Monday 03/07/06 - morning

Nice sunny day with some mid-level clouds and a temperature of about 16C / 60F. Better than the heatwave and flooding further south. The weekend was full of excitement, although at times of the wrong sort. Sailors ashore from HMS Blyth were chased to their ship by local youths, who had to be shown a baton on the gangway, before backing off. A Harris policeman went off the road and damaged his car when he swerved to avoid a sheep in the road. The Coastguard helicopter had to go to Reef Beach on Saturday to attend to an injured 6-year old, but had to divert to Stornoway to effect the rescue I mentioned. I nearly forgot about the Big Beer Robbery. Three hundred unlabeled beer bottles went missing from the Hebridean Brewery on Rigs Road - anyone with information on their whereabouts can contact the police or Crimestoppers. I've got a fair idea about the contents: down the pan already. On a more serious note, 500 old bibles were buried at Swainbost Cemetery this weekend. The family bibles, mostly in Gaelic, had been handed in to the Ness charity shop, but they could not be resold because they were tattered and worn. The families that had handed them in were unhappy to throw the treasured volumes in the bin, so the idea came up to bury them in a religious ceremony. The local minister was quite prepared to conduct the service to the respectful disposal of the bibles.