Monday 30 July

The morning started off quite wet, with plenty of drizzly showers. These dried up through the afternoon, and as I type this, light is fading on a decent evening. The nearest weatherstation to show detailed rainfall readings, Flesherin (9 miles northeast of Stornoway), collected 4.4 mm today, bringing July's total to 62 mm or 2.5 inches.

This morning, I went to a carpark on Kenneth Street to view a procession of tractors that were preparing to set off for the long drive to Rodel, some 55 miles south of Stornoway at the far southern end of Harris. Well, the procession totaled 4 tractors, as well as two that had set off early as they were so slow. One sat on a trailer behind a car, as it could not move under its own steam. A smidgen disappointing, but it's the gesture that counts. The drive, which would have taken 6 hours, was in aid of the Linda Norgrove Foundation. This charity was set up in 2010 following the death of Lewis-born charity worker Linda Norgrove. She was killed in Afghanistan during an abortive mission by US forces to liberate her from her captors. Her parents set up the charity to continue Linda's work in her name.



Do you blog? Well, you'd better be careful about the use of pictures on your blog. You could get sued for their unauthorised use, as this blogger explains.

Sunday 29 July

Sunshine and a lot of showers today, those showers being of the drizzly type. When you get caught out in one you get incredibly wet. Nonetheless, the rainfall total for today was only 3 mm. Went out for a short amble just before ferry time (2.30pm). Sunday in Stornoway remains very quiet, and nothing moved.

I shall not be watching much television for the next fortnight or so, whilst all the British TV channels are clogged with Olympic coverage. That in itself I don't really mind, but the inexecrable hype over medals that British competitors should have had but don't get, really gets on my nerves. Also, there are other things going on in the world apart from the Olympics - the Syrian crisis e.g. - and I find it very hard to keep up with the rest of the news.

Not much happening on the hurricane front, except for two tropical storms in the western Pacific. Saloa is heading north towards Taiwan, which it will eventually pass as a category III typhoon at 100 knots; Damrey is moving west towards China. Both systems will end up soaking the east coast of China, either side of Shanghai, with large amounts of rain. If memory serves, eastern China has suffered severe flooding so more rain is the last they need down there.

The Danish connection

This evening, I found a comment, made on one of my local history sites by a Danish man who had visited the Outer Hebrides. Upon crossing North Uist, he visited the cemetery of Clachan Sands, about 6 miles west of Lochmaddy on the road to Berneray. I visited that graveyard in July 2009 and photographed the gravestone of Ewen Nicholson, who was lost during the First World War. An image of the actual gravestone in the Railway Dugouts Cemetery can be viewed on this link.



My Danish correspondent researched the fate of Ewen, displaying some very graphic and gruesome images of conditions on the frontline. I have looked into Ewen Nicholson's information and came out with the following:

Ewen Nicholson
Born: Grimsay, North Uist
Date of birth: 29 May 1892
Trade / calling: Labourer
Married: No
Volunteered at Valcartier on 23 September 1914
Age upon enlistment: 22 years 4 months
Height: 5 ft 10¼ in
Complexion: fresh
Eyes: light brown
Hair: brown
Religious denomination: presbyterian

Son of Alexander and Ann Nicholson, of Grimsay, Lochmaddy, North Uist.
Last known address in North Uist: 4 Aird nan Sruban Grimsay
Military unit: 7th Canadian Infantry (British Columbia Regiment)
Service number: 21065
Date of death: 3 June 1916 at the age of 24
Interred: Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, Sp Mem G. 29

In 1901, Ewen was 8 years old. His father Alexander was a crofter, 41 years of age, married to Ann. There were four other children in the family: Mary (12), John Archie (10), Alexander (5) and Andrew John Macalpine, age 1 month.

Five days after his 24th birthday, Ewen lost his life in fierce battles near Ypres. He was buried in one of the many cemeteries around the town.

Saturday 28 July

A fairly bright day, but with the odd shower or two. Went to the local supermarket, which has decided on a major overhaul in the middle of the busiest time of the year. You know the routine: swap everything round to different aisles so you spend double the amount of time looking for everything. We are getting self-service check-out things. What on earth for, I am asking myself. I mean, we have about 15 tills in that shop and it's not as if it is supposed to serve the whole of Edinburgh or a place of like size.



