Thursday 28 June

Overcast, grey and wet sums up today. We had a few breaks in cloud and rain, but it is quite the reverse of the weather we've been having over the past two months.

Next Sunday, Calmac (our ferry company) is starting Sunday sailings from Tarbert (Harris) to Uig (Skye). That is the last service to the Outer Hebrides that was not yet operating on a Sunday. The Presbytery of Skye and Lochalsh (sic) has called upon Calmac to repent their sins, alluding to the Fourth Commandment. In doing so, they are ignoring the Fifth Commandment, which Calmac could invoke in justifying their Sunday service. For this ferry will make it easier for islanders to go to and from the mainland, in order to visit their families. I am highlighting the location of the Presbytery, as this is in fact a mainland community, and Skye (although an island) is not in the Outer Hebrides.

This morning, the Queen unveiled the memorial to Bomber Command in WW2, situated in Green Park in London. Bomber Command has been ignored for 67 years after the end of the war, because of the huge loss of life inflicted by some of its bombing raids on Nazi Germany, particularly on Dresden in March 1945. The raid on Dresden was authorised by Winston Churchill himself, yet Churchill himself did not award BC any campaign medals. A military man does what he is told to do by the politicians. It should be the politicians getting the stick, not the poor sods in the planes.

Wednesday 27 June

Overcast, grey and sopping wet today. Uploaded videos and photos taken at yesterday's Big Minch Swim finale, and am pleased to find that there is a lot of interest in them. My pics don't normally attract  many viewers, but more than 30 for each pic within the one day is unusual. I'm equally pleased that quite a few team members are also interested. End of ego-trip.

Today, the Queen met former IRA commander Martin Mcguinness, now deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. A historical occasion, as the IRA once murdered a relative of the Queen, and she was regarded as the enemy by the Republicans. I have always held the view that the only good thing to come out of 9/11 was the ending of the civil war in Northern Ireland. This because 9/11 showed Americans who supported the Republican movement in Ireland and thereby the IRA, what terrorism actually meant.

The Big Minch Swim

On Monday at midday, eight people started a relay by swimming away from Ullapool to reach Stornoway, on the other side of the Minch. One orca, one unidentified whale, quite a few porpoises and dolphins and 34 hours later, the group splashed ashore on the bit of beach between piers no 1 and 2 in Stornoway. The distance between Ullapool and Stornoway is 45 miles, but the group probably covered up to 65 miles. They were accompanied by the support vessel Cuma, a small boat that takes people out to islands off the west coast of Lewis and Harris, as well as by a canoeist in the water.

Last night, at half past eight, I installed myself on Goat Island. The ferry came in and blasted its horn at the team as it approached Holm Point, the promontory at the entrance to the Outer Harbour. The lifeboat also came out and accompanied the team on its way. It was raining quite heavily, but there was no wind. A BBC cameraman was on Goat Island taking shots; his colleague from competing station STV had managed a lift in a local crab boat, and the two were exchanging good natured banter across the water.

At 9.30, the team passed the Arnish Lighthouse and approached Goat Island. Now within shouting distance, there was a lot of yelling and shouting going on, also as excitement rose on board the Cuma and in the water, now that the finishing line was in sight.

I quickly walked round to pier no 2, reaching there just in time to see the group, now all in the water, swim the last few dozen yards to shore, splashing onto the beach on the stroke of 10 o'clock. Champagne corks popped, horns hooted and sirens wailed as hundreds looked on at the excitement reached its peak when the eight stepped ashore.

This feat was accomplished to raise funds for the RNLI. When I just checked, £8,800 had been raised. Feel free to donate here.

I took a few videos, which you can see on the links below:
From Goat Island
Reaching land
Coming ashore

I shall post a separate entry with photos, which I have not yet uploaded.

Tuesday 26 June

A bright day, which has now degenerated into spells of light rain, which have moved up from the southwest. I have spent the day (so far, it's 5.40pm) monitoring the progression of the group of 8 intrepid swimmers who are crossing the Minch from Ullapool to Stornoway. Other people take the ferry, but this lot take turns swimming the 45-65 miles. The ferry has been tooting at the team as they ploughed their way through the swell, and passengers on board have been asked to donate. The swim is organised to benefit the RNLI. A pod of killer whales came to check out one swimmer, who lost no time getting out of the water. A 20 ft whale is not something to trifle with, and orkas have those nasty, sharp teeth. The swimmers were south of Point an hour ago, and are expected into Stornoway between 9 and 11pm tonight. I'll keep an eye out for their support vessel, the MV Cuma, which will be cue to head out to the shoreline. I'll update later with pics of the team as they enter the harbour, something I can monitor from the window here.

