Thursday, June 23, 2005
Full Moon In June
06/23/2005
The June full moon that last year brought storms and rain; and in 2003 a spell of warm, dry summer, has this year decided on 50/50. From Midnight to midday, it is wet and windy, from Midday to midnight it is warm, clear and dry. Midges only bother us around sunset when any breeze seems to drop for a while. In general, country life seems to be very productive, even if it is a bit annoying to see pics of farmers in Suffolk making hay while our grass is six inches high and very green; however, I do feel that our slower pace promotes wildlife, particularly ground nesting and smaller birds. These chaps are coming back into view now that the first chicks are fledged; we see all the finches, including Bull Finches, Siskines, Thrushes, Blackbirds, Wheatears, Stonechats, snipe and the Skylarks still sing their hearts out when the sun shines. A visitor reported seeing a pair of Divers on the River Trollaigh when he was on the look out for Dippers and Plovers, which are common here. This sighting surprised me as I have never seen them except on isolated hill lochs, but it is possible. We now have good stags in view morning and night, and in the thickets foxes and roe deer. I hope the foxes do not get too cocky, as although we have suffered losses of both chickens and lambs they have been manageable. I have been able to join another seaweed harvest that started in appalling weather, forcing a stop for shelter tucked into the very south end of Luing. I was a little alarmed at the rate that large reefs were springing up around us as the tide fell, however the Skipper’s response was a withering look and to flick the off switch on the depth sounder. By the afternoon conditions improved and we had a few hours work in the salt spray around the north end of Jura. With Wimbledon in the air and Andrew Murray doing so well, Lachie and I have been marking out the Trollaigh court, the site of many a hard fought match. Over the years, many a celebrity has graced the Trollaigh base line from Fred Perry to Robert Plant, but I can just remember Sir Winston Churchill playing my Grandfather, both in splendid white flannel on a scorching Saturday. After a few serves Sir Winston handed his racquet to a junior private secretary and retreated to a shady deck chair, I was allowed to pour him an Ardbeg as he ignited a huge cigar. He then regaled my sisters and I with eye-popping stories about General MacArthur and six Philippino girls while my mother flustered and trumpeted around us. No wonder the general swore that he would return to Manila. Yours Aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Thunder and Lightning, Very Very Frightening.
06/21/2005
We still suffer very mixed weather from prolonged thunder and lightning, torrential rain, heat waves, hill fog, patches of blue sky, and thankfully southerly breezes to allow us some spells of outside work. Yorkshire has taken a battering from flash floods, but most of the rest of the UK from Banff to Bournemouth is having settled summer weather. A phone call even informs me of drinking water shortages on Shropshire. When I have been kept indoors I have been listening to the wireless, as a result, my blood pressure has been rising on news of ridiculous domestic political incompetence and the complete failure of politicians and their civil servants to state an opinion and make decisions. They have fudged everything from banning smoking in public places to charging for the use of plastic bags, “officials” issue bizarre health or climate scares, “experts” challenge each other on air over the most boring and trite nonsense. Roseanna Cunningham a low profile Nat with a high opinion of herself has even proposed the erection of notices to warn recreational land users where floods might occur, beside rivers perhaps. Scottish Water, those stealth tax gatherers have informed me that following an EU directive, not to be enforced in any other EU country, they will be forced against their will to charge me £600 each year to test the drinking water in the Tower of Glen Trollaigh. Yet another executive agency quango, the Care Commission (has anyone heard of them?) have forced the closure of the only rural Children’s Nursery in Argyll, the Care Commission issued a pompous statement hinting that they may have smothered the nursery under regulation and paperwork, but that rural kids needed the same care as urban ones. I do so hope the faceless PhD prats on the commission take note of the services denied to those same kids by other Quangos. The closure of our primary school, loss of out of hours medical cover, loss of a local GP, loss of our Post Bus, lack of safe speed limits or street lighting and also take account of the services soon to be denied the rural kids, local police and postal services. At least some of those kids may grow up to enjoy employment as drinking water testers! Thank goodness, Wimbledon will now fill our screens, to be followed by lots of Golf, self-opinionated commentators try to ruin it all, but at least I can turn the sound down. Yours Aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.