In the windows

In Stornoway, it is customary for funerals to be intimated through notices, placed in the windows of certain local shops. When someone dies, they are said to be "in the windows". 

We do move with the times, so the notices, produced by the undertakers, now feature on a dedicated webpage. Today, seven people are in the windows, a number I have never seen before in my years in the island. 

One funeral has taken place, and will shortly be taken off the website. Five others will happen on Saturday, and on Monday and Tuesday of next week. And on Thursday 11th April, an islander will be laid to rest who had moved to Toronto, Canada. 

I am led to believe that any person from the island, who has previously indicated that they wish to be laid to rest here, will be conveyed back to Lewis for interment - financial provision has been made for that in the past. 

I would like to extend my sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of those, whose deaths are intimated today - and in the future.

Bragar Cemetery, pic taken in 2007

Heathrow fire

Just my personal opinion regarding the fire at the sub-station that closed Heathrow Airport on Friday.
A transformer went on fire. That basically means it overloaded, the usual safety mechanism, a tripswitch, did not operate so it exploded. As it was bathed in 25,000 litres (6,000 gallons) of cooling oil, this caused that massive fire. 

Many moons ago, I worked in a lab that tested cooling oils. My Dutch readers will be familiar with KEMA. The test involved relative density and conductivity to electrical current. Those who lived closer to the lab than I did at the time (I was 6 miles away) will have been familiar with bangs, resulting from transformers being tested to and beyond their safety limits - to the point where they blew up. 
 
The ramifications at Heathrow were world-wide, and everybody is in a flap over resilience, back-up systems and all the rest. Just check your equipment on a regular basis. Maybe such a simple thing as a bird doing a poo on a switch - and it gets stuck. 

 

Past versus present, versus future

This article on the BBC News website prompted me to write this little discourse. 

 I don't believe in cleansing history, such as removing statues and rewriting of text books. At the time (sic), there was a group of people in America who felt that slavery was acceptable, and they were prepared to fight for it. Do not seek to impose 21st century thinking of 19th century events. But also, do not live in the past. It happened. People like Robert E Lee and Abraham Lincoln lived, and happened. Both sides served to steer the course of history. And it still develops. Future years will see a more dispassionate view of the likes of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. We have to live with them.

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.