Sunday 19 February

A cold day, which started very white. Snow had fallen last night, and more fell through the night, leaving us with just a little under an inch on the ground. Most of it had melted by mid afternoon, in spite of a few more snow showers through the morning. The mercury is rising slowly, and is presently at 4C / 39F.

Cromwell Street after a hailshower, yesterday
I was bemused by the news of the two boxers who had a punch-up during a post-match press conference - and they had not even been in the ring together. One taunted the other and they had an off-the-ring bout. Everybody is crying shame, but they do it all the time inside the ring, so what's the fuss? Said he sarcastically.

A climber has died after falling more than 1,000 feet near the summit of Ben Nevis. The circumstances are as yet unclear, but police think it was probably just an unfortunate accident. Although the mountains in Harris are nowhere near as tall as Ben Nevis (the Clisham is shy of 2,700 feet), they are serious mountains. I remember people having to be guided off at dusk in December one year, after their undertaking to traverse the Clisham Horseshoe proved to be too lengthy for the 7 hours of daylight at that time of year.


Clisham Horseshoe, April 2005