Weather: Strong winds, bright and clear, slightly warmer.

The sight of a heron flying into the wind yesterday was an extraordinary one. No sooner had it cleared the loch-side rocks and risen above the shelter of the tree canopy it was being forced back. Bravely, it would regain its composure before attempting to make progress again. It was a marvelous sight. These birds are wonderful in flight and its difficulty in the strong winds gave us an extended opportunity to watch it. This morning after a trip in the car to visit to the itinerant fishmonger, on arriving back at the house, we watched as a pair of Barnacle Geese attempted something similar. The wind speed has reduced today but they still struggled to make headway. Glowing in the sunshine, they were a marvelous sight. They are quite large birds and although they are excellent fliers they too like ourselves, were finding the conditions extremely difficult.

The wind has kept us mostly indoors for the past couple of days. As it had dropped, we were keen to get out of the house (without the car) and so walked through the hills to Loch Portain, a peaty inland loch set amongst the hills and marshland of Minish. We noticed a disused cottage on the way back, sadly waterlogged and unloved. Our waste bins were strewn along the roadside and the lid from our mail box was half way across the field. We tidied these up ready to put them into proper use shortly.

The evening was spent at Taigh Chearsabhagh listening to presentations from 2 Hebridean Artists about recent residencies that they had undertaken. Ellis O’Conner had been to Svalbard in the Arctic region, Meg Rodger to Iceland. The presentations were divergent and interesting, and it was good to be part of the varied programme at the Arts Centre.

We left the Taigh Chearsabhagh prior to the commencement of the A.G.M. of the Uist Arts Association.

This morning Gaby, our black cat proudly presented us with another rat that he had whacked.