Sunday 5 September

After days of having up to half a dozen tropical cyclones to monitor, we're now back down to 1. Tropical storm Malou, which is churning its way up the Yellow Sea towards the Korean peninsula. Hurricane Earl is no more, just an early autumn depression east of Labrador. The remains of Gaston could turn back into a tropical depression in a day or so, to worry the Lesser Antilles; and something might brew up in the Bay of Campeche, in southern Mexico.

Here in Stornoway, it was Sunday, i.e. very quiet. Once more a sunny day, but with a breeze going, so not incentivised to sit outside. Instead I revamped my website http://www.adb422006.com, and renamed it "Across Two Seas", reflecting the fact that these days I undertake infrequent forays back and forth across the Minch and the North Sea. I have updated several pages, found a number of dead links that needed weeding out, and may add to the Walks page. The History page is still the heaviest part of the website, as that has and still is my main activity in Lewis.

Saturday 4 September

A brilliantly sunny and warm day, with the mercury reaching at least 21C. Spent much of the afternoon outside, until high clouds came over and obscured the sun. Not much of a breeze, until an approaching band of rain brought some wind as well. Two large cruiseliners in today, the Silver Cloud and the Princess Daphne. The former was tied up alongside the ferry pier, standing out a mile against the dark green of the trees in the Castle Grounds. The Princess Daphne is a very old lady of the seas, launched in 1955 as the Port Sydney. She  lay at anchor off Sandwick, ferrying its passengers ashore using tenders. I walked over to the Battery area of Stornoway to take pictures of the Princess and came across several cats, sunning themselves under trees and on top of an outside gasmeter.



Silver Cloud



Princess Daphne



Cats in the sun