Take The Weather With You........

The longer I am here the more I like being here. Every day I wake up and can't wait to look through the window to see what kind of day greets me. I even look through the window in the dead of night just in case something interesting is happening in the sky. I keep waiting for the time when I look into the night sky and quote the line from Local Hero when McIntyre says "It's amazing. I wish you could see it! I wish I could describe it to you like I'm seeing it!"

We've had reports about the northern lights and one night we stared at the sky for ages watching a weird pattern waving and dancing around. It wasn't as colourful or as startling as everyone tells us the northern lights are but it was definitely a strange and wonderful glow stretching and wavering around and across the horizon. The following day we saw photographs of a glorious light show of aurora borealis from the same part of the sky as we had been watching, we just hadn't stayed up til after 2am to watch them growing more and more colourful.

The lights I didn't see on 30th August
58º Degrees North Photography managed it, though!

We have plenty of time to see them I'm sure and in the meantime I shall just peak through the blackout curtains at 2am to see what I can see stretching out over the Atlantic.

I have never seen The Milky Way looking as milky and three dimensional as I have from the croft - even with our street lighting!! Yes, we have street lighting. I keep threatening to ping the bulb right outside the house with a catapult so that I can see the night sky without a neon light glow polluting the darkness. They go off shortly after midnight so I have managed to be a sky and star gazer a few times, few being the operative word. There are very few clear, cloudless nights but when they come BAM! it's a visual overload with the constellations looking as if they've been specially picked out and given an extra polish to be extra shiny and clear. We're so fortunate to be able to experience it.

And, like all the other islanders, I'm becoming obsessed with the weather. This is a totally pointless exercise as the weather never ever does what you think it's going to. It never does what the Met Office tells us it's going to do. The weather can only be predicted if you talk about yesterday's weather.Everyone knows what yesterday's weather was like and in case you missed it you will be told what it was like. You will also be told that they knew what it was going to be like. 

Watching the storm through the kitchen window

The yardarm has now passed the equinox and the nights have stopped creeping in slowly and surreptitiously and they now land with a bang when you're not expecting it. One minute you're washing the dishes and counting the Greylag Geese in the croft and the next minute the deep navy blue sky has encased your view and reminded you how close to winter the islands are. And the clocks haven't even gone back yet! It will be dark by 6pm in a few weeks time.

How will I deal with days and days of back to back dismal weather and dark and dreary nights? Probably by being completely overwhelmed by the beauty of the sunshiny light whenever it appears, no matter how briefly. Only last week the wind dropped in the exact same proportions that the sun shone. We had the brightest turquoise skies, the whitest, whispiest clouds and the breathtaking site of a magnificent sea eagle spiraling upwards in a thermal above the croft. I've never seen such a fine example of why it's called the white-tailed sea eagle. All from my front doorstep when I was bringing the bins in!

No eagles but clouds of whispiest white in a blue October sky.

I'm very lucky and feel exhilarated every single day by something I see or something I hear. It was definitely  A Good Day the day the decision to move here was made.