Wednesday 20 February

A day of complete sunshine, nearly 10 hours of it now. Not a cloud to be seen, and a perfect sunrise (at 7.44) and sunset (at 17.35). Not seen anything like it, that I can recall - although it probably has happened previously. Daytime max was 9C / 48F, but as I type the mercury has already dipped well below freezing and it will be a hard frost through the night. Although there was a breeze through the day, that has now dropped. Fog was a problem in Inverness, causing extensive disruption to flights from the Highland capital.

An object lesson in the reliability of weather forecasting from down-under. A group of amateur forecasters, monitoring model-based forecast for tropical cyclones (hurricanes) around Australia, saw that a category 5 cyclone could strike Western Australia next week. However, the lead-time was more than 5 days, prompting me to enter a cautionary note on the site. But no, they were determined that the models were correct. Until the latest run of models showed a complete turn-around, with only a weak system affecting the coast 500 miles to the north. And even then, the cyclone itself has not even formed. It may never do so.

On Facebook, I mentioned that I have 69 blogs on Blogger. I only "blog" on about 6 of them on a more or less regular basis. A large number are websites in the shape of a blog; my WW1 and WW2 research is comprised in those. Old blog sites (formerly AOL e.g.) are there, as well as topical, one-off blogs. Even if I say so myself, quite an output...

Tuesday 19 February

The day started with dense fog and this took a long time to fully lift. It was not until 3pm that all the low cloud has disappeared, and even then only reluctantly. I went into town around 10 o'clock, and the shreds of fog floating around the streets were quite eerie. The fog wreaked havoc at the airport, where no planes were able to come or go until well after lunchtime. The ferry was not affected, but it did wake everybody up with a lot of hooting as she departed for Ullapool at 7 o'clock.

The case of Oscar Pistorius, the amputee athlete who is alleged to have murdered his girlfriend, is making the headlines. I don't know what to make of it, and the trial is the place for the facts to come out. Pistorius acquired fame through becoming a high profile runner on artificial limbs, but other facets of him also come out informally. A life has been lost, and now the courts have to decide who is responsible.