Sunday 29/04/07

Another sunny day. A Metcheck reporter tells us that temperatures in Dunvegan, Skye, have reached 20C. Here in Stornoway we’re at 15C. We have lunch in the sun outside, with a cool, easterly breeze off the Minch. I clear up round the backyard after which I siphon a winter’s worth of rainfall out of one of the canoes. It does get warm in the sun, bees are buzzing, starlings and sparrows chatter in the bushes. Mrs B daydreams about a garden paradise. Go round to Goat Island to find a cargoship tied up along pier no 3, the ferry pier. MV Kielder is registered in Douglas, Isle of Man, presumably with a cargo of coal. Went to the Goat Island jetty across a foul-smelling slipway. The Inner Harbour is full of boats today. Mrs B's 3rd son and his wife organise a barbeque for their kids in the backyard, for their children and associated pals. They once again go into the Newton Basin with their canoes. Supper is a ready meal, after which we light a fire with cut-offs from one of the bushes.