The local seagulls decided to descend on my part of town and congregate on the seawall across the road. As you can see, the tide is going out, leaving all sorts of juicy tidbits for the gulls.

On the maritime theme, we also had a small freighter in - it came in late last night and is discharging - well, actually I don't know what it carries. Probably something like coal.



I have been looking at the problems that I have been experiencing with Firefox; at times it grinds to a complete halt. It appears that the latest version of the Flash player (11.3) clashes with FF. It is recommended to uninstall version 11.3 and install version 10.3. A switch to Google Chrome appeared appealing, but it has some glitches that bug me when copying blogposts; I do that several times a day, particularly when doing the hurricane updates. So, I'm back on Firefox and much happier.

Friday 27 July

A very wet afternoon, which dumped 17 mm of rain on the island, followed by a much nicer afternoon. Our rainfall deficit is gradually declining. More rain is in the forecast.

Olympic Games starting off today, and I find the wall-to-wall coverage on the BBC a bit much, to be honest. The rest of the news is drowned out, and I have to resort to the Internet to keep up-to-date with other events that are on-going at the moment. I watched the Opening Ceremony, from 9pm until 1 am, live on television. Curmudgeonly me was fairly impressed with the depiction of British life, some of the musical performances and very impressed with the way the cauldron was constructed by the participating teams, each carrying a part of the burner.

The crisis in the local fishing industry appears to have been averted after boats from the east coast of Scotland were banned from fishing for prawns in our west coast waters. Following a dearth of prawns in the east, fishermen from that part of Scotland came to the Minch to get their catch. A fishing ban would have deprived the local fleet of an income and would also have had major ramifications for the fish processors.

Thursday 26 July

A fairly bright day, but not much sunshine. There was a little rain, but Scottish Water continues to remind its customers in these islands to use their mains water wisely. A device is available from the offices of the water company that can be placed in toilet cisterns to reduce the amount of water used when the loo is flushed. The total amount of rainfall in July, even after last Sunday's downpour, only stands at 34 mm, an inch and a third.

Shortages are also on the cards for the local fishermen. After 50 large fishingboats plundered the fishing grounds of prawns, meaning that the fishing could be closed as of September. This would not only leave the fishermen out of a job, but also the people in the processing plants. A couple of those stand across the water from my position, and each day I see its workforce going back and forth.

Less than 24 hours to go until the start of the London Olympics, and I'll have a job avoiding coverage. I shall be watching the opening ceremony tomorrow evening though. However, as I was discussing with one of my Facebook contacts earlier, the Olympics seems to be hugely important to many people. Are we seeing a global expression of tribalism, almost ersatz-war? Where I am from, the expression goes that football is war. Anyway, leaving my pot-psychology to one side, I hope it all goes well and may the best ones win.

Wednesday 25 July

Quite a nice day, especially as we finally lost the wind that has been much in evidence since the weekend. We once again managed 17C this afternoon, a temperature I much prefer to the 30C that was on the thermometers in London.

That city is ready to start hosting the 2012 Olympic Games, if it weren't for the fact that the Games have already kicked off. A soccer football match in Cardiff heralded the commencement of the sporting action. The BBC have launched 24 dedicated channels on satellite and terrestrial television, so it is possible to watch 24 different sports at the same time. You do need 24 separate TV sets for that, so I somehow don't see anyone doing that.

The small island of Berneray played host to the Scottish Education minister Mike Russell today, as he was shown round a community facility, the Nurse's Cottage. The link I supply may, when visited much later than the day of posting, show a different news item. Fellow researcher Direcleit is doing some work there on emigration from his isle of residence, a subject that appears to be a new focus for local historians. A new website, Hebrides People, was set up this weekend to help those who want to trace their roots from diaspora. There are now quite a few web-based resources around on the subject, and I quietly wished that someone would pull all the strands together. However, many of the sites (not just Hebrides People) charge for their services, so we can safely forget about this idea. The best site is Hebridean Connections, now slowly gathering dust. I have been told that it is not being updated and its funding withdrawn.

