February 2025

In 9 days' time, it will be all of twenty years since I came to stay in Barbara's house. It only seems like yesterday - yet, there have been vast and irreversible changes along the way. Barbara herself passed away more than 4 years ago, my parents are both now gone - naming those three people in no particular order. One of the things that has struck me, having re-read my old blogs Northern Trip and Atlantic Lines is that this island does not change. Everything to do with people changes - and you may read that in the broadest possible terms. But Lewis (and Harris) are old and immutable. Their rocks are 3,000 million years old, and will be there for as long as the Earth remains.

I took the below picture on 11th May 2005 at Aline, along the border between Lewis and Harris.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2025

 

 
Today it is 80 years ago since the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by Soviet forces. More than a million people, mainly Jews, were killed there during the Second World War. The process was conducted as an industrial process. To date, some of the goods left behind by the victims of the Holocaust remain on display. These include suitcases with name tags, spectacle frames, hair and shoes. I have never visited Auschwitz and am not likely to.

January 27th is Holocaust Memorial Day, remembering all the victims of the Nazi's policy of extermination of all those they considered to be sub-human.

Holocaust Memorial Day remembers all victims of genocide.

We must never forget.

Burns Night

Today we commemorate the 266th birthday of Robert Burns, the Bard of Scotland. His poetry and prose, in English and in Scots, is wide-ranging, famous and enduring. Although New Year is now already 25 days ago, I will copy one of his best known works here:

Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowan fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fitt,
Sin' auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willie-waught,
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Éowyn

Tonight, Ireland and the UK are battening down the hatches for Storm Éowyn, with a RED warning for danger to life and property in place for the whole of the island of Ireland, and for the Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Éowyn is a name I first encountered 50 years ago, when I was introduced to Tolkien's epic Lord of the Rings. She was a shield maiden, a horse woman of great courage. Éowyn was involved in the slaying of the Nazgûl at the gates of Minas Tirith, together with the hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck.

The Éowyn that is now headed our way could be said to be riding the Nazgûl from the gates of Minas Morgul, headed for battle at Minas Tirith - taking a bit of poetic license with Tolkien's narrative here. However, Tolkien afficionados know what happened to the Morgul King - I referenced it above.

Stay safe.

11 January 2005

Twenty years ago today, 11th January started as your usual winter's day in the Islands. But when darkness fell, the wind rose to a screaming crescendo. Stornoway was battered by 100 mph winds, the old school I was staying in at South Lochs shook under the onslaught. Blue flashing lights across the water in Laxay indicated that police had closed the A859 to Tarbert, after a busdriver reported a sheep flying past his window. Power went off for 48 hours in my location, up to six days in nearby Sildenis. We all hunkered down in darkness, waiting for the storm to blow itself out. 

The next morning, 9 am. Phew, that was a bad one. Roof off here, trees down in the Lews Castle Grounds, boats wrecked at Newton. You got any damage? 

News began to filter north from South Uist. Five members of the same family missing out of Lionacuidhe, on the South Ford. They had fled towards the causeway in two cars, but never arrived. As the winds abated, a search of the Ford, the channel between South Uist and Benbecula, yielded all the missing. Lost to a storm surge the evening before. 

I can never bear to see the faces of the two wee ones lost that night. Or those if their parents and grandfather. 

I'll just post the link to the news report. 

RIP.