Saturday 8 January

A nice sunny day, after yesterday's heavy snowfall. We are due more heavy snow showers tomorrow. Perversely, I am told by my family in Holland that the mercury there has leapt up to 11C / 52F. Not so here; the thermometer at the airport has not risen above freezing all day, and is currently plunging down: -4C a quarter of an hour ago. The snow on the pavement turned to ice overnight, making the walk into town a slip-sliding affair. Pavements are not cleared of snow or ice. The wintry conditions have also caused travel disruption in the air.

The American government has demanded that the Twitter.com website hand over all details of supporters of Wikileaks. This has been endorsed by a court order, which has prompted Twitter to describe the action as harassment. I am of the opinion that this court action is not so much upholding the law of the land as upholding the illusion that the emperor wears clothes, if you catch my meaning. Whilst releasing classified documents is an offence, it seems that thus far, the only casualties of the whole operation has been one diplomat's career and the good standing (what good standing) of the US government overseas. I am quite frankly appalled.

Switzerland, 1983

In July 1983, we went on a family holiday to Switzerland, at the resort of Blatten, marked on the below map. I am sharing a handful images from that time.




Sparrhorn mountain, 3,021 m [10,070 ft]


Belalp resort overview


Matterhorn mountain, Zermatt

Friday 7 January

The dominating theme of today is the snow, and I'll let the imagery do the talking. Suffice to say that the airport shut late in the afternoon, and there is a nice blanket of the stuff now that darkness has fallen.

Going like the clapper

I could not help but smirk when I read that the clapper for the main bell in Cologne Cathedral had fallen down. You may recall from my 23 December post on the Shell Gallery that I was less than impressed with the reception in the Cathedral. It is of course no laughing matter that an 800 kg metal object comes crashing down from a height of about 400 feet; but its fall was fortunately broken by a metal structure further down the tower. The main bell itself weighs 24 tons. "Fat Peter" is only rung on a few occasions, and the clapper broke into pieces on January 6th (yesterday) as the bell was rung for Epiphany. Nobody was hurt in the incident. The clapper is likely to be recast. [source: NOS.nl, in Dutch].

Thursday 6 January

Epiphany today; some Orthodox Christian churches celebrate Christmas today. Pope Gregory put the calendar forward by 12 days in 1582, but Orthodox churches did not adopt this change.

It was a wintry day today, with frequent snow showers sweeping over Stornoway. The ferry is sailing normally, after being repaired following a breakdown on Hogmanay. The Muirneag, which carries our freight, is not going out tonight due to adverse weather conditions.

During my absence in Holland, I received a large amount of information on a former president of the London Gaelic Society, who originated from the Isle of Lewis. Roderick Mcleod was involved with the LGS for decades, between 1882 and 1930. I shall summarise his information on my local history blog Pentland Road.

Picture post - 5 January

Rising above a closed cloud cover over western Holland and the North Sea


Amassed snow at Gatwick - remember the snow disruption over Christmas?


Snow showers moving south over Lancashire, leaving snow visible on the ground


Snow over the Lammermuir hills south of Edinburgh


Edinburgh and the Forth Bridges


Last light over central Scotland, 5.31pm

Wednesday 5 January

The journey back to Stornoway went without a hitch, unlike the outward trip. The taxi came as booked around 5.45 am and took us to the railway station in Arnhem, 4 miles away. The direct train to Schiphol Airport departed at 6.16 am, and filled up with commuters for the cities of Utrecht and Amsterdam along the way. Arrived at the airport at 7.30 am, and breezed through check-in to gate D21. Plane was a tad late, but everybody got on fine and we left for London Gatwick at around 9.30. After a flight above clouds, the weather at Gatwick was clear and fine; big banks of snow a vestige of the all the snow bother from before Christmas. I am a bit annoyed that I had to go through the security rigmarole again; I could just as easily have gone through a side-door if I had known which gate. But I did not, so I kicked my heels in the departure lounge between 9.45 and 11.45. Bought an Independent and did all the Sudoku puzzles. Flight 8922 to Edinburgh was pretty full, but it got us there nicely on time at 1.45. Had some lunch at Edinburgh, but the Christmas jingles drove me up the wall. It's January 5th, for goodness' sake. I asked the Flybe desk to reprint my boarding pass (which was not possible before I left Holland), then spent two and a half hours watching planes come and go. Darkness fell after 4 o'clock, and my flight was finally called at 5 pm. Once they managed to lock the hold door, we took off for Stornoway at 5.30. Could still see some daylight on the southwestern horizon, but that soon faded. Showers greeted us across the Minch, and we landed at Stornoway at 6.30. A taxi took me back to town for the usual £6.

I'll post some pics in a separate entry.

Hogmanay 2010

Wishing all my readers a happy Hogmanay, and a healthy and prosperous 2011.

At the moment, my local history blog Pentland Road is paralleling the Iolaire Disaster of 1919, so keep checking there until 9.10 am (GMT) tomorrow morning.

I am continuing to post on the Shell Gallery.

