Friday 10 July

The less said about today's weather, the better.

Thursday 9 July

The Isle of Lewis is pictured above, leaving port at 10.40 am on a supplementary sailing. This is scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays to provide extra capacity for arriving and departing self-catering holidaymakers.

Marco Polo is a regular visitor to Stornoway during the summer months

Wednesday 8 July

Le Soleal
This French cruiseliner appeared early in the morning, and did not leave until 11pm at night.
Another interesting vessel was this two-masted sailing ship, the Leader, which left port at 8.25pm.

Tuesday 7 July

A foggy day, and there was only brightness towards the very end of the day. It did not deter our resident population of herons.

Monday 6 July

The day started foggy. We were woken up at 5 o'clock by the ferry blasting its horn upon return from Ullapool - and again at 7, when she went out again. The sea haar quickly burned away later that morning, leaving us with sunny conditions.

The sea-haar briefly returned later, but the weather is now changing so it will not linger into the night.

Today's cruiseliner, Island Sky, arrived late, 9pm

Sunday 5 July

Years ago, a washing line was hung over a tree branch. In recent years, the branch has grown over the line, forcing it upwards as the tree grows.

After yesterday's scare with the sparrowhawk, a male blackbird ventures out on the grass to look for worms for his second brood of the season. Later, he was taking an ant-bath. The bird irritates an ants' nest, and the insects crawl all over his features, killing parasites.

Saturday 4 July

The day started quite early, with a breathtaking sunrise - this pic was taken at 4.08am.

A little later, whilst having breakfast, a sparrowhawk swooped in for some breakfast of his own, in the shape of a sparrow (or two). The chorus of chittering sparrows has since been silenced, and they do not venture anywhere near the garden.

Cruiseliner Corinthian also called round, to afford its passengers a cursory glance at the delights of Lewis (and Harris). Not as sunny as yesterday, although the sun did come out by evening.

Free Press no longer free

It is about 20 years ago that I started reading the West Highland Free Press. Strident, vociferous, outspoken, controversial - never afraid to speak its mind. It kept me up to date with the Eigg buy-out saga in 1996/97, and until I came to Scotland in 2004, with matters West Coast generally. I started to go off the paper when they began to blindly back wind turbines - I wrote them a nasty letter about that (which was published!) in which I questioned whether they still held true to their motto: For the Land, Culture and the Man, and suggested that Na Daoine no longer applied. However, I think I shall now remove the Free Press from my reading list. Not that it matters much, it's been ages since I bought a copy. A columnist, Donald Macleod (aka Donald Foot) wrote a piece about minority and majority ethnic groups, specifically Muslims. Its founding editor, Brian Wilson, spoke out to back Professor Macleod in his standpoint. Mr Wilson and Prof Macleod were both sacked. I don't see eye-to-eye with Mr Wilson politically, and don't know what planet Prof Macleod is on some times. But we have a freedom of speech in this country, which the Free Press used in abundance. It is now seeking to stifle the freedom of expression of its own columnists. The Free Press, to my mind, is no longer free.

July 7th

July 7th has two black marks on it. The first occurred in 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN safe haven of Srebrenica, Bosnia, which was established in Bosnian Serb territory during the Yugoslav war. General Ratko Mladic ordered men and boys to be rounded up, using UN forces to do the dirty work, and have them bussed out into the woods - where all were shot dead. The Dutch battallion of the UN force did nothing to stop the Bosnian Serbs, and the Dutch government have since been held responsible for their inertia. What could they have done? One soldier said he stood next to Mladic and could have pulled the trigger. However, the Bosnian Serb force was so overwhelming that any resistance would have been suicidal. Furthermore, the UN force was so poorly equipped that they would not have stood a chance. Seven thousand Bosnian Moslims were killed. Mladic is standing trial at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague. I personally know Dutch military personnel who were at Srebrenica during this episode. I cannot imagine their state of mind.

The second black mark against July 7th goes back ten years, to 2005. Four suicide bombers let off their devices on the London Underground and a London Transport bus, killing 52 innocent people.

We remember the innocent victims of senseless violence across the ages.

Friday 3 July

We took advantage of a beautiful summer's day for a bus trip to Ness, specifically the beach at Eoropie. Between buses, there was just over an hour and a half to admire the machair flowers and go down to the beach. After a cup of tea, it was time to return to the road for the 3.40 bus back to Stornoway.

Newvalley
Barvas Moor
Upper Barvas
Borve
South Dell