Storms and a Beautiful Aria

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday and I was going to post about Scotch Pancakes. They have nothing to do with pancake day but a few people had asked about them and I was going to make some and share the experience. Some other time perhaps.

I had to go into town to the dental practice at short notice. There were gale force winds from the South but the high tide was about 40 minutes previously so the Braighe was not closed to traffic and I duly got ready and set off. There was a police car at this end but he was just keeping an eye on things and I drove across. It was still a bit hairy and there were stones on the road so it must have been bad at high tide.

I listen to music much of the time when I'm in the house. Usually in the morning it is BBC Radio 3 Essential Classics. Otherwise I choose from BBC iPlayer or my library on Apple Music. I rarely use my huge CD collection directly any more because it is held in my Apply Music library.  I often hear pieces that I've not heard before or I've forgotten about. Sometimes they have an great impact. A few days ago one of those was Karl Goldmark's Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheeba) - Assad's act 2 aria "Magische Töne", recorded in 1967 by Nicolai Gedda with the Orchester des Bayreischen Staatsoper, Munich, conducted by Giuseppe Patanè. It will probably be of little interest to many of my readers but for anyone who enjoys opera I think it is one of the most beautiful pieces of singing I've heard for years. It's available on YouTube here.

Swimmer

Wild swimming seems to be the latest trendy thing to do presumably helped on by lockdown. I'm not a great lover of swimming in the sea here at the best of times. I'm not a strong swimmer and even in October when the gulf stream has warmed our water by a degree or even a degree and a half, it's still very cold. Swimming in the sea in New Zealand in the summer was far more bearable. Swimming in The Family's pool on a hot summer day was infinitely better.

On my way into town I go over an isthmus called The Braighe. I have blogged about it on several occasions. There are a hardened few who regularly swim its length on a Saturday morning. A few days ago I came across a lone swimmer. From where I was standing in 3ºC it was an ideal and very beautiful morning. However swimming in the sea would not have been my choice of a way to spend a couple of hours. 

A beautiful view of The Mainland

A swimmer

Sunrise

On a slightly less swimmer-friendly day

The Braighe

I've spoken on a number of occasions of the peninsula on which I live being separated from the rest of Lewis and the town of Stornoway by an isthmus called The Braighe including my post here.

It is sometimes closed when there is a high tide and a southerly gale or storm force winds. On Saturday it was closed for a lot longer than usual at high tide because a lot of stones and seaweed came over the seawall with the waves and it took diggers, lorries and then a road sweeping vehicle to clear it before we could get across.

A video taken from a Coastguard vehicle before the waves got really bad was published by The Scotsman newspaper:

Video from coast guard

If the link doesn't work it may be easier to cut and paste the following into your browser:

https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/watch-incredible-footage-as-huge-waves-crash-onto-car-on-isle-of-lewis-1-4894381?fbclid=IwAR3vk-m-4eJw7PFRw-tPwm0Od-J17sZ2yhq-awomS2OZO1bxkJGmdsxjqS0

Last Week

Last week was a strange week: ordinary but strange. After weeks of my morning walk in the woods being in the rain and cold wind the wind suddenly got warmer. The rain didn't go away though. I think I had one dry walk.

However, despite the gales, the crocuss in my garden are surviving - just:

I set off for my walk on Saturday but the Braighe (the isthmus between the peninsula on which I live and the 'mainland' of Lewis and the town of Stornoway where the Castle Grounds where I walk are situated) was closed by the police just as I arrived. When there is a southerly gale and a very high tide the waves bring pebble and rocks over onto the road, The force is quite capable of inflicting considerable damage to a car.

Someone took A VIDEO of the waves showing the closure and me getting out of my car to take photographs.

Yesterday Gaz, Carol and Brodie (son, daughter-in-law and grandson) returned from Italy where Gaz works at the moment. They flew into Stornoway on a Loganair (Scotland's airline) Embraer ERJ-135 jet. I think I'm correct in saying it's the first scheduled passenger jet service to the Islands.

The Last off

Memories of a Lewis Day (so far)

Tomorrow morning I leave for Glasgow and the start of my journey to my Other Home in New Zealand.   Looking at the weather forecast for the rest of today and tomorrow we are promised strong gales and torrential squally showers and rain.  I took these photos within the last half hour but already the skies are lightening as the sun rises but darkening at the same time as the grey rain clouds come across from the west (these photos are taken facing east).  This is one of the reasons I love the Hebrides: the unpredictability of the view from my window.

The three photos were taken in a sequence about 10 minutes from start to finish as the sun rose over the horizon.

