Wednesday 12 December

OK, today is 12-12-12. And at 12.12 pm, 51 happy couples got married at Gretna Green. Until not that long ago, couples would elope to get hitched over the blacksmith's anvil. I think the practice was discontinued in 1977.

Today was another in a long series of beautiful winter days with good sunshine, low temperatures and fantastic cloudscapes. Tomorrow will see a change to wind and rain, with perhaps a gale at times, but I don't expect the high winds to last. We managed 4C / 39F today, much better than yesterday's zero.

Talking of freezing, there has been a problem with the local ice plant. This is used by fishing boats for chilling their catches between pulling them from the sea and landing them ashore. The last plant broke down a few months ago, and is beyond repair. Rather than forcing boats to sail dozens of miles for ice from Uig, Kallin, Ullapool or Lochinver, the council has leased a machine for the use of boats.