Tuesday 24 July

A windy day but bright and with good spells of sunshine. We once again managed to reach the dizzy heights of 17C / 63F. The powercut brought some minor inconvenience to the shops in this town; the tills were not working, and the bank had to take even longer to reopen once power supplies were restored. It took an hour for people in Ness and Harris to come back on supply. The cause for the powercut is not clear.

Eight people have been charged in connection with alleged conspiracy to intercept communications, in other words phone and other forms of hacking. All have vehemently protested their innocence, something which will be down to a court to decide. The whole saga has opened a cesspit of dirty dealings between the press, police and politicians. Whether things will change depends on the outcome of the Leveson inquiry, which is moving towards a conclusion in terms of the first tranche of hearings.

Powercut

Oops, that was the power off at 2.45pm. Which, in the house, is naturally an inconvenience. Nothing works, no internet, no appliances. And, at night, no lights. But this is mid afternoon in July, it's a bright day, so no real problem. And after 15 minutes, the power did come back on. However, in the town centre, all the shops shut their doors to customers, as they could not operate their tills. The outlying districts took longer to come back on supply, but the power company reported on Twitter that everybody should have their electric back. Meanwhile, the powerstation at Battery Point (a few hundred yards from my position) is belching out smoke, providing a back-up. Don't know what brought this all on, but the fact that I am able to put this entry on the WWW means that everything is back to normal. In my usual daily blogpost, which I shall put up this evening, I will relay experiences of people who were actually in the shops when the power went off.

Hurricane update - 24 July

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) has issued the final warning on typhoon Vicente, as it moves overland, still packing winds of 100 knots (115 mph) near its centre. At the height of its power, the typhoon presented this image on the radar at Hong Kong, not much more than about 60 miles away. As Jeff Masters writes in his blog on the storm, Vicente presented a nightmare scenario, intensifying from 75 knots (cat I) to 120 knots (cat IV) in the space of a mere 6 hours. A direct hit on Hong Kong or Macao would have claimed many lives; a comparable scenario on the US coastline would exact a similar toll, as there was no time to evacuate.

Monday 23 July

Quite an improvement on yesterday, with good sunny spells and gradually decreasing winds. That cannot be said about the weather in Hong Kong, which suddenly found itself on the receiving end of a category IV typhoon with winds of 110 mph in the outer areas of the territory. Here in the Hebrides, we reached 17C / 63F, which is about par for the course. Went into town for a few bits and pieces; bought a book about the Scottish community land buy-out movement, which has been gathering pace since the 1990s. It is a subject that has my interest; I have never understood why a landowner, who leases land to others, is able to influence what his tenants do on his land.

Yesterday's windy weather kept the local lifeboats busy. The Leverburgh lifeboat was tasked to Skye to help a yacht whose anchor was dragging near Waternish; the Portree and Castlebay lifeboats were called out for similar problems. The Leverburgh lifeboat Lifetime Care has been on station only since May this year, but has had five call-outs already. She plugs the gap between the RNLI stations in Castlebay, Stornoway and Portree. Lifetime Care also has easy access to the west coast of Skye, as was demonstrated in yesterday's shout.

Hurricane update - 23 July

I got quite a shock in the last half hour, when I happened to look at the webpage for the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and found an amendment to the 1500 GMT warning for typhoon Vicente, near Hong Kong. Originally, warning 12 quoted Vicente at 70 knots, equivalent to a category I hurricane. JTWC have changed this ever so slight to 120 knots, that's a category IV hurricane. The storm has intensified by an unbelievable 50 knots in 6 hours, a rate of intensification that is classified as explosive.

The Hong Kong Observatory has placed the city under hurricane signal 10, reporting winds of 110 mph in places around the territory.

Sunday 22 July

The third anniversary of the Sunday ferry in Lewis saw the boat not cancelled in spite of winds reaching 35 mph this morning. The weather, until about 4pm, was pretty awful with lashing rain and those high winds. However, it has since dried up. Low, jaggedy clouds are racing northeast with the mercury at a pleasant 15C, well, it would be pleasant if the sun were out. But it's not, and not likely to be for the next day or so.