Lunar eclipse

I had promised to post a picture of the lunar eclipse, which occurred on Tuesday 21 December (last week, in other words). Well, this was the sight around 8 am that morning.



As I've said before, I'll resume posting on here on Thursday 6 January 2011. 

21 December 1988

It is early evening when PanAm flight 103 takes off from London's Heathrow airport, bound for New York. Not an hour into the journey, a homemade bomb, built around a radio-cassette recorder, explodes in the hold of the aircraft. This blows a hole in the fuselage, and the shockwave of the explosion disrupts the integrity of the aircraft. At 37,000 feet up, the Boeing 747 disintegrates, and the wreckage rains down on the small town of Lockerbie. The cockpit lands in a field near the A74 (Carlisle to Glasgow) road, but a large segment of the aircraft crashes into a small housing estate on the outskirts of Lockerbie. Houses are destroyed or set on fire. All passengers and crew on flight 103 are killed, although some were thought to have been alive as fell to the ground. Eleven townspeople were killed as well. Later, the evening became increasingly unreal, as newscrews descended on Lockerbie, reporting events - with the townspeople watching the 9 o'clock news on television to learn what had happened to their small town.

It was later determined that a bomb had been placed on the aircraft by Libyan security agents, acting on behalf of Col Ghadaffi. More than a decade later, Libya yielded two security agents for trial under Scots law, but only agreed to do so if they were tried not on British soil. So, an impromptu court was set up at Camp Zeist in Holland. Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in jail. He was released in August 2009 on humanitarian grounds as he was terminally ill and only had 3 months to live. Well, it's 16 months later and he's still alive. Not everybody was happy with that decision, as he had treated his victims with inhumanity.

This entry is dedicated to the memory of the 270 victims of Lockerbie. 
The BBC has a separate webpage "On this day"

Tuesday 21 December

Another post from me on Atlantic Lines, for the simple reason that my travel plans fell apart this morning. The plane to Glasgow I was to have taken at 8.30 am was cancelled, along with all other flights before midday. The reason was black ice on the runway. The later departure at 2.30pm would have left me with insufficient time to make my connection at Edinburgh. The two cities are only 45 miles apart, but transferring between the two airports requires two 30 minutes bus journeys, a 45 minute rail trip, and that with a decreased frequency of trains. Leaving to one side the joys of travelling on the M8 in Glasgow and the A8 in Edinburgh, and the weather conditions. So I returned to Stornoway, awaiting tomorrow morning's plane. If things go to pot again, I'm quite prepared to cancel the trip.

The one benefit of this morning's excursion was the lunar eclipse, pics of which I will post separately. Otherwise, the overnight frost combined with a fall of rain had turned roads and pavements into ice rinks.

Monday 20 December

Another quiet day, and as I type this, the sun is sinking towards the southwestern horizon, due to set at 3.34pm. It'll be the shortest day of the year tomorrow, and it'll start in a spectacular fashion: with a lunar eclipse just before sunrise in the UK. The lunar eclipse starts in earnest just after 6 am (UK time), with totality just after 8 am and ending at around 10 am. This means that the moon sets during the eclipse. Here in Stornoway, the moon will set just after 9 am, leaving me with a pretty good display.

There will be a partial solar eclipse at sunrise on 4 January 2011, visible from Europe.

I'll be admiring tomorrow's lunar eclipse from Stornoway Airport, as I'm flying across to Amsterdam. I'm so glad I've changed my booking, as British Airways appears to be in meltdown. Its website is going round in square circles and doesn't do what it's supposed to do. I am positively horrified at the scenes at Heathrow, where people are resigned to sit on the floor until Thursday.

Unless something else crops up, this will be my last posting for 2010 on Atlantic Lines. I expect to resume entries from Stornoway on Thursday 6 January 2011. During my stay in Holland I'll be blogging on the Shell Gallery; updates on my journey tomorrow will be made on Facebook and Twitter.

Sunday 19 December

The disruption on the travel front is showing no signs of abating. Again hardly any flights leaving the main London airports, with thousands of people unable to go on their Christmas breaks. Personally, I am booked to travel to Holland on Tuesday, through Heathrow and Gatwick. That's proving to be a mistake. The situation is so dire, that I have rebooked my outward journey to go straight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam. I count myself lucky that there was still a seat, and I don't mind having to wait for a number of hours. The alternatives were growing thinner and thinner on the ground, with Eurostar no longer accepting new bookings before Christmas and the English rail network subject to delays and cancellations. I am planning to return to Stornoway on Wednesday 5 January 2011.

Saturday 18 December

Complete and utter mayhem, that's what the traffic situation in England can safely be described as today. Up to 10 inches (25 cm) of snow have fallen in various parts of the country, and the major airports around London have ground to a halt. Here in Stornoway, we awoke to a good snow shower, but as day broke, it cleared to a nice sunny day - but a cold one. A lot of events have been called off, and people are advised against all non essential travel. Although the boat with roadsalt did dock, we're still a tad short on the stuff.

