Why no blogs?

Once again apologies for long overdue blogs! Last week I wasn't rostered any shifts but ended up working 5 days due to staff sickness.

We have had some very cold, wet and windy weather but today has dawned clear so I am hoping to get out in the garden to do some tidying up and plant out some wallflowers that should have been planted out months ago. The council decided that for a trial the clocks would not be put back this autumn which means that the mornings are now very dark It has not been popular with many people but I appreciate having the lighter afternoons.

Sunrise at Surf Bay in early April

Our church coordinator, who usually takes a lot of the services, has been away for medical treatment since early March and is not likely to be back before July so I have been taking extra services and the preparation takes me ages.

For the family service in April we went through the Easter story and built a garden to illustrