View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Friday, 27 November 2009

Castle Grounds

Although the mercury is making a nosedive, I went out for a walk around the Stornoway Castle Grounds this afternoon. Had not been there for quite a while, so a few changes were noticed. Here are some of the pics I took on the hour long jaunt.


Autumn colours by the Shoeburn near the Woodlands Centre.


Little and large


Lazy Corner


Lews Castle


Cromwell Street

Friday 27 November

Quite a nice day, if a little chilly. As November draws to a close, winter is making steady in-roads, and the mercury is set to sink further over the next few days. Whereas California is basking in summerlike temperatures (LA was at 80F yesterday), we'll be at half that number (40F / 5C) come the weekend.

The BBC has an excellent article today, which makes for difficult reading, as I already mentioned on Facebook. It is the story of one of the Nazi death camps in Poland: Sobibor. It is testimony by survivors as told in the article that puts the lie on those that still seek to deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Lest we forget.

Once more, the A9 has claimed lives. Those in northern Scotland rely on that arterial route to travel from Inverness to Perth and beyond to Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is a notorious route, 110 miles of actually quite monotonous driving. Although the A9 leads through spectacular scenery, as a motorist you can't afford to take your eyes off the road. It is a two-lane highway, with dual-carriageway sections. It is at the end of dual carriageway sections that accidents happen, but not exclusively. Last night at 7pm, three cars were involved in a collision at Dalwhinnie, 40 miles south of Inverness. Two occupants died; two others were conveyed to hospital in Inverness with injuries. There are repeated calls to make the A9 dual carriageway all the way from Perth to Inverness - if memory serves, this carries a price-tag of £180m. The Scottish Government that is presently in power preferred to allocate that money to building a network of trams in Edinburgh. That is now in progress, but behind schedule and over budget.