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.