Wednesday 7 August

Went to the Carloway Show this afternoon, which was one of the best shows I've been to in Lewis in recent years. It was sunny and warm, making the outside events doubly enjoyable. It was very busy indeed, as demonstrated by lines of parked cars along the roads into the village.

Tuesday 6 August

Google wished me happy birthday today, and I was delighted to receive various gifts, including the two cakes pictured. Had a very nice dinner, savoy cabbage special. And the weather was also suitably bright today.

Monday 5 August

The day was bright and fairly sunny, but the clouds bubbled up as the morning progressed. The Castle Grounds continue to be burned to eradicate rhododendrons, prompting a disgruntled letter to Hebrides News. I have now finished my short story, which stretches to five pages in actual A4 print.

Sunday 4 August

Very busy today writing a short story, which is running away with me. The weather is quite conducive towards writing, so the keyboard is rattling.

Saturday 3 August

Well, it was overcast today, but fortunately mostly dry. Only the odd light shower dampened things down. It certainly did not dampen down spirits at the Stornoway Carnival, which moved through the town between 2pm and 2.45pm. accompanied by the pipe band. There were 19 registered floats, some of which were very topical, such as the interconnector, the retiral of the Muirneag, the habit of one publican to bar more customers than average &c.

Friday 2 August

Quite a nice day, and even warm at times. It is festival weekend, and apart from the European market (see the entry for 31st July) there is also the funfair - as well as tomorrow's carnival. The funfair attracts children and teenagers, and has a lot of thumping loud music and shouting DJs associated with it. But it brings a splash of colour to the otherwise drab surroundings of the South Beach carpark. Before reaching there, I could not help but notice the cruiseliner Hebridean Princess in port again.

Thursday 1 August

At time of posting, 11pm, it has been raining non-stop all evening. Half an inch has fallen since about 6pm, and there is no sign of it stopping. Conversely, a blast of heat has come into the south of England, with London reporting 34C. Near continent will see 36C tomorrow, for only a day.

I have been writing a couple of short stories along the lines of local themes. One of them tells the story of a young woman being seized by a kelpie (or waterhorse), the other about two lovers wishing to elope, but missing each other through misfortune.

Wednesday 31 July

Thought to head out of town for the afternoon, particularly as the sun was shining brightly and it got quite warm. Well, it started to rain at Achmore, it was sluicing down at Loch Ganvich and only at Callanish village did it more or less dry up. Got into the visitor centre at 3pm, when it was relatively quiet. Two coaches pulled up, disgorging some of their passengers into the restaurant, so I headed up to the Stones. It was drizzly and cool up there, but as impressive as ever. Returned to Stornoway the long way round, via Carloway and Barvas - and the sun promptly returned in town. Where not a drop of rain had fallen in the meantime. Had a look round the European market before heading for a bite to eat in one of the local restaurants.

Leaving town

Threatening near Achmore

Ruined house near Callanish

Callanish Stones

Dalbeg

And back into sunshine near SY

Monday 29 July

It seemed to have cooled down a bit, but when the sun came out this afternoon it suddenly got quite warm again. This did have a consequence though, as a line of heavy showers erupted down the west coast of the island. Some visitors got caught out in several of these downpours, and were thoroughly soaked.

This morning, I watched two cruiseliners coming in; the Marco Polo was anchored off Sandwick Bay, about half a mile away; the other sailed into port to dock at the near side of the ferry pier. This vessel, the Silver Cloud, had been in before and departed around 4pm for Belfast. The arrival and departure of the ferry Isle of Lewis created some nice photo opportunities which were duly taken by your blogger.

Marco Polo (left) and the Isle of Lewis

Silver Cloud (right) dwarfing the Isle of Lewis

Saturday 27 July

It has cooled down a little since yesterday, but we're still at 20C. Went into town and it was markedly more quiet than last week, which was the last day of the Hebridean Celtic Festival. A cruiseliner, the Eurodam, passed within sight of Stornoway, but a long way out in the Minch.

A train crash in Spain, on Wednesday, killed 78 people. It is alleged that the train driver was speeding - at twice the speedlimit. I'm just wondering whether there were devices in place that automatically stop trains that are exceeding the speed limit on a stretch of track. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those killed or injured at Santiago de Compostela.

Friday 26 July

A very strange day, weatherwise. Although we started off with good sunshine, some enormous cumulonimbus showerclouds built during lunchtime. Just after two, a chilly downdraft heralded the arrival of a thunderstorm. That's an unusual occurrence in these islands, and something to be dreaded in summer. The Met Office rainfall radar showed very heavy rainfall, with large hail reported from Achmore and a tornado at Laxay, and another at Callanish. That's what I mean by to be dreaded. No damage was reported from the tornado; its remnant could be seen from my position, dissipating under a very large cumulonimbus slowly moving northwest, to the west of Stornoway.

Wednesday 24 July

A lovely summer's day, which I spent monment tside. The sky provided plenty of entertainment, with a lot of varying high level cloud. Mercury reached 23C / 74F for the second time this month. The day ended with a beautiful sunset at 10 o'clock.

It was pointed out to me that it's Ramadan at the moment, a tough time for Muslims anywhere in the world, but particularly for the faithful in this part of the world. The hours of darkness stretch only from 11.15pm to 3.30am, meaning only about 4 hours for breaking the fast. Ramadan will run for another ten days or so.

Tuesday 23 July

Yes, it's been a full month since I last posted on this blog. For the first time in the nearly 9 years of its existence have I let it lapse for this long. Those of you who follow me on Facebook will be aware that I have not fallen off the edge of the earth, and I'll make an effort to resume normal service.First off, I'll be putting up a number of backposts with hopefully nice pics that I took over the past month.

Today, we have a cruiseship in, the Balmoral, which will depart for Belfast later today. She is anchored at the mouth of the harbour, as her 24 ft draught precludes her docking alongside one of the town piers. Tenders have been ferrying her passengers ashore this morning.

Yesterday, the Royal Baby was born, and the internet is going quite gaga over this. Yes, it's 3rd in line to the British throne, but can we get things back into perspective please.

It is warm and muggy in Stornoway this lunchtime, but heavy thunderstorms are raking western Scotland along a line between Glasgow and Tiree. These are moving north, and we're likely to see some of that action later today.