Moon Dog

We're experiencing interestingly changeable weather.  This is the view on Boxing Day, from the hills to the east of Glendrian looking northwards, the landscape dominated by Sgurr na Gabhar, the rocky peak of the goat.  The bright weather was brought by a friendly northerly wind, always our best direction for fine weather.  Not that it was warm - the temperature at the time struggled to climb above 3C.

By yesterday the wind had swung round into the southeast, but the temperature, far from improving, seemed all the more bitter because of the rising wind.  For most of the morning the hills were obscured by low cloud but, with sleet falling at sea level, we were fully expecting to see snow on the hilltops.  The cloud finally lifted after lunch, and occasional breaks of watery sunshine followed.  This view looks across Kilchoan village to the forested slopes of Beinn nan Losgann, the hill of the frog....

....and this looks across the houses of Pier Road to the ridge called Beinn na h-Urchrach, the hill of the chase.

Overnight a moon working its way towards full, shining through ice crystals high in the atmosphere, created a ring sometimes called a moon dog - picture taken at about 11.00pm.  The Diary is still struggling with the wonders of the new camera, so the photo doesn't do justice to the moon dog, and certainly doesn't show the delicate rainbow colours in the halo which surrounded the moon itself.  Few stars were showing, even though the sky was clear of cloud, the only one visible in the photo being Jupiter, still standing in the constellation of Taurus.

Overnight it rained heavily, some 17mm in all, and the wind continued to work its way round and rise until, by morning, it was blowing a near gale from the southwest.  The forecast is for the wind to continue to build and swing westerly until, around midnight, we're expected to be enjoying a full gale.  We have a bit of a lull tomorrow lunchtime, after which the wind is working itself up into another full gale on Sunday.