Monday 15 April

The world has come knocking on the door of the USA again, nearly 12 years after 9/11: two bombs appear to have gone off at the Boston Marathon today, killing at least 2, and injuring several dozen. I'm very sad that such a happy event got marred in this way.

Here in Stornoway, the wind has dropped after a day of sunshine and showers. Went for a wee amble around the Battery in the afternoon. It has become milder, but not nearly as mild as the 20C in eastern England.

Sunday 14 April

A complete change in fortunes for the weather today. What started out as fairly bright soon turned wet and windy. Not nearly as windy as in the southern isles, which were subjected to a force 9 gale. After a while, the sun came back out again, but a severe squall heralded some more breezy weather.

Friday 12 April

So the windows fall out of the schools, the ferry suffers an engineroom explosion, and the papers come in after the shops close. Good week. 

A year or so ago, half a dozen new school buildings were handed over to the education authority. This week, there was a safety scare, after skylights fell out of ceilings - fortunately it is half-term holiday, so nobody got hurt.

The newspapers now come on the ferry, meaning they don't hit the stands until 2pm. In the Uists, that's even later. Two of the ferries to the Western Isles that have been away for refit have suffered breakdowns, meaning that there were no papers.