DALBEG BEACH, LEWIS


There are lots of lovely beaches to choose from on Lewis and Harris. This is one of my favourites. Even in mid Winter, it's a glorious place to visit, especially during fierce storms, when the waves boil and come crashing in from the sea. It's small, reasonably sheltered and has fine golden sand which is great for children to play on. It's only a few miles from here and I plan to take my grandaughter there to build sandcastles when she arrives in a couple of weeks, if the weather is good.

Oh the weather. I've spent the last week or two fantasising about being marooned by fifteen foot of snow, unable to get out and go to work. House cosy, stove chugging away and food in the fridge. Curled up on the sofa with one of the many unread books here and occasional flicking of the remote control to move between repeats of Sherlock Holmes, Midsomer Murders and Pie in the Sky on daytime TV. Friends have sent photos of cars and gardens in the South which have been completely engulfed by snow. So where is it then? Well,It's not here. I feel completely cheated because all we've had are a few flurries during the last few days, none of which has settled. It's quite cold and icy, but no worse than usual at this time of year and I'm really cheesed off about it.

Did the house survive the housewarming ? It certainly did. Sadly, no one behaved badly, so relatively little to report back. Lots of food, music, wine and games. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the last few guests didn't leave until 4am on Sunday morning. Have lived alone so long that I've almost forgotten how nice it is to have a house full of people making merry. Think I might repeat the event in the Spring.

Last blog, I mentioned the dispute going on between the Harris golf club and Sports Scotland, who are withholding a £75,000 grant because the club was refusing to open on Sundays. Since then, the club committee have met again and confirmed that they will not agree to make the course available to the public on the Sabbath under any circumstances and it now looks as if they may lose the grant. I do love to hear of a principled stance.

This morning, about 9 o'clock, I was sat eating my breakfast and musing about the future of the world, the true meaning of life and how stupid I am to have forgotten to buy a new bag of coffee yesterday. Looking out of the window in between these great thoughts, a buzzard arrived and perched on a fence post about a hundred yards away. This bird often hunts on the croft, moving from post to post and ruined house gable end to rocky outcrop, in a regular circuit. It usually spends up to half an hour on one perch, but today, this buzzard has remained on the same post for about five hours without moving. I've been watching it all morning, so am quite sure that it hasn't flown away and returned. The weather today is dry, windless and about 4 degrees. Any ideas why it stayed in the same place for so long?