91热爆

What happened to the prevailing wind? You know, that westerly breath of fresh, often too fresh air. Having carefully sited the burger van so it has its back to the blowy stuff, completely by accident, it is now all going wrong. On Saturday there was full, in-your-face, or in-the-hatch stuff, complete with buckets of wet stuff. I had to close the hatch or I might have drowned. It was hardly the right weather for loading wool sacks onto the lorry! Amazingly, after an hour the wind swung right round and there was even a bit on sunshine on Mull. The English might be a bit pre-occupied with the weather, but up here it dominates almost every conversation, and over half the blogs.
I鈥檓 not sure if the Met Office are still promising a cold dry winter, but if anyone wants to buy some water (slightly muddy, only walked in once) give me a call. We鈥檙e not far above sea level, how can it take so long to drain away? Perhaps I鈥檒l start organising mud fights for stag parties.

Sorry, can you bear to hear about more weather. Yup, another gale. You can tell new immigrants to Coll by the way they talk about the wind but Monday really was on the breezy side. I drove home after work with the fences covered in dead grass, looking like tinsel. The house was dark when I got home, not surprising since the electric had gone off. My other half was outside screwing the hen shed door shut. We checked the ropes holding it down and thought it was OK.
Time to inspect the damage the following morning. I used to lie awake at night worrying about the roof, the polytunnel, the hens, but I鈥檝e lain awake through enough gales to know worrying doesn鈥檛 help. So the hens and the shed were OK, no slates off the roof, but the tunnel is now a mangled mess. The trouble is: the polythene is just too strong. If it had torn a bit easier the frame would still be fine. Instead the semi circular hoops now have corners, and the large lumps of cement have moved 20 feet. The hens think Christmas has come early, chomping down the courgettes, kale and cabbages. One end is still fine, and I think some of the hoops are salvageable so it isn鈥檛 quite a case of starting from scratch. At least the wind should blow the bug colonies away.
And on the positive side, our new cooker with gas rings worked so we could have tea without resorting to the camping stove!

The unthinkable has happened in the pub. Not once but twice! Occupying pride of place on the Gannet bar is a barrel of Loch Fyne鈥檚 dark beer, Vital Spark. Last week end we had a barrel of Piper鈥檚 Gold. As some of us expected, the barrel disappeared in two and a half days. The Vital Spark was tapped last night (Thursday), and is probably less than two thirds full now, so I doubt there will be much left by Sunday when I get some time spare. However we have a stash of Fyne Ale glasses so hopefully there will be a steady supply of real beer through the winter.
Some excellent pool was played, but not by the beer drinkers. I don鈥檛 think they could have focussed that well.

Two more barrels, one of Spark and the other Pipers Gold. Ready on Saturday (guess who鈥檚 working Saturday and Sunday!). It鈥檚 going to be even harder to get the pantomime stars out of the pub and down for rehearsal.
Weather update. Sunny and frosty. I can handle this. I should be outside really, dismantling the mangled tunnel frame, but I haven鈥檛 quite finished the pantomime script yet. I think the props may have to include a large amount of torn polythene!

I鈥檝e just had an unexpected trip to the big land to the east. A vague need (desire?) for a 4x4 has been niggling in the background for several weeks but I finally got tired of just looking at Ebay, so in went the bid and we disappeared to the pub while the geeks sit with stop watches and put in last minute bids. Four hours after the auction closed we discovered we were the new owners of a 15 year old Daihatsu. The car was handily located in Edinburgh, handy because half of Coll was going there for the rugby, so a choice of lifts! I stayed with a friend I hadn鈥檛 seen in longer than a very long time and almost got to play with the four wheel drive in the snow. BUT the M8 was crawling along, it took 2 hours to get from Edinburgh to the edge of Glasgow. And by then the snow was gone.
I don鈥檛 understand mainlanders. They wonder how we cope if the ferry misses in extreme weather, and then accept that disruption over an inch of snow. Bonkers! Anyway, I鈥檓 very pleased with the car but if I ever buy another I am not going to fill the back with dirty wet coal and then try to sleep on the front seats, it is too narrow, even for vertically challenged people like me. I鈥檝e never wished to be shorter before in my life!