Monday 25 June

Moving from overcast to bright and sunny through the day, although it did not feel cold.
News came through today that Count Robin Mirrlees, proprietor of Great Bernera, died in a Stornoway nursing home at the age of 87. His is quite a story to read, but I'll just refer to the link on Hebrides News.

A debate has been on-going for about a year on the subject of Scottish independence. The Scottish National Party have announced that a referendum on the issue is likely to be held in October 2014 or thereabouts, and have launched their campaign to pursuade the undecided to back their cause. The opposing camp, who have adopted the slogan Better Together, inaugurated their campaign as well. Think I'm with the latter. I'm not given to make strong political statements on this blog, but a number of issues were raised by the pro-Unionist camp that resonate with me more strongly than the SNP arguments. For a party that has been promoting independence for 80 years or so, the SNP appear to be markedly thin on the subject of the practicalities of independence. I also find their tenure negative, divisive and confrontational. That's my colours nailed to the mast, but to long-term readers of this blog and its predecessor, this should come as no surprise.

Sunday 24 June

An overcast and grey day after some rain in the night. A local weather station reports just over 2 mm of rain, it still does not amount to very much. However, the humidity is quite high so the likelihood of wildfires will be much lower than of late, and neither is there much wind.

Continued with my researches into the WW1 casualties, this time those from Portvoller, the village closest to the Tiumpan Head Lighthouse. Port Mholair, as the Gaelic name runs, is in quite a scenic position by a loch.



Did I ever mention that virtually all the placenames in Lewis are of Norse origin? The people in Orkney and Shetland appear to regard themselves as the modern day Vikings, but the influence of the Scandinavians extends as far south as the Isle of Man. The name Stornoway means Anchorage (Bay of Steering), and only the village of Achmore (Big Field) is purely Gaelic in origin. Achmore lies 5 miles from the sea, 370 feet above sealevel. It is a practiced joke to trick people into thinking that there is a pier there.

Saturday 23 June

An overcast day, during which the sun made a few efforts to burn away the low cloud. Unsuccessfully in the end; we are stuck with grey middle-level clouds. At 10 am, the cruiseliner Marina hove into view and dropped anchor just off the Arnish Lighthouse. She is twice the size of the ferry, at 785 feet (240 metres) in length. I went into town to buy stamps at the time, and a fleet of a dozen coaches were lined up at the disembarkation point for the tenders. That means about 700 people were about to be taken on tours of the island. Marina can have about 1200 passengers and has nearly 2000 crew. Her next destination is Ísafjörður, in northwestern Iceland.

Sometimes you buy a card and forget to look inside. And when you do, you regret buying the card. There was only one solution: cut off the offending half and hope it doesn't get noticed by the recipient.

Friday 22 June

The day started off wet and windy, but during the afternoon the wind dropped, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We managed 15C - and 5 mm of rain (one-fifth of an inch). We need more rain to really soak the ground and prevent the recurrence of those wildfires.

Spent a good part of the afternoon looking into the WW1 casualties from the village of Portnaguran. One family lost four of its five sons in the First World War. I wrote a blogpost about them on my local history blog Pentland Road. Portnaguran is a fishing village some 10 miles northeast of Stornoway, near the Tiumpan Head Lighthouse on the farthest point east in this island.


Portnaguran


Tiumpan Head Lighthouse

Volksbund

As part of my researches into the casualties of both World Wars, I sometimes access the website of the Volksbund, the German counterpart of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Since I once submitted a query, related to the grave of a German submariner on one of the outlying Hebridean islands, I sometimes receive promotional material related to their work. This includes the promotion of reconciliation between former enemies or placing of flowers on wargraves of German soldiers abroad. A laudable aim, which I support by word only.

Today, I received a message regarding the 32,000 wargraves of German soldiers in the cemetery at Ysselsteijn, Holland who fell during the invasion and occupation of the Netherlands between 1940 and 1945. I shall leave it to German subscribers to the Volksbund to fund that project. I also adopt the same posture when German wargraves in other countries are concerned.

