Gordon Gets a Transfer

For sixteen and a half years Gordon MacKenzie has driven the daily Shiel Bus service from Kilchoan to Fort William and back, leaving from the Ferry Stores at 7.50am, or thereabouts, and arriving back at some time after 3.30pm depending on how many messages there were to deliver and whether he had to go down to Kilmory or not.

He's done his job with infinite patience and great good humour.  He's also done many of us many favours, from collecting things from Fort William to making deliveries - such as punctured tyres to Shiel Garage.

We've had many memorable trips with him, like the one shown in this picture when we'd been to Jamaica on a holiday which was delayed for three days by an Icelandic ash cloud.  As usual, we'd asked what had happened in the village during our absence, to be told, as usual, "Not much".

All this good cheer and goodwill has earned him a rich reward: he's been appointed to the new Adelphi distillery at Glenbeg.  Gordon plays for Kilchoan FC, so he already has an association with the distiller through the team strip.  For a man who enjoys both football and a dram, his new job must be nothing short of a transfer to heaven.

Bullfinch

Following the Raptor's claim to have seen, and even photographed bullfinches on Ardnamurchan, Mavis Scott sends the Diary this lovely picture of a female enjoying a meal of daisies during their holiday in Glenborrodale in June 2013.  She also claims to have seen a male near Salen.

The Diary is beginning to wonder why it's only other people who see this spectacular little bird.

Many thanks to Mavis Scott for the photo.

The Search for an Aurora

These are both worrying times for those of us who would love to see the northern lights.  It's not that we haven't ever seen them - we were lucky enough to experience a dazzling display here about twelve years or so ago, when the whole sky was filled with curtains of moving light.  It's just that, for those of us who are getting old, and know that the aurora is at its peak with the present maximum sunspot activity, which only happens every eleven years or so, we'd like to see them one more time.

Part of the problem has been the rotten aurora-watching weather, with clouds firmly across the sky whenever there's been an alert - which there was again last night.  The other is that we are very dependent on the aurora forecasting sites.  The one above is the record over the last 24 hours from Aurorawatch, based at the University of Lancaster.  At one time they kept a magnetometer in Scotland, which gave predictions which were fairly accurate for us, but since they moved their activities to Lancaster their predictions have been less useful.

Recently, however, the website Cumbernauld Weather, working with Aurorawatch, has developed a magnetometer and has put its readings on line.  The above display shows their readings for the same period and, as can be seen, they're very different.  This makes one realise that the aurora is a very localised phenomenon, and that one's chances of seeing it are based on a willingness, on any clear night, to go out frequently and have a look.

To help to overcome the problem, we've set up a local group who are alerted when there's a warning.  Our most valuable members are those who live on the north coast, who have the best chance of seeing the northern lights.

A broader prediction is provided by sites like this one, at the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, here.  Last night it showed a '4', with the green line, the southern limit of visible aurora activity, well down over northern Scotland.

There's plenty of choice of sites.  Another interesting one is TESIS, whose data is based on instruments developed by the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, and launched aboard the Russian spacecraft CORONAS-PHOTON in January 30, 2009.  Their results for the last 24 hours are shown above.

We're running out of time.  With the day lengthening, with auroras very difficult to see during the short summer nights, and with sunspot activity falling away by next winter, it's possibly a case of now or never.

A Butting Problem

We had just under 27mm of rain between 8.00am yesterday and the same time this morning, and the early part of last night saw a near gale in the enclosed waters of the Sound.

Everything is absolutely saturated.  Trees appear to be growing out of lakes, fields are flooded, roads are knee-deep in water...,

....and our vegetable gardens are more like swimming pools.  This cabbage, with its roots permanently saturated, hasn't grown in two months.

Unlike many of you who live on flatter lands or flood plains, we're lucky that most surface water here drains away quickly.  A burn that is a raging torrent one minute can be down to its normal level in a few hours.  However, the effects of weeks and weeks on unremitting grey skies and dampness have more subtle effects, both on people and their animals.

For example, a serious outbreak of butting has broken out amongst the local tups.  The gentleman in this field has turned so cantankerous that owner Nan MacLachlan has had a special notice commissioned warning passers by not to enter his field and, if they really have to, not to turn their back on him.

He's not alone.  Two other crofters have reported similar problems with tups which, until recently, never caused any problem.  It may be that they, like the local humans, are cordially fed up with the weather and are inclined to take their frustrations out on anything that's not on the lookout.
 

Not that it's all grey skies.  This afternoon we enjoyed a brief clearance which was accompanied by some spectacular rainbows, with weather that reminded us of October with its sunshine and sudden, sharp showers.  The forecast is for a continuation of these strong westerlies.

Match of the Decade

Forget the Olympics, there's a feast of international-standard football coming up next weekend when Kilchoan Ladies take on Uist Ladies in that Mecca of sport, Mallaig.

Saturday 1st March

12:30 kick off

The astro pitch, Mallaig High School. 

Clachain Inn afterwards for refreshments.

Picture above shows Kilchoan beating Coll back in July 2012.