Well, that’s it, the ‘two weeks on’ is by with and now the work can really begin 
It’s only 19:00 and that will be my second glass of red in over a fortnight, thing is I’ve had em both in quick succession so have got a ‘real glow’ about me Almost the end of November it is and what a spell of weather it’s been up here, sure the first day back was miserable and the second pretty draughty https://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/the-warmest-place-in-britain/ but since then it’s been boodly amazing.
Mornings like the one on the left, days like the centre and evenings like the right being the norm for the best part of a fortnight, I kid you not, I’ve never known a spell like this in late November.
At least not for so long and not with such high temperatures. I didn’t even see the first sign of frost until Sunday morning and that was in a valley that’s renowned for it. Ice being first spotted by myself on Monday whilst walking the dugs.
A wee bit of ‘stiff’ water in an old boat at Suisnish being my first experience of ice this winter. Sure, there has been frost at Sconser and even one or two places on Raasay but Sconser will not see sunshine now until February and there are one or two ‘frost pockets’ here on the island that are notorious.
Not here at Arnish though, just look at the temperatures, I even saw someone cutting their grass the other day!!!
Power chaos
We’ve no had a power cut here at Arnish in thirty years, one of the joys of ‘off grid’ life along with no ‘standing charges’ or utility bills. However Skye and the mainland were not so lucky with a landslide at Invergarry taking out a pylon and causing untold chaos throughout Skye, the Isles and the mainland https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/islands/western-isles/1607699/landslip-on-skye-wipes-out-power-supply-to-thousands-in-the-western-isles/ Just check out the video https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=invergarry%20landslide Anyway, this baby caused mayhem both here, on Skye and beyond, with much of Skye still running off generators even late last week. I had to laugh when we were bunkering Hallaig on Thursday, upon asking the driver how the power outages had affected the oil depot he said ‘you couldn’t make it up’. Half of Skye was running off generators that needed filling twice a day, the fuel depot had no power and SSE were screaming for more fuel
Anyway the glitches sent Hallaig’s electronics a little ‘pear shaped’ too and I’ve spent the best part of my ‘fortnight on’ trying to fix them
The battery charger and its fuses being just a couple of the casualties of the unstable shore power. Luckily I’ve now left that in the capable hands of my ‘back to back’
Like I said, apart from the lack of phone (we have a mobile in the house) and Internet, Sonas wasn’t affected, but in the unlikely event of a lightning strike or other failure we have a back up system in the ‘bunker’ consisting of a 900Ah forklift battery bank and 3kW Outback inverter.
Tomorrow’s project
So, now I’ve bade Hallaig goodbye for a couple of weeks it’s down to my own projects, number 1 being the Isle of Raasay Distillery ‘bug’ which is having an alternator conversion. Next it will be Lachie’s tracked barrow which needs a heater plug (easier said than done) followed by a course in Glasgow on ‘Ship security’ and a trip to see Groove Armada play live for the first time in seven years.
I seen em live a few times and they are awesome, the ‘DJ sets’ are OK and we saw em at Eden and Rockness but live is something else. Yours truly managed to get tickets for a sold out gig at SWG3 https://swg3.tv/ so that’s where I’ll be Friday night ‘Supersylin’ and ‘shakin my arse’
So, that’s it really and I’ll just leave you with some pics I took in-between being buried in the guts of Hallaig
Sun rising in the mirror and moon setting in the windscreen. Beinn Fhadda at the Sconser fish farm.
New fire appliance for Raasay arrives.
Hallaig, Creachan Mor, Speedwell and Lustre at Raasay pier.
Moonset over Braes, sunrise and Goat Island.
A misty Cuillin peak but I have no idea which one 
1000 casks
There may have been chaos with the power outages last week but that did not stop the Isle of Raasay Distillery filling its 1000th cask today
https://www.facebook.com/RaasayDistillery/videos/358545194950986/
Joseph and Iain busy filling number 850 of 2018 today, along with 150 from September last year that’ll be 1000 barrels of Raasay whisky in the making
Poorly wee dug
Molly wearing the ‘collar of shame’, she is not impressed
Life at the end of the road 