It is as a matter of principle that I shall not support the work of the Volksbund financially. I am quite happy to draw attention to their work, as in death, we are all equal, and most of the soldiers buried at Ysselsteijn just did what they were told to do, as soldiers. I am a former soldier myself, and know the score on that account. But for those left behind without their relatives, friends or ancestors, taken in sometimes extreme cruelty for no other reason than their religion or creed, by many of those now interred at Ysselsteijn and other places, I cannot bring myself to be more actively involved with the work of the Volksbund. As I said, that is up to German people to do.

I do not hate Germans, neither do I feel any animosity towards people from that country. During the past few years, I have met many German people and they are fine folk. In fact, Germans and British have a lot in common, in terms of character traits. I never refer to the years between 1933 and 1945 to them, although if broached, I will not fudge the subject. We all know what happened, but this is now the year 2012 and we should move forward - whilst being aware of the past, it should not rule our future.What happens if it does? Well, here are two examples.

In 1990, a war was started in the former Yugoslavia on account of the Battle of the Field of the Thrush in 1389 in Kosovo.

In 1969, a civil war commenced in Northern Ireland between Protestants and Catholics, which continued for more than 30 years until the atrocity of 9/11 demonstrated to the American backers of the IRA what terrorism actually meant. This civil war in Ulster was being justified by reference to the Battle of the Boyne of 1689 between Catholics and Protestants.

Thursday 21 June

The summer solstice occurred at 9 minutes past midnight, and as you will have gathered from previous postings it was far from dark. In fact, 70 minutes later, when the darkest moment of the night occurs, it still was not fully dark to the north. Two hours later, day was breaking merrily, at around 3.20 am. Mind you, we're at 58 degrees latitude north, so we do get some darkness. You go to Shetland, at 60 degrees north, and it does not get dark, full stop.


Looking north at 1.23 am


Dawn breaking at 3.23 am

Our ferry had a spot of mechanical bother, meaning that the last of yesterday's and the first of today's return sailings to and from Ullapool (on the mainland) were cancelled. Apparently, people had to sleep in the ferry terminal or on the boat. The Isle of Lewis finally departed at 3.50pm, two hours late. As I type this (at 10.20pm), she is just docking.

I watched the address to both Houses of Parliament in London by the Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who was recently elected to parliament in Rangoon after spending two decades under house arrest. Her father, it turns out, was instrumental in bringing about independence for Burma from the British in 1948. He was assassinated a year beforehand. Burma's democracy was toppled in a military coup in 1962, bringing in a junta that rules to date with an iron fist and unbridled cruelty. I hope, with her, that Burma can once more be welcomed into the fold of democratic nations, given time. It will certainly not be for lack of effort on her part.

Wednesday 20 June

I went out late last night to take pictures of the longest night (well, the night before the longest night) and one of my pics was shown on STV weathernews this evening.



Today was another bright and sunny day, but high cloud is slowly moving in from the south. As of Friday, we shall see a complete change of weather. Although we had another wildfire in the Castle Grounds this evening, that is likely to be the last one and hopefully for a long time.

I have researched the WW1 casualties from Lower Garrabost today, numbering 16. One of them turned up in the census returns for 1901, in a household with seven female visitors. I shall probably never find out what the occasion was - a wake, perhaps?

Today is also the first day of the summer sailings, which see three crossings on Wednesday and Friday. However, the ferry promptly broke down on the way from Ullapool this evening, so the 19.45 departure from Stornoway was cancelled as was the 23.00 sailing back. As it's solstice at 23.09 GMT this evening, there will be people celebrating the solstice at the Standing Bollards of Ullapool pier rather than at the Standing Stones of Callanish. They both have the same amount to do with the solstice. Nothing at all. Callanish is a lunar monument, not (like Stonehenge or Maeshowe) a solar one.

Tuesday 19 June

A cool but bright day, with the mercury still stuck down at 12C and no further rain to speak of. The grand total for this month is 6 mm, a quarter of an inch. However, the forecast is for copious amounts of rain later in the week, which gives us a chance to make up for nearly 3 weeks of drought. It may seem like an exaggeration, but people are complaining of football pitches that bear a resemblance more to concrete than a grassy lawn; grassy lawns that have turned brown and yellow; and low water levels in rivers. I also found out that on Saturday evening, a few hours after I visited the fire-stricken area near the Creed River, fire once more flared up. I could not help but notice that it felt warm near the Creed Bridge - warmer than in the Castle Grounds or along the nearby Arnish Road.

