To fly or not to fly? - that is the question

Heavy snow showers have continued over the past few days, although there have been some intervals of thawing leading to avalanches of snow sliding off roofs.
The airbridge flight due in this afternoon apparently took off from Ascension Island this morning but because of bad weather later turned back. The passengers who have been waiting on Ascension for the past 3 days must have been wondering if they would ever get here!
Anyway the latest news is that it is coming but won't be here until late tonight Our flight which should have left early tomorrow morning will now leave mid-afternoon. (At least that is what they are saying at the moment. You never can be certain). We are catching the bus which goes up to the airport and should be picked up about 11am. At least we don't have to be ready for 5:30am now but it will be very late by the time we get to Ascension.
As our steps were completely buried I decided to clear them this morning to make it a bit easier to get down with our cases and bags. Wherever I exposed a few blades of grass the geese have been busy pulling them out. I guess they have got quite hungry this week.
In fact we have had some nice sunny spells during the day and quite a bit of the snow has melted, although there is still plenty.

Triathalon cancelled and more snowy tales

The triathalon which we were meant to be taking part in on Sunday was cancelled due to the weather as we had snow on Saturday which froze hard overnight and the roads were very icy. This is the main road past our turning on Sunday morning and it was very slippery.
However I enjoyed getting out for an early morning walk, heading eastwards along the edge of the harbour, just after the sun rose.Taking photos was tricky as my hands were numb in seconds after taking my gloves off, although it warmed up quite a bit while I was out.
This is a carancho or Southern caracara, a rather shy bird of prey. We don't usually see them around here but there was one about a couple of weeks ago, so I guess it is probably the same one.
These are kelp geese. The male is white and the females dark. They are usually seen in pairs or small groups whereas the upland geese are often in quite big flocks.
I had not been home long before it was snowing hard again.
In fact it has continued on and off since so is now really quite deep and there are big drifts. I have walked to work the past 2 days and was glad of my ski goggles this morning as there was a blizzard. Many roads are closed and I heard on the radio earlier that they have stopped spreading salt and grit because there is too much snow on the roads.

The plane which was due in yesterday was cancelled so we still have our visitor with us. Incoming passengers were left on Ascension Island and the plane returned to UK. We are hoping that Thursday's flight will get here as we are due to leave on it on Friday. It will be very crowded as it will take today's passengers as well.

bits and bobs

There have been lots of things I have meant to put on here but have now forgotten most of them!
I am still working on the district until Friday and then I have few days on the ward before we go on leave on 31st July. We will be spending 4 nights on Ascension Island on our way back to UK and I am really looking forward to the chance to relax and enjoy some sunshine. Then our time in UK will probably be quite busy visiting everyone, shopping etc.

Today is very wet and cold and there is snow forecast. Simon was disappointed that the shops had sold out of sledges when we had the last batch of snow. We drove out to Cape Pembroke yesterday afternoon and it was the wettest we had ever seen it. Simon enjoyed the challenge of driving through deep water and finding a route between bogs and sand dunes. This is the main track out there.
On Saturday morning we had a trip to the Common and collected 12 sacks of horse manure ( the horses are back there now for the winter). I am hoping to collect quite a bit more before we go on holiday but may not have the time. I borrowed an angle grinder and cut up the old sheets of corrugated iron to go around the bottom of the fence around my vegetable patch but have not finished screwing them up yet. I built a second rockery but there is likely to be a third at some point as I am still finding lots of rocks.

The earwig population has decreased although there are still some around. However mice then moved into the polytunnel, nibbling holes through the bottom of the plastic to get in. I have trapped 4 but suspect there are more.

