Arnish Lighthouse

Went to Ness on Tuesday afternoon, with the dual purpose of visiting the Heritage Centre in Habost (where the Comunn Eachdraidh has its base) and checking the cemetery, which is about a mile down the road towards the sea.

The Heritage Centre is open for only a few hours a day in winter, so was lucky to have timed for an afternoon call. Started off by asking for information from the Comunn Eachdraidh, who were happy to help where possible. As is the case with all the historical societies in Lewis, they are run by volunteers and therefore have hardly time and/or resources to work through queries - I came with a list of about 30. I encountered the same problems in Shawbost, with the West Side CE in a lovely new building by the bridge, but nobody to man it for any length of time. CE Uig is by far the most active, with a volunteer doing a great one-person job on the website and social networking presences. However, upon request, all the historical societies in the island have been more than pleased to help.

The exhibition in the Ness Heritage Centre is worthy of a visit, with an interesting section on the now defunct Decca Station near Eoropie. There were some lovely items on display, but I dread to think what the environmental conditions in the exhibition space must do to the exhibits. A hygrometer was stuck firmly at 90%, and a thermometer would have struggled to reach much above 7C - the same temperature as could be found outside. Better go there on a sunny spring or summer’s day.

I cannot show pictures of the exhibition, as there was a notice asking not to take photographs.

I had visited the Habost Cemetery before, but needed to revisit in order to register the private, family gravestones that refer to casualties of war. I found about 25. I’ll close my report with a few outside pics. It was perishing cold on Tuesday.

The mainland hills, seen from the Habost machair

Looking south, down the coast towards Dell

Don't think these are very welcome

Habost village

Over the past few weeks, a number of issues have crossed the public agenda which have failed to endear Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to its populace. In general terms, when people are elected to serve in public office, they sometimes have to take decisions that may not be popular. It is however the responsibility of a councillor, a member of parliament, a minister of government to take the bigger picture into account. Us simple citizens do not always have access to the bigger picture, and we should be able to trust our elected representatives to take the big decisions.

The issue of the Stornoway Town Hall refurbishment, which in itself I support, has thrown up a number of questionmarks over the way the consultation process was run. Opponents allege that CnES have been cutting corners - I am not in a position to ascertain whether that is true or not.

The issue of the windfarms, which I have opposed, underlines the point that I hope that councillors have made the right balance of judgement - something that I don’t believe they have - in weighing up pros (monetary gain) and cons (environmental impact).

A round of proposed school closures was announced in recent times, slashing the number of schools in the Western Isles as whole by half. A consultation exercise is supposed to be in full swing. However, if private reports from North Uist are anything to go by, councillors cannot even be bothered to make it to a previously announced community meeting to discuss the closure of the school in Lochmaddy. I don’t know if a vote of no confidence is sufficient to unseat a councillor, but this is absolutely atrocious.

The final point that blotted the CnES copybook from my perspective is the Stornoway Harbour Authority row. The Comhairle is moving to take over Stornoway Port Authority, because SPA was opposed to a plan to fill in part of the Inner Harbour for some very good reasons. I do not trust CnES to make the correct judgement in matters that the SPA currently hold sway over - they could do actual harm.

As of next Friday, 12 February, postings nor comments will be accepted anymore on any of the blogs on the BBC Island Blogging site. Carol, who has looked after the site since it formally closed in December 2008, has secured another year’s funding for this Island Blogging site (well done and thanks, Carol). I would like to echo Les’s call to nip round to IBHQ on the old IB site before 12 February, and leave a word of thanks as well.

Island Blogging has been in existence since late 2003, initially just for the Argyll Islands, later including the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland as well. This blogger has been part of the IB community since December 2005, and it has been great fun. It is a pity that the BBC could not be bothered to devise a better blogging service for us, but it is good that Les has taken us under his wing up to a point to continue on this platform.