I have gathered further information on 13 WW1 casualties from Lewis, my on-going project. The total is 258 to date; just over 1,000 left to do. Another project is the indexing of the Napier Report, which will take me quite a while. For the moment, this is an Excel file; I'll have to think of a way to put this on the WWW.

Locally, a Russian cargo-ship was halted off the north coast of Scotland, apparently near the Western Isles. The Alaed allegedly carried attack helicopters, bound for Syria. The company had had its insurance cancelled, meaning that the vessel could not proceed on its journey. The British Foreign Secretary has now announced that the Alaed is on its way back to Russia. The last recorded position of the Alaed was 40 miles north of the Butt of Lewis, at 1.37 am yesterday morning.


Image courtesy www.vesseltracker.com

Monday 18 June

Quite a nice day, with only the odd drop of rain. However, at this time of year, that brings out one spoiler: the dreaded midges. And they certainly had a nip at me when I was outside for a spell this afternoon <scratches>. I have today done a few more entries in the long saga of the Lewismen lost in WW1, continuing my researches into the men from Upper Bayble in Point. Tomorrow, I shall make a start on the onerous task of indexing the Napier Report. Remember, 46000 questions and answers - some answers being pages long? 

A few weeks ago, I passed through the village of Steinish, when I came across the dried remnant of a bunch of flowers, left at the roadside near where a teenager had been left dead last November. Liam Aitchison had come north out of South Uist to start a new life in Lewis, only to find death. Two suspects have been bailed pending further investigations. The residents of Steinish have now set up a fund to help vulnerable teenagers in the island.

Whilst typhoon Guchol begins to fade in the Pacific, another system is threatening to form in the open Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Bermuda. Although this is only a threat to shipping, tropical storm Chris could still put in an appearance there. On the other side of the American continent, the remnants of Carlotta appear to be reforming into a new cyclone, some 270 miles west of Manzanillo in Mexico. This system is moving east. Its attendant heavy rains continue to pose a threat to Mexico, with potentially life-threatening flash floods and mud slides.

Columba's Island Paradise

Loriana Pauli, who resides in and blogs from North Uist, posted this excerpt of a poem, attributed to St Columba on her blog. I take the liberty of reposting.

Columba’s Island Paradise (12th century, translated from the Gaelic)

in THE TRIUMPH TREE, Scotland’s earliest poetry AD 550-1350

Delight I find in an island’s breast,

on a rock’s peak,

that there I might often gaze

at the sea’s calm.

That I might see its heavy waves

over the brilliant sea

as it sings music to the Father

on its constant way.

Might see its smooth bright-caped strand

(no dismal tryst);

might hear the strange bird’s calls,

a joyful strain.

Might hear the shallow waves’ crash

against the rocks;

might hear the cry beside the graves,

the ocean’s roar.

Might see its splendid birdflocks

over the teeming sea;

might see its whales,

greatest of all marvels.

Than I might see its ebb and flow

in their sequence………

The poem concludes with the lines 

That this might be my name, a secret I tell

'Back towards Ireland'

That help of heart might come to me

gazing on it

that I might lament all my wrongs

hard to mention


St Columba, who died in the year 597 AD, was an abbot and a prince who had fled his native Ireland after standing up against one of that islands warrior kings. Upon fleeing, he decided to go to the west coast of Scotland. However, as he felt that seeing the Irish coast on the horizon would be an irresistible temptation to return, Columba (or Colum Cille) vowed that he would settle on the first island where he could not see Ireland on a clear day. That first island was Iona, off the west coast of Mull. Nonetheless, the yearning for his native land would be pulling his heart strings for good.

Sunday 17 June

A change in the weather today, with occasional showers - for the first time in weeks. The rainfall totals for today in Point (east of Stornoway) are between 1 and 2 mm, less than 0.1 inches. Nonetheless, a welcome dampening for our parched and tinderbox dry island. At least a recurrence of last week's wildfires now seems less likely.

The Greek elections appear to favour parties that want to retain the Euro, although forming a government is not going to be easy. Should a government be formed that does not want to abide by the restrictions, then Greece may be forced to leave the Euro, a move that will have serious consequences for Europe. Let's hope it does not come to that. However, the effects of the austerity measures have been shown in graphic details in recent news bulletins, with overt poverty and deprivation in abundance across Greece.

