves Project website; the other pictures appear on Flickr.com - and on here.

A/C

As you may know, I keep an eye on hurricanes around the world, but my information is a wee bit curtailed due to a failure in the air conditioning systems at the NRL Monterey Marine Meteorology Division. They have been waiting for the past 10 hours for repairmen to arrive. Haven't we all been there?

Pictures 14 July

Trinity Temple, Carinish, North Uist



House at Balranald, North Uist



Dunskellor Cemetery, Sollas, North Uist



Beach at Sollas, North Uist



Abandoned slippers, Berneray



Berneray Youth Hostel



Beinn Mhor, South Uist from Lionacuidhe

Note: The maps / satellite images show the location from where the picture was taken, not necessarily the object as described