Rambling on the bus

“Hello Bloglings” - as Doreen would say.




This morning I watched the clouds build up over Lower Bayble.

Looking for a photo to send Jo about a coffee spot on the way up North I found a whole day of photos I had not edited or used..... Gosh, there is going to be so much catching up to do after this holiday. (Are you allowed to call it a holiday when it's gone on for 2 ½ months? By the time I get home I will have been away for three months.)

Thank you to whoever nominated me for Post of the Day on authorblog. By pure chance I was just in the process of writing the following when the news came through so I nominated Mommazilla - "Mommazilla has just created what I reckon is an Award winning posting. Funny, beautiful, exciting, what more could one ask for. All that and free vomit chucked in (if you'll pardon the expression). "


On his way to catch the plane to the mainland GB dropped me off in Stornoway. I did some shopping and odds and ends and got the bus back.



Playing peep.


I showed some polythene wrapped hay the other day. This is a more traditional way of stacking it while it dries.


It's time for sheep shearing as well.


From the top of Upper Bayble it is possible to appreciate that Bayble Island is actually two separate islands. You can also see the gap when passing on the ferry but otherwise it looks like one island.


I was watching the young Starlings on the peanut feeder and was surprised to see some of them had a blue sheen to their wing and tail feathers. Unfortunately I didn't get a particularly good photo.


Yes, the bird feeder needs filling again. It's been filled twice today so they are going on short rations until tomorrow morning.



It's amazing to think that just 24 hours ago the wind and tides were so strong that the occasional waves were coming over the top of the jetty.


Now its so calm you could play billiards on it.

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Google had a fit...

Google had a fit this morning. First of all it managed to overlay the blog posting with my 'Yet More Blogs' sidebar. Then it failed to post the two items scheduled for midnight on the Rambles and Words blogs. Thank you Adrian for worrying about me - it was good to know my missing post was noticed. It's a bit like the milk bottles piling up outside the front door. Hello, seventeen milk bottles - better check he's still alive and kicking...

Then Google wouldn't let me sign in.


And finally I got this on my comment moderation page for my Memories blog. Not being fluent in whatever far eastern language this is I decided it might be rude or selling something (especially as all five comments were identical!) so they got binned.

All in all a strange start to the morning.


The weather likewise was extraordinary. One minute it was calm with warm sunshine and the next it was pouring down. Then it went sunny with blue skies and green seas and then it went grey again. Then the wind got up. It's like having all the seasons in one in the space of half an hour.


Yesterday the sea was either grey or deep blue. Today it was green and turquoise.


One of the plants I have never been able to grow is Delphiniums. If I manage to get them past the slug food stage then the wind batters them and the flower heads are flattened in no time. Even if I stake them they break off. So when I saw these flowers beginning to come out at GB's I automatically assumed they were Monkshood (Aconitum variegatum) - a much hardier plant. Once fully out I wasn't sure what they were because they weren't hooded but they have white in them and all the Delphiniums I know have dark centres. A visitor to GB's commented that they were Delphiniums and sure enough when I checked that is what they seem to be, some sort of Dwarf Delphinium, despite the white. So I owe Anne an apology (and GB for misleading him).


I managed to write a few blog entries about books I've read recently and I'll schedule those to appear daily on my book blog for the next few days. Its about the only blogging that I find a bit of a chore but it's great to have a record for the future and I wish I'd kept a note of books read from my youth. I wonder what I'd think about those same books nowadays? I bet my views on life, the universe and everything have changed a lot over the years so this must surely have affected my views on what I read and how I feel about it.


And now there's rain on the way.

It's time for bed.... Sleep well, folk.