With regards the shootings in Aurora CO, I can only implore the Americans to realise that they really have to move into the 21st century with regards their 19th century attitudes towards gun ownership. This is not the shoot-out in the OK corral, where everybody has the right to bear and use arms because nobody else will stand up for them. That went out a very, very long time ago. There is no cause for anyone to bear arms in the street in this day and age, other than those involved with law enforcement, the defence of the state or properly licensed. The availability of firearms and ammunition is ridiculous. How can anyone just go out and buy 6,000 rounds of ammo for three different types of arms on the Net? However, there is a lot of politicking going on, and bearing in mind my tendency towards (over)simplification, you'll forgive my ignorance with regards the connections between politicians, the gun lobby and what not. I don't WANT to know.

The Peace Camp at Valtos is cancelled, after the forecast for high winds prompted the tents to be taken down at Cliff Beach (just over the hill from Valtos). I did not have the opportunity to view the camp myself; Valtos is barely served by public transport, and it is certainly not served after 6pm. The camp was only open between 9.30pm and 4.30am, so you see my tiny difficulty. I hold a driver's license, but do not own a car. A local resident, who was involved with the camp, kindly posted some pics on Flickr, so I refer to those.

Saturday 21 July

Summer has come to an end here in the Outer Hebrides (for now) whilst the rest of the country finally gets its summer. Rain came in at 3pm, and it's still raining as I type this (10pm). More rain is expected over the next few days as a deep depression slowly moves over Iceland towards the Arctic Ocean. 966 mbar is deep for mid summer, but our drought will be alleviated by it to some extent.

The alleged culprit behind the Aurora shootings (12 dead, 59 injured) left home before going on his shoot-out, having booby-trapped his apartment to the last square inch. Why, for goodness' sakes. Why.

The story of the extra ferry sailings between Lochmaddy and Uig (Skye) has me befuddled. Calmac (our ferry company) is putting on extra late night sailings between the Uists and Skye in order to beat the security restrictions around London to do with the Olympics. This is primarily to benefit haulage firms who are carrying fish down to London for onward transportation to the European continent.

Friday 20 July

Well, as I type this, a hefty rainshower is passing through, a most welcome phenomenon after weeks of drought. Mind you, we'll have to wait until Sunday until the rain really does return with a vengeance. The salmon are waiting eagerly, as they need the rain to fill up the rivers. Only then can they go upstream to spawn. And die afterwards. It's quite uncanny, but the fish go up the same river where they hatched themselves. It's almost like sheep that go back to the place where they themselves were born in order to give birth themselves.

I was shocked to hear of another mass shooting in the USA, with a dozen people reported killed in a cinema in Denver, CO. The culprit also threw a gas grenade into the theatre. He has been arrested; his flat is apparently booby-trapped, and the security services are proceeding cautiously. My sympathies are with the families of the dead and injured. I do not expect any change in gun laws in the States, although it is needed.

Thursday 19 July

Another day of gradually changing weather, starting grey with some showers. Oh wow, we had some rain (0.03 inches). However, we are due some serious rainfall on Sunday, when the normal weather patterns finally return, after an absence of three months.

Today is the day that the weekly papers are published, and one of them had an interesting article, about a place called Tormore in Skye. It is a farmhouse, that was once home to the factor of landowner Lord Macdonald - and an unpleasant piece of work he was to his underlings. The historical appraisal started in 1920, but my interest goes back to the decades before 1883, when Lord Napier went around Skye to investigate the condition of the crofters and cottars there (as well as in other parts of Scotland). Lord Macdonald gave up his lands in 1920, by which time his factor had long gone the way of all flesh.

I have made steady progress through the Qu'ran. The English translation of the Muslim Holy Book that I have leaves me with the strong impression that it is a follow-up to the Bible. I'm not making that up; in one of the sura's [chapters], the Prophet states that God gave Man the Torah and Man did not take heed; then, God gave Man the Gospel, and Man did not take heed; God gave Man his teachings through his Prophet, and Man still is not taking heed. Furthermore, the Qu'ran quotes the same stories that occur in the Biblical Old Testament, refers to the same prophets and the same events. Why can't we regard the Qu'ran as a Third Testament? However, after more than 1400 years of ill feeling between Christianity and Islam, I don't think there is much chance of that.

Wednesday 18 July

A cold feeling day, with this cold northeasterly breeze keeping the mercury down at 13C / 55F. And it really was the wind that made it feel very cold. Not a very welcoming climate for the cruise passengers on the cruiseliner Deutschland, which anchored off the Arnish Lighthouse this morning.

