1 EAGLETON NOTES: A Sunny December Day

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Monday 14 December 2015

A Sunny December Day

It's been a terrible summer and autumn and I don't think here on Lewis we have had a period of 24 hours without rain since April. I may be wrong but not very! Today was different. The sun shone out of a clear blue sky and despite that it was a relatively balmy 6℃. When you get days like this on Lewis the light is truly fantastic and changes by the hour. So the mountains of Canisp (left) and Suilven on the Scottish mainland looked entirely different in the morning:  


and the afternoon:


and there's snow on them there hills:


The hills of Harris from the road over the moor from my house to the main road:


Even the wind-farm over the Stornoway outlying townships look spectacular:


27 comments:

  1. You've forgotten my visit already! Looks like I'll have to remember that week of golden weather for both of us. I thought the island was beautiful in August, but look at it now! I want to come back! The light looks amazing.

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    1. I certainly haven't forgotten your visit Pauline. You may recall that we had lovely days but we almost always had some rain during the night. I'll bet by the time I'm back in NZ you'll be wanting a few rainy nights too.

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  2. Weatherwise it seems like Pauline is a glass half full person , but you...
    Thanks for sharing such dramatic pictures of the mainland. Marvellous.

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    1. YP I'm one of the most glass half full people you'll ever meet but I'm also a realist and whilst I am looking forward to a wonderful winter we've just had the wettest summer on record here on Lewis (I think) and that really is saying something. When we get a day like yesterday in the middle of winter there is no finer place on earth (well possibly excepting New Zealand and Yorkshire).

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  3. simply marvelous views from your island!

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    1. Norma the first three are from my kitchen window.

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  4. What amazing views you have. I'd love to look out onto mountains (but maybe without the constant rain).

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    1. Cro living without mountains and water would never be my choice but then I would have said that about trees at one time and there are precious few of those around me.

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  5. These are truly spectacular views, Graham!
    Seems like your part of the world got all the rain that our farmers and gardeners so sorely missed during the summer and autumn. Winter - if we can call it that - has not made up for it yet, either. Not that I'm keen on constant rain and grey skies, and everything out there sill looks quite alright, but I know lots and lots of water is necessary to keep our landscape going, and I'm afraid of a very long, wet, cold and drawn-out winter well into spring. Well, we'll see, and I shouldn't be so pessimistic. Usually not my style at all! I'm probably just really tired and ready for the Christmas break.

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    1. Yes Meike we've had record amounts of rain and the ground is absolutely sodden. In parts of Scotland that meant that when the strong winds came last week trees were relatively easily uprooted. Rather peculiarly in my garden it's caused some of the peaty soil to swell and some to drop and the grass (I can hardly call it a lawn) looks like an elephant has been walking over it. Oddly the temperatures here are quite high for the time of year. I saw on the forecast that we can expect 12℃ this week. That's as good as our temperature often is in July.

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  6. Great shots, let us hope you don't have to wait another year to take similar ones.

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    1. Adrian a spell of still(ish) dry(ish) weather would really be appreciated.

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  7. Wonderful photos, Graham. You can send down some of that rain - a lot of it - to our drought-affected areas here in Queensland. The western areas are facing great difficulties at present from lack of rain. Some areas haven't seen a drop in over four years. It's heartbreaking...the poor souls.

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    1. Yes, Lee, you are so right. I complain about the weather here but really we have little to complain about.

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  8. A little sunshine goes a long way. Sow shows off your mountains very well and I can tell you've been missing them with the cloudy conditions. We average 12 in of precipitation a year.

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    1. Red some placed in England got 12" in a day last week: it was a national record.

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  9. I so envy you that beautiful view, Graham. Wiltshire is lovely, especially the downs, but to have both sea and hills....wonderful.

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    1. Frances I never tire of the view - even whenI can't see it (if you can see what I mean).

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  10. What a wonderful sequence of photos. It hardly seems possible that they are only a few hours apart, they are so different from each other in atmosphere. It would fascinate me to have a view like that - I would spend hours looking out of the window.

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    1. Jenny my visitors do just that and, when I'm in contemplative (or lazy) mode or just need inspiration for a crossword at coffee time, so do I.

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  11. Beautiful shots and view as always GB!!

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    1. Thank you Ruby. It's always good to se you back in Blogland.

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  12. What is up with all that rain, Mr. Edwards? I don't know how I could ever live without waking up to trees on mountains. Snow on mountains? The best! Lovely pictures!

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    1. It was just a day or two without rain Mrs Thyme and the sun disappeared again yesterday. I treasured the moments of sun though and put it to good use working outside. We had summer temperatures yesterday and it's supposed to be even warmer today. I've got used to no trees but it's lovely to get back to them when I do.

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  13. What beautiful, beautiful views - towards snow capped mountains. Stunning.

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  14. Lovely scenery but boy oh boy could I use just a little bit of your rain.

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  15. Magic light in those pictures, Graham. What a difference the sun makes - not least this time of year!

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