No, I'm not going to watch Strictly Come Dancing (which I dub: Strictly Come V*m*t*ng) or the X-factor (better described as X-rated, due to the awfulness of it all). I'm sorry if there is anyone out there that genuinely likes it, that's fine. I just go off this sort of programs to which entire newsitems are devoted on BBC etcetera. Who is Simon Cowell when he's at home? A loudmouth? Who is Bruce Forsyth? Thought he'd been put out to pasture long ago. Mind you, I wish they'd put Terry Wogan out to pasture long before now, he's been known to go on stage drunk or farting.

I am closing with images of two of the family cats, who have long since departed over the Rainbow Bridge. Have a look at the posting on Call for Support, and you'll see what prompted me.

Evening notes

Although the weather has improved, Friday ended early for many people in these islands. Most schools were shut all day, and shops in Stornoway town centre closed early, between 2 and 3pm. Buses to rural areas in the island had their last service between 6 and 8pm; on a Friday, the last service usually leaves at around 11pm, just after the pubs close. Not today. One driver had a bad day, as a lamppost outside the supermarket had been knocked over. There is a layer of snow, 10 cm / 4 inches thick, on the ground, and drifts rising to 40 cm / 16 inches. With the light winds having fallen light, the main problem will be frost. A ship with a supply of road salt is sheltering in the Sound of Mull and will head this way over the weekend. Although there is 1,000 tons of roadsalt left in Lewis and Harris, the supply in the Southern Isles is only 200 tons.

Outside, the mercury has already dipped to -5C.

Friday 17 December

A very wintry scene presented itself, even before daybreak. About 4 inches (10 cm) of snow on the ground, which had accumulated into drifts of more than a foot deep (up to 40 cm). This has caused extensive disruption in the whole of the north of Scotland. The A9 is closed from Brora to Thurso, that's 53 miles of road, including the A99 spur to Wick. Looking at the traffic cameras, the road is almost completely covered in snow. Most schools are shut in the Western Isles, and the situation on the mainland is similarly bad. Here in town, the weekly bin collection has been cancelled for the first time that I've been here - that tends to go ahead, even in stormy weather. There is also no ferry service to the mainland from Stornoway, due to a heavy northerly swell. The alternative route, between Harris and Skye, is running as scheduled, as it's sheltered from the north.

More later.

Picture post - week 12-15 December

The low sun always provides for colourful images in December


We went to the Braighe on Sunday (12th), but the tide was in

Picture post - 16 December

Another wintry blast - at low tide


The birds are having a hard time



This fishing boat, the Buckie-registered Sustain, ran aground on the east coast of Harris, and was escorted to Stornoway for repairs after the Coastguard dropped pumps on board to keep her afloat.

Coast not guarded

The UK government is proposing to axe a number of coastguard stations along the coast of Scotland in order to save money. Under current thinking (if there has been any thinking involved with this plan at all), only the station at Aberdeen would operate 24/7, with either Lerwick or Stornoway kept as a part-time (daylight only) cover. The other stations, at Clyde and Forth, would be shut permanently.

I’ll go so far as to describe that as sheer lunacy. This is typical bureaucratic pen pushing, a scheme dreamt up by someone in an office in central London, who does not have an inkling what goes on north of the proverbial Watford Gap.

Two fifth of the UK coastline covered by only ONE station? The very stretch of coastline that can experience the severest weather in the country? Today has already seen the Coastguard in action off Harris, with the helicopter (also potentially up for sale) dropping off pumps on board a leaking fishing vessel, and the RNLI lifeboat escorting it into Stornoway. Without Coastguard facilities present, things might have been coordinated from Aberdeen, but with all respect to the Coastguards there, they are unfamiliar with the vagaries of the Outer Hebrides coastline. And without a helicopter, the crew of the fishing boat would have been in dire straits, if not in danger of their life.

Thursday 16 December

A sharp downturn in temperatures has seen a rapid succession of snow showers rattling through here all morning. The mercury is now around zero and the strong northerly wind makes it very unpleasant outside.

Down in Benbecula, a plane has overshot the runway on landing, but nobody was hurt. The Benbecula - Stornoway - Inverness service is quoted as delayed on the Stornoway Airport website.

Out at sea, a fishing boat had to call for help when she started taking on water, which her own pumps could not cope with. The Coastguard helicopter flew out to the waters off Stockinish, East Harris, and dropped off an extra pump. Meanwhile, the RNLI's lifeboat Tom Sandersen has set off for Harris to escort the vessel to Stornoway. I am monitoring the horizon for her reappearance, and expect the fishing boat to go up the Goat Island slipway for repairs.

A former government minister has said that all illicit drugs, e.g. cocaine and heroin, should be legalised in a bid to address the problems caused by illicit drug taking. I think that is short-sighted and populist. Substances like cocaine and heroin (diamorphine), as used by drug abusers, are harmful and potentially lethal. The same goes for the group of compounds that come under the amphetamine banner. The major problem for society is caused by the fact that the addicts have to fund their habit, and a sizeable proportion do so by resorting to crime. The illegal drug trade is an international problem, which should not be tackled in this way by one nation on its own.