Friday notes

It's still blowing hard here, only a notch or two under galeforce, with gusts up to 50 mph. Today is binday, so the bins went walkabout. Three nearly went down the shore, another eight congregated up the street, and the Coastguard Station was nearly cut off when three bins held a sit-down at the access road.

The ship which was threatening gas platforms out in the North Sea managed to get its engines restarted, so it could steer clear of the hazard. She was laden with fertiliser, so any explosion certainly would have created an almighty bang.

Up here in Lewis, the Galson Estate is taken over by the local community today. This means that more than half the landmass of the Western Isles is in community ownership. The first buy-out in Scotland took place in 1992, when part of the Assynt Estate (due east of Lewis on the mainland) was taken over by the people. Five years later, the residents of the Isle of Eigg managed to collect £2 million to buy their place, which had suffered with years of neglect. I think I'll make a separate entry on that, it's quite a story.

The ferry made an unusual overnight crossing last night, leaving Stornoway at 12.30 a.m. to return here at 7 am, in time for the 7.15 crossing (probably a little later) to Ullapool. There is still disruption, but the winds aren't quite as strong as yesterday. Still strong enough though to cause disruption. For the moment, there is a small clearance passing through.

Later on, I'll catch up with pictures and diary entries for the first 11 days of 2007.