I could not get over the scenes at a tennis match, where one of the players kicked an advertising board, which injured a match official. The player, who was in a final, was promptly disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Saturday 16 June

A fairly bright day today, with some more northeasterlies but also some rain around 7pm. Like earlier in the week, it was not warm, with the mercury only in the low teens, mid 50s F. Nonetheless, I'd like to think that on balance, we had the best weather in the country.

In the afternoon, I went out to the location of Thursday's wildfires. Two miles from the town centre, I came across a broad swathe of scorched earth, with blackened and scorched powerpoles. The fire had even threatened an electricity sub station after jumping across the main road to Tarbert. Local news reports mention that pumping water out of the adjacent Creed River left it waterless at the time. I shall post a handful of pics of the devastation I found. Was it me, or did it still feel hot in the vicinity?

Friday 15 June

Still a steady northeasterly breeze, but not feeling as cold as of late. And would you believe: we even had a little rain this evening. We're going to need a lot more if we want to stamp out the threat of more wildfires. Yesterday's fire is reported to have caused extensive damage, and came close to burning down electricity poles and an electrical substation.

It is reported that 6 of the 91 Lewis Chessmen will come 'home' once the new museum opens in Lews Castle in 2014. The six Chessmen, figurines carved out of walrus ivory, could be alternating pieces. At present the collection is held at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh and at the British Museum in London. Last year, several Chessmen were taken to Stornoway to be exhibited at the Western Isles Museum on Francis Street, and six pieces were taken to Uig Museum, a mile from the supposed location of their find in 1831.

I was bemused about the furore surrounding the school dinner blog, written by a 9-year old girl from Lochgilphead, Argyll. It's a pity that it was all sparked off by a newspaper, calling on the dinnerladies at the school to be fired, after the young lass voted down some of her dinners. However, she was just commenting on the food, not on those serving it. I wonder when someone in a hospital will do the same about their food - hospital food has this unfortunate reputation for being awful.

Thursday 14 June

Another bright and sunny day, with a stiff breeze and low temperatures. So far this month, we have had all of 3 mm (0.12 inches) of rainfall, and the results were plain to see this afternoon. A huge brown and white cloud billowing behind the Castle Grounds, signalling that last Friday's fire had flared up again. Fire crews battled for several hours to bring the blaze under control. The fire had reached the main road south from Stornoway, prompting its closure. The diversionary Pentland Road, a single track road leading out to Achmore, Breasclete and Carloway, was very soon gridlocked, prompting police to divert southbound traffic north through Barvas. That is a diversion of 40+ miles. At rush hour, Stornoway was gridlocked, with cars clogging up the main thoroughfares - by all accounts. I did not go out to watch, but my Twitter and Facebook contacts kept me posted. The road closures were lifted after 7 pm. The below image shows the smoke from the fire at 2.30pm, twenty minutes after it was reported. The picture is taken near the ferry terminal in Stornoway.

Hurricane update - 14 June

Tropical storm Carlotta has formed in the Eastern Pacific and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane within 36 hours. The storm poses a threat for southern Mexico, specifically around the Gulf of Tehuantepec. This is to the east of Acapulco. Carlotta will make landfall at 70 knots (a category I hurricane), weaken overland and reemerge over water near Acapulco, then hang around near there as a tropical storm.

NHC have 6-hourly updates, always refer to those for the latest information.

Wednesday 13 June

Not warm at all today, with the mercury barely above 10C and that continuing northeasterly wind. At 9.30 this morning, I accompanied my father to the airport where he took a flight to Inverness and onward to Amsterdam. He reported to have reached home at 5 o'clock (UK time), in good order in other words. I walked back from the airport to Stornoway, a distance of about 3 miles. A shear line passed over me, with showers in evidence over the Harris and Uig hills, as visible from Sandwick. No rain fell in Stornoway, worthy of the mention. Returned to town at 11.30, an hour after leaving the airport. Spent the day attempting to upload several hundred photographs, which I took over the past week whilst out and about. The process is on-going as I type, as Flickr.com is singularly slow. An upload rate of 40 kb/second is antediluvial.
Tomorrow, I shall post entries on here with pictures of the expeditions I undertook with my father.