Hail

An exceptionally heavy hail shower woke us around half past three this morning.  The land was still white with it when we first got up but by midday most had melted away, except on the higher tops.  We walked down to the bay below the house to enjoy some of the sunshine, with not a breath of breeze to disturb the surface of the sea.

Looking up to the back of the beach, the hills where we walked on Christmas Day were dusted with what looked like icing sugar.  Huge amounts of kelp and other seaweeds cover the beach from recent storms, offering rich pickings to some of the croft sheep and to....

....a number of small birds, including pipits, dunnocks and this lonely grey wagtail.

Clouds and low mist have come and gone all day.  When the wind finally woke it set itself in the north and the temperature, which had struggled to 6C at midday, began to fall.  We're hoping the clouds will clear later as there were aurora events last night.