Monday, October 25, 2004

Big bad wind

"Hear it howlin' around my kitchen door..."
...or in this case, the door of the BBC studios in Lerwick. A really nasty day, thick with grey soupy rain, all of which is moving fast, if somewhat lumpily. Winter is here.
Still, the weekend was autumnally beautiful, as can happen in Shetland. Saturday, James and me were to be found toiling, velocipedally, up the Eshaness road in the early evening, James (13) taking tremendous pleasure in the fact that I was in the bottom of 27 gears and he was still on the big chainring and finding it all very easy indeed. Top of the hill, as ever, the Eshaness peninsula opened up, along with a salmon-pink, forgot-my-camera-again sunset. The freewheel home into the gathering dusk was magical.
Sunday saw me walking the ageing but still willing Quoyle (black labrador) onto the Ness of Hillswick, in bright, still but cold conditions. The ground is already soaking wet, which doesn't bode well for the winter. And it's set to get wetter.
Bad news today about the "paper plane", the Highland Airways Cessna which delieverd the daily papers. It crashed over the weekend on the way back from Stornoway, killing the pilot, Tim, who was a regular on the Shetland run, and sadly, both about to leave for a new job and to get married. Have a look at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3950245.stm
I was on the same aircraft just a fortnight ago, though not with Tim flying, and had a delightful trip from Shetland to Inverness. Curiously, I always feel less vulnerable on small aeroplanes than I do on larger ones.

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