Tuesday 04/07/06

Cloudy start to the day, but the sun breaks through by midday. It is very calm, but with sufficient wind to propel the yachts out of the harbour. Jetfighters are flying low over the town. After lunch, I go for a walk. I go up Island Road and Smith Avenue, then along Goathill Road to Jamieson Drive. Continue down this street past the Primary School to Westview Terrace, which finally ends on Percival Road, the northern perimeter road of Stornoway. This is a 25 minute walk. From Percival Road, Sand Street leads north onto the Cockle Ebb. The Ebb is the tidal estuary of the Laxdale River. I follow the coastline closely. High tide is only 1 hour gone, and the waterlevels are therefore too high to attempt a crossing to Tong, 2 miles to the north. Instead I make for Steinish, a mile to the east. I have to pass through deep water to gain dry land, a quarter mile south of the village by the Auction Mart. A straight road leads me back to Newton. I take a shortcut through the industrial area, and pass the sole Harris Tweed Mill left operating. A bent man in a blue coat shuffles out of a door across the road, affording me a glimpse of a large hall, filled with sacks, each stuffed with brightly coloured wool. I prepare dinner for mrs B, in the shape of carrots and potatoes - see my Recipe Book (link to the left). After dinner, a lady comes to stay for two nights. She is due to go to St Kilda on Friday, which is exactly the day the weather is due to change. She has come a few days early in order to have a look round Lewis. I furnish her with a timetable to visit three of the five sites - Callanish, Carloway Broch and Gearrannan Blackhouse Village. This should keep her happy between 10 and 7. Her stint in St Kilda is as a volunteer for the National Trust for Scotland, which owns the islands. Cloud draws across during the evening, but it stays very calm. Reports came through that 50 tons of rubbish had been dredged up from the bottom of Stornoway Harbour back in May. These 23 skips consisted mainly of trawler warps and other fishing paraphernalia. A shoreline collection of trash yielded 65 sacks during its first week. The silt in the harbour is so severely polluted that the Pier & Harbour Commission may be declined a license to dredge it up. Some boatmen have a bad habit (illegal actually) of pumping their bilgewater (usually contaminated with oil) into the harbour. You're not allowed to throw anything into the sea.