I have been amazed at the sudden interest in the UK in the Tour de France cycling race. It is a competitive race by professional cyclists, all over France. The reason is that the man in the yellow jersey (in first place) is a Brit. Well done to him. There is only a couple of days left of the race, which will terminate on the Champs Elysee in Paris on Sunday.

I am now approaching the one-third mark in my quest to find out, using my limited means, further information on the nearly 1300 men from the Isle of Lewis who lost their lives in the 1914-1919 war. The information is compiled into a website, supplementary to my main tribute site, Faces from the Lewis War Memorial. I am pleased to note that I occasionally find further information on some of the casualties. Tomorrow, I shall look into the men from the village of Aird Tong, numbering 15, who were lost. Aird Tong is a tiny hamlet on the outskirts of the slightly larger township of Tong, due north of Stornoway, on the far side of the Cockle Ebb, as shown below.

Tuesday 17 July

Quite a nice day, with some spells of sunshine, which served to lift the mercury to all of 17C / 63F. Compared to the stifling heatwave in the USA, this is of course nothing. What does remain a prominent feature of our weather is the lack of rain. Nothing today. The weatherman are suggesting that the jetstream may shift north, propelling rainbearing weathersystems our way. Well, seeing is believing. I'm not expecting anything major until the weekend. However, it is nice not having your flowers, shrubs and trees blown to bits by a gale, and it's even nicer not to have many midges. Those pests have been kept down by the lack of moisture, which has served to dry out the island's bogs.

I was horrified to hear of the find of a car under a landslip, which occurred 10 days ago in Dorset, SW England. The vehicle had been flattened by the landslip, which left it encased under many feet of mud and rubble at the entrance to a tunnel near Beaminster. Nobody had known that the car was under there, until its occupants began to be reported missing.

This evening, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my internet contacts in the flesh, after my help was enlisted by one of his friends who had a spot of bother making mobile phone contact. I had been in touch through the local blogs for several years.

Monday 16 July

Although the day started out a bit grey, the sun came out in the afternoon and as I type this (9.30pm) it is quite sunny. Once again, we're left with very little rain and the drought continues unabated. We need weeks and weeks of heavy rain, and it's not gonna happen in a hurry. The salmon should be running up the rivers at the moment, to spawn, but they are stuck at the tideline. Down at Garynahine, some 15 miles from Stornoway, the salmon are swimming round a pool, unable to get up the river.

My attention was drawn to a "Peace Camp" which will be in operation at Cliff Beach, Uig, Lewis, from July 19th to 22nd. The camp consists of a large number of tents with lights inside positioned at remote locations. The installation is accessible between sunset and sunrise, and here in Lewis that means between 9.30pm and 4.30am. You need to book a slot (of an hour) and present your booking slip at the gate. You must also bring outdoor gear and a torch. There are several other locations around the UK hosting peace camps, which are celebrating love poetry and landscape, to quote the website. It is possible to contribute poetry, imagery or music to the Peace Camp project. I'm not sure if I'll be traipsing the 35 miles to Cliff in the middle of the night to view this installation. 

Sunday 15 July

A quiet day, as per usual on Sunday. The Hebridean Celtic Festival is over, the last performances took place last night. The big tent remains on the lawn of Lews Castle, but will probably be taken down tomorrow. The area around it is fenced off and closed to the public as all the equipment is still on site. I went for a walk round to the Castle, and was able to walk down the shore road to Cuddy Point. It being Sunday, the area was busy with walkers and cyclists.

Tributes have been flooding in since yesterday in memory of Fr Calum Maclellan, the parish priest of Eriskay. Although he is known to many as one of the three priests featured in the Island Parish TV series, his achievements span many of his 86 years.

The drought conditions have sparked another major wildfire, this time just outside the village of North Tolsta, some 15 miles northeast of Stornoway on the east coast of the island. In contrast to the rest of the UK, the Outer Hebrides are crying out for rain, which has been in short supply since the middle of May. We have only had about an inch of rain over two months. A month ago, four wildfires wreaked havoc in the Castle Grounds.

The fire was in the area of woodland, shown at the centre of the map below.

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