Thursday 02/03/06

Nice bright morning, after a light fall of snow. News comes through that one of Mrs B's relatives has died suddenly earlier this morning. The lady concerned was only in her 50s, and was found by her teenage children. Her husband is out in the States, and obviously is flying straight home. In the afternoon, I go for a walk round the Castle Grounds. First to the Bayhead Bridge, then out to the Golf Club. After that, the path is blocked, so I cut across to the Watermill. I take a few snaps and videos of the wheel in operation. Continue my walk to the bridge where the millrace branches off the Willowglen burn. After finding the path stops under a high wall, I retrace my steps and continue across the golf course to the Marybank gate. From there, I walk back to town along the Castle and down some very icy steps to Bayhead. The Stornoway Gazette did not arrive today, although it's Thursday. When I leave Somerfields, I notice that the tide is very low, so I venture into the Newton Basin. I go as far as the outflow, but this cannot be crossed; too deep. Am about 5 metres below streetlevel. Return to mrs B's along the floor of the basin, which is covered in shells, seaweed, rocks and rubbish. A heavy hailshower overtakes me as I clamber out of the basin. Stones measure up to 1 cm, and I take a fair few inside on my coat. Hear a story of a group of people who were due to fly to Benbecula yesterday. On approach to the airport there, the pilot suddenly aborted the landing and turned back to Stornoway. The runway was a sheet of ice, and there was no chance to clear that up quickly. A very rough flight back followed, during which chunks of ice  whacked the outside of the plane as they flew off the propellors. During the evening, the snow starts again.