At Easter one of the shops opened a big new supermarket to replace their old and cramped store. It is much easier to get around with wide aisles and a bigger range of products. The biggest attraction for all the children was the fact that it has Stanley's first automatic doors. There was a bit of a price war between them and the other main shop but it didn't seem to last long. The other interesting shopping experience a few months ago was when the co-op were selling off old remaining stock having closed down last year before we arrived. You could just make an offer for much of the stuff or pay £10 for a mixed box or basket. Their stock control was obviously rather lacking as there were huge quantities of some things like out of date spices (in fact most things were out of date but some by several years), safety pins and clothes pegs. So we now have a lifetime supply of wooden pegs, washing up sponges and paper petit-four cases. Also several tins of lemons for making marmalade.

In fact I have cooked one pan of marmalade and by adding some orange peels it was not too bad, although not as nice as my usual. The garden centre were selling off green tomatoes at only 50p a kilo at the end of the season so I made some nice chutney to replenish the store cupboard.
There were some very large cypress trees growing right next to the cathedral but they were damaging the foundations and blocking the light from the windows so they were cut down a few weeks ago. It does seem a shame to cut down trees in a place where there are so few but they were definitely in the wrong place and it is nice to be able to see the building. This picture was taken when we were walking on the other side of the harbour recently.
The Stanley triathalon takes place next Sunday and one of the nurses I work with wanted to enter so Simon and I and another person are making up a team with her. Simon is taking it very seriously and has been training. I can only swim and cycle slowly and can't run at all so will have to walk my bit. Each team of 4 complete an Olympic triathalon between them, doing it like a relay, first swimming, then cycling then running.

Port Stanley Solar System Sculpture

This is an unusual and interesting piece of art which was designed and made locally from retrieved metals. The sun is an old metal bouy 139cm in diameter and is situated on the edge of the harbour near the battle memorial for the first world war.
On a band around the sun are scale models of all the planets, but there are also models of the planets in different places, all to a scale of 1:1,000,000,000. The sun can be seen from all the planets, although you need binoculars for some. Pluto is 5,900m away on top of Tumbledown and is only 0.23cm in diameter. Fortunately they are all attached to plinths otherwise they would be impossible to find!
We had previously visited all but 2 of the planets and on Sunday we saw the remaining 2 (Jupiter and Saturn). It really gives you new insight into the distances and scale of it all. Apparently on this scale the nearest star would be 40,000km away.

July ramble - The Camber

On Sunday we went out with the ramblers. It was a calm, sunny day but quite cold as there had been a sharp frost the night before. The puddles and ponds all had ice on which remained all day.
We drove to Moody Brook which is at the Western end of the harbour. The brook which enters the harbour here passes through a small reservoir which provides the town's water supply.
We then walked up to Wireless Ridge (scene of fighting during the conflict) and took a detour westwards to view neptune in the solar system sculpture. We then headed eastwards along the rocky ridge. The ground is very boggy in places and extremely uneven with tussacky whitegrass, diddle-dee and ferns so walking is quite tiring. This is a long promontary of land forming the northern side of the harbour to the west of The Narrows.

We passed uranus and saturn before heading down to the shore at Fairy Cove where there is the remains of an old jetty. Apparently there used to be a smallpox isolation hospital there in the days when sailing ships that had come round Cape Horn would come into Stanley for repairs or restocking. Near here we saw the model of jupiter.

Along the hillside are the names of various navy ships which have served in the area. These are spelled out in white painted rocks and you can see them from Stanley looking across the harbour.
Our leader says the first one - Baracouta was written by sailors in 1896. Some are more recent protector vessels. We ate our picnic sitting on some of the rocks but soon got quite cold and were pleased to get walking again, following the track along near the shore until we reached The Camber. This is directly across the harbour from where we live, and the site of a naval base for many years.
There is an enclosed stone walled harbour where the boats used to come for refuelling, originally from large coal stores and later from 2 huge oil storage tanks.