Your blogger has returned to station after an uneventful and positively boring journey by plane. Heavy snow showers were forecast for the London airports, and even worse for Edinburgh. Didn’t see a single flake of falling snow until the good ole serviceplane inched its way down to Stornoway in the middle of a snow shower last night.

Driving from the airport into town showed a strange demarcation. Apart from icy pavements, nothing appeared to be amiss at Branahuie, but snow appeared in the road verges at Sandwick, and snow encroached onto the roadways in Stornoway proper. The Tesco carpark showed this pathetic and unused pile of grit sitting demurely by the main doors, whilst the carpark and its walkways were a veritable icerink. Well done, Tesco. And they have run out of salt. I’m not looking forward to an egg without salt, thank you.

I am posting this off island, until my return in the New Year. Keeping abreast with developments from afar by virtue of this medium, the Internet.

I was concerned to read of the larger than normal number of chimney fires in the Hebrides. The advice was to sweep the chimney at least twice a year if you’re burning coal, and more frequently if you use peats or wood. The latter cause a lot of soot to accumulate in the chimney, which in turn can catch fire if you decide to fire up well.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar have posted a video which shows what the refurbished Town Hall will look like if the proposed work goes ahead. You need the Quick Time program to view it, which can be downloaded free from the linked webpage.

You may remember the 14-year old army cadet who drowned in Loch Carnan, South Uist, in August 2007. Kaylee Macintosh was pinned under an overturned craft by her buoyancy aid. Her parents are planning to sue the Ministry of Defence for £525,000 compensation.

Finally, the news that the Pairc Windfarm has hit yet another stumbling block. Scottish and Southern Energy, the developers of the project, have moved £25 million to another project, putting back the construction of the South Lochs windfarm back a number of years. If it gets planning permission in the first place.

To all readers, in the Hebrides or elsewhere, best wishes for a good, healthy and prosperous 2010.

A very good Friday to you all as we enter the final week in the annual Christmas Countdown, which started - at the end of the last Christmas. The weather has turned suitably Christmassy a week early, and I fully anticipate a miserable, grey, wet and mild Christmas morning this time next week. When I venture into town later today and/or tomorrow, the shops will be heaving and the people overburdened with overexpensive Christmas gifts. Where have the days gone that you could get someone a prezzy for five quid and they’d be overjoyed? Here in Stornoway, and indeed elsewhere in the Hebrides, we can all shop in safety. It has just been revealed that citizens of the Western Isles of Scotland are watched over by the largest number of CCTV cameras per head of population: 8.4 per 1000. Our august capital city Edinburgh has to get by with fewer than 1 per 1000. There are other benefits associated with living in northern Scotland, you know. Up here, people know how to deal with 6 inches of snow. OK, I grant you, there are many more people in southern England than in Highland Scotland, which is home to 220,000. And snow is more of a rarety down there than up here, but still: 6 inches of snow and the entire shebang grinds to a halt. Here in the Western Isles, with its grossly overstated reputation for bad weather, we’re having a quiet day with light, variable winds and the odd light shower. Granted, when the weather does get bad (statistically speaking once every 7 days), it can get really nasty. But people are prepared for it, used to it happening, and all the more grateful for the return of the sun. Even if, in December, she only appears for 6½ hours in the day. Another aspect of life in the Hebrides is that news tends to be relatively benign. Spats over the Town Hall refurbishment and the location for a centre about St Kilda assume high levels of importance, not to mention the fact that our local radiostation (Isles FM) may finally get a decent home. At present it is located in a former boatshed on the seafront at Newton Street. When there is a hailstorm (common in winter), the presenter can get drowned out by the noise. In summer, when the door is open, you can hear the binlorries going by, planes flying overhead, and people having a natter outside. In the middle of the newsbulletin. Which tends to miss all the local news that really is of importance (with the odd exception), and instead focuses on the deeds of our elected representatives to the Scottish and British parliament. Oh, they actually do something?? Must listen out. Isles FM can be heard on-line, using the link above. Well, must go for lunch.

Gearrannan, 11 November 2009

Yes, you read that correctly. It is November 12th, and to me, the year is slowly heading towards its conclusion. Long gone are the light nights and bright days of summer. Only yesterday did I look out to the southwest at ten past four in the afternoon, and did I see the sun? No, it had set a couple of minutes before. The tourists have all headed home, with the exception of the odd customary winter visitor, here to experience the ferocity of the Atlantic winter storms. It has been dark for nearly four hours by the time the ferry comes in, at 8.20pm. If I see it coming in, as the curtains are drawn after nightfall. In summer, it comes in at 12.45 am, and it isn’t even fully dark. Not now. When it leaves at 7 am, it is still dark. I walked past the slaughterhouse earlier this week, and caught the smell of beasts, newly discharged into its interior - to emerge onto our dinnerplates at some stage. The lambs that were gambolling on the machairlands in April and May, perhaps? Not a thought worth entertaining for too long. The verdant green, to use that dreadful duplication, has been taken off the moorlands and replaced by the dull browns, yellows and black of winter. Autumn, now firmly in charge, has been thoroughly wet, and any thought of venturing into the moors have to be dispelled. Snow, although not in the forecast, is a growing possibility. As is hail. During my first winter here, five years ago, I grew accustomed to the sound of the wind buffeting the house and hail (or rain) clattering against the windows. So much so, that in fact I could not sleep if there was no wind or hail. But I had a very restful winter in 2004/5. My abiding image of my first winter is that of a flock of sheep, crossing a snow-covered road late at night, seen in the yellow glow of the streetlights - when I was staying in an outlying area. Another memory is that of the hurricane in January 2005 which battered these islands with winds of up to 134 mph, taking five lives with it.

It is now November 2009, and in a few day’s time, on the 16th, I will be at the 5th anniversary of my stay in Lewis. Much has changed for me in that time, some of it for better, some of it for worse. In 7 weeks time, the first decade of this century will be over, as we head into 2010. The pace of change in these islands is slower than elsewhere, but change does happen.

Before we lose more blogs from this site (after X333XXX, Breasclete Mick and now Gravirlife), can I just appeal for some perspective on this deplorable situation? I appreciate that people sometimes don’t get on, for whatever reason. I decline to become involved in that debate / discussion / row. I would like to share my take on blogging and the Internet, having been involved in the former for nearly five years and the latter for more than nine. This is not directed against anyone involved in IB at present or in the past.

When you’re reading and writing on-line, conducting discussions and what not, you have to bear in mind that it is a real person you are talking to. Reading words on a screen tends to make you lose sight of that, quite literally. You don’t hear their voice, or the inflection in the voice; you don’t see their facial expression or general body language. It is ever so easy to take things the wrong way. Or to write in words and phrases that are disproportionate to the discussion in hand.

When someone leaves a nasty comment out of the blue - just delete it. Particularly if they have not commented before.

Let’s not lose what has been built up over the past five months, since the BBC pulled the plug on the original Island Blogging site.

Our Coastguard helicopter G-CGMU on 17 July 2007 outside the Coastguard Station in Stornoway.

The Sikorski S-92, together with its 3 brethren across northern Scotland, sits grounded until replacement gearbox mounting bolts are fitted. A week ago, another S-92 on service off Newfoundland, Canada, crashed into the sea with the loss of 17 lives after one of those bolts failed. New bolts are on their way north, but the choppers will remain grounded until they are fitted, which will be in the early part of next week. Helicopters from RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Gannet will provide emergency cover.

I had the following email from IB Man at the Helm Les:

I have had a couple of emails from people asking why you have not approved their  comments on Sunday Sailings. It’s your blog so you can do as you wish and you might simply be away from the computer at the moment.

I don’t know if the comments are for or against but there may be an imbalance in that those comments that have appeared have done so simply because the commenter has previously been approved whereas others who are commenting for the first time need your approval before appearing.

I have been away from the Net for 24 hours, and have therefore been unable to moderate this flood of comments, for which I’m very grateful. Comments now all moderated, and more welcome.