Within a couple of hours the wind had risen to gale force and the sea at The Braighe when I went into town was quite rough:

I met Gaz for coffee and lunch at The Woodlands; my favourite watering hole in Stornoway's Lews Castle Grounds.  Believe it or not it was very busy but everyone is behind us.

In the afternoon I popped over to Pat and Dave's for a coffee.  Their eccentric cat Misha wanted first to go out and then to come back in.

This evening a friend is popping in and by the time I get to bed the cases will be shut and I'll be ready to roll in the morning.

Black-Throated Diver

I'm not quite sure why I have never blogged about sightings of the Black-Throated Diver before.  We certainly saw plenty last year on The Braighe on Lewis.  I've just looked at my photos though and the best ones were of Great Northern Divers and I posted photos about them.  This week I managed rather better photos of the Black-Throated Divers on the Braighe.  The problem with them is that as soon as you pop your head over the sea wall they start paddling in the opposite direction.

Great Northern Diver - Another One

It seems that CJ and I are constantly in search of that perfect shot - completely unattainable, of course - of any bird that we see: especially uncommon ones.  So far as we are concerned Divers are not common.  So far this last few weeks we've seen Great Northern Divers in (relative) profusion and also a Red-throated Diver (and possibly a Black-throated one too).  They tend to be quite a long way off shore though so a good shot has been difficult.  When we were driving along The Braighe (between Eagleton and Stornoway) yesterday I saw a Great Northern Diver just out of the water on the edge having a little siesta.  A hurried stop of the car (if one can do that) and a quick walk back and we managed a few shots before it sailed off into the distance.

Great Northern Diver

When I was driving across the Braighe (the isthmus between the peninsula on which I live and the main body of the Isle of Lewis) into town yesterday I was thrilled to see what I was fairly certain was a Great Northern Diver.  Unfortunately I couldn't stop because I had an appointment in town.  On the way back, however, I stopped and took a walk.  There about a 200 metres away out to sea was the very bird.  It is, I think, the first one that I have positively identified and managed to photograph.  Bearing in mind the distance and my modest bridge camera lens (albeit at an equivalent of about 600mm) I was quite satisfied with the resulting photos.

There were also some Cormorants swimming and diving nearby:

A Day Out With Gaz

Today Gaz and I had coffee at the Woodlands Centre and then set off for a walk to the River Creed in the Lews Castle Grounds where the Centre is situated.   Gaz had an idea for a photograph and he needed a dull day.  Now whilst I sympathise with him (and sympathised a lot more by the end of the walk) I was rather glad that the early morning heavy showers (which returned late afternoon) kept away and I didn't get wet and the sun shone which compensated for the almost gale-force wind.  

 On the way into Stornoway as I was about to cross the Braighe I tried to capture the turbulent sea and the rainbow but almost missed the latter.

 The Lews Castle makes a splendid background to the harbour - note the Wicker Lady in the bottom right of the picture.

 Gaz on a mission

 The path alongside the River Creed

 Dedicated - and wet!

A 'proper' camera

Yesterday my niece Helen in a comment on her blog posting which included some more dragonfly photos pondered whether she showed too many.  My view was in the negative.  You can never have too many photos of dragonflies.  Which is just as well.  I think that this is a male Hawker.  It looks to me like the Migrant Hawker in Helen's photo but then it also looks like the Common Hawker in my post a few weeks ago. (Helen will doubtless put me right).

Gaz taking his photo of the dragonfly (he had thought that he wouldn't need a macro lens today).

 He was very sluggish and I suspect not long for this world.

 In Memory of that Stornoway institution recently departed,  Smiths Shoe Shop and the Stornoway coves who worked and met there.

 And on the way back looking the other way along The Braighe the waves were still rolling in

Anyone who has read Johnathon Livingston Seagull will appreciate these gulls who were just riding the airwaves as they came over the waves and rose over the seawall.

An Angry Sea

This afternoon I went into Stornoway. For once I was dressed for the weather (gales and rain) so I decided to stop on the Briaghe and photograph the waves coming in from the South. Impressive or what!

An Interesting Concept

There is a house at the northern end of The Braighe which is actually two houses - an older improved croft house and a newer bungalow - joined into one house by a large living area. It is such a neat idea and one I've admired ever since I was in it some years ago.

Oystercatcher

CJ and I went for a walk yesterday on the Braighe. On the Broad Bay side the tide was very low (as, indeed, it was on the other side too) and I walked out along a seaweed covered spit which is usually under water. There was little birdlife but there were a couple of Oystercatchers and although I didn't manage to get very close I did get a some photos.