Another Bad Weather Day 13th Jan 2020

The wind howled all night long, and occasionally I could hear Alan’s dogs barking - I don’t think they like the wind even though they have protection and a shelter. As a consequence I got very little sleep and eventually gave up trying and got up. Downstairs I was surprise that it was 7.50am as the world outside was pitch black still. Sunrise is generally around 9.00am but the twilight and golden hour starts much earlier.

To be honest I was feeling a bit down, missing family back home - a little bit of homesickness I thing and at the same time I was telling myself off - as I have been given such a wonderful opportunity for these 4 months I should be making the most of it and not be so ungrateful.

I set about starting a fire and turning on heaters and before long Vince, who I had left in bed asleep surfaced. He opened the curtains and behold a glorious sunrise was commencing. He wanted us to get dressed and get down to the Ballamaqueen Sea Stacks to catch it. Initially I said yes, then I realised it all happens so fast that we would never make it in time, so I suggested we just take it over Pointy Mountain out the front - so that’s what we did. In the howling wind and freezing cold we did our best.

Back inside I restocked the fire, made us some Spurtle Porridge (check out my Vlogg on this) and settled down on the lounge to try to catch up on some of my backlog.

Vince was restless and decided to try to brave it for some shots in Uig and the Faery Glen. He left about 10.30am and returned at 1.30pm - with horror stories of the wind whipping the car keys out of his hand, blowing his beanie away, causing the car to be moving despite the hand break being on and more! So he actually never go to where he intended, taking some shots of the Old Kilmuir Church near us and getting some supplies from Rankins in Uig for dinner.

Whilst he was out I got a delivery from M&S which I had to sign for - our pillows we had ordered. Sad to say they were nothing like the ones we have back home, nowhere near the quality or support, but at least they might help a bit - I hope!

Vince’s brother Ken, had warned us this morning via email that a storm was on it’s way…. It sure was. Storm Brendan hit with a vengeance closing schools, cancelling ferry, closing bridges etc

Western Isles schools closed and ferries cancelled as storm hits

All schools in the Western Isles are closed and many ferry routes cancelled as Storm Brendan sweeps in.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-51079834

(Vince says) - "in the afternoon I’d settled down to watch some YouTube tutorials on my iPhone - but at the start of the second video Mads Peter Iversen was telling me that the biggest mistake people make is ‘Not getting out’ - especially in wild weather - so I put my phone away and grabbed my camera gear and wet weather clothing (which I can now say has been tested thoroughly and works very well). My plan was to get some shots of Duntulm Castle against the moody storm clouds out over the ocean, then try for some long exposure shots down on the rocky beach near the castle - this time using Karen’s mini-tripod to avoid the buffeting wind, but after parking the car near the castle I went down the grassy slope to the rocky beach, thankful that I’d remembered my two walking poles, and then carefully picked my way across the small, wet rocks towards a promising composition I’d spotted from the road. After thirty minutes of struggling with the wind shaking the camera, even though I was shielding it with my body, I was about to give up when the setting sun dropped beneath the storm clouds and cast golden beams of light across the water. I quickly swapped the neutral density filter for the standard UV filter and started shooting the sunset. The golden light disappeared within a few short minutes, but in that time I managed to snatch a couple of nice photos and I got to experience both an exceptionally beautiful and stormy sunset; and the value of Iversen’s advice to go out and shoot."

I made some gammon steaks with pineapple and veggies for tea and we settled down in our little “couch nest” with our Skye Skyns rug in front of the fire to watch “You’ve Got Mail”. However, we suddenly found ourselves in the dark as the power went out. A bit of a search for some candles and my light-painting torch gave us enough light to get ourselves off to bed - without a shower or hot water bottle tonight!

We had to snuggle up close as the storm raged around us in our little croft house.