The group leader used to live out here and her husband who was employed by the navy as a caretaker used to go inside the tanks to clean them. Simon found a small open port in the back of one of the tanks and if you shouted into it the noise echoed round and round inside for about a minute.
There is a reservoir next to the tanks storing water for the fire engine in case of fire and large pipes and taps which presumably controlled the flow of oil.
This old stone building was built by Italian masons and houses the pumps for warming and moving the fuel. There are very few stone buildings here.
After we left the harbour the rest of the group returned to the cars but Simon and I continued on to the end of the promontory (known as Navy Point). There is a beacon here marking the entrance to the harbour and it is just across The Narrows from Engineers Point.
There were lots of rock shags at the point and a good view across the harbour to our part of town.
We then walked along the ridge for a while, looking down over the area where many of the British soldiers were accomodated after the conflict (apparently nick-named portacabinopolis).
As dusk was approaching we then walked briskly back along the track to our car. The track runs along the course of an old railway line and in places you can still see sleepers. The 24 inch gauge railway was built around 1915 to carry coal from The Camber to Moody Brook where there was a wireless station. A steam engine powered a dynamo that produced the large spark that was required. The carriages of the train were fitted with a mast and sail and utilised the westerly wind to propel them back to the Camber. When someone told me this I wasn't sure whether to believe them but I have now seen an old photo of one of them!

Lunacy

Yesterday we received our 'certificates of lunacy', signed by the governor, and stating that on June 20th 2009 we "endured the icy waters of Surf Bay, displaying the brave heart and unsound mind of a true South West Atlantic Midwinter Swimmer."

Much more admiration is due an Argentine man who in April became the third person to swim Falkland Sound (the straits between East and West Falkland). Sergio Salomone is an experienced long distance swimmer who specialises in cold water swimming (he was not wearing a wet suit). He said he wanted to swim the Sound because of the unique conditions - large waves, cold water and strong winds. The water was colder than he expected so he had to swim fast and completed it in one and a half hours (approximately 5km at the narrowest point). He was accompanied by dolphins for part of the way and described the rough crossing as like being on a roller coaster.

Winter

The day after the swim winter really arrived with heavy snow showers, although there were sunny intervals between them. It was quite strange to see the beach and dunes at Surf Bay covered in snow!
Blizzards continued throughout the week and, combined with some hard frosts at night, made for some very slippery conditions.
There are designated 'ice routes' through town, but even these received only minimal salting, gritting and clearing so were still tricky to travel on. All the steep hills in town were closed to traffic but appreciated by the children for sledging on.Many people said it was the most snow they had had for several years. As I had just started working as a district nurse it made getting around particularly challenging.
A thaw set in after a week and most of the snow disappeared quite quickly although there are still a few patches where it had drifted deeply.

At the anglican cathedral there was a midwinter fair, a fire-work display (I was working but Simon thoroughly enjoyed it) and a christdingle service. There were also coloured lights switched on all along the main street in town, making it feel like Christmas!

South-west Atlantic midwinter swim

The midwinter swim took place 2 weeks ago, on the day before the shortest day of the year. Since then I have been working as a district nurse while the usual one is away on study leave and have had even less free time than usual.Simon decided he would join me in the swim. There were lots of people gathered at Surf Bay with 347 taking part in the swim and lots of spectators. Amazingly the sun shone, there was little wind and the waves were small. (You could almost imagine you were on a tropical beach if you tried hard!). There were even some dolphins swimming in the bay.
Some brave souls stripped off well before the event but I waited until the last minute. Some people were in fancy dress and there were quite a few men in bikinis. The ambulance was on hand and the search and rescue helicopter overhead but fortunately neither were needed.
As the countdown took place and the start was sounded people rushed into the sea but we were well to the back of the crowds. The water was not as cold as I expected it to be, even when putting your head right under water, but I wouldn't have wanted to stay in for too long. However my feet did get very cold on the sand.

There were some fires in oil drums on the beach and Simon found himself a cosy spot by one of them to get changed afterwards. It was good to have been able to take part in a truly Falklands event and to have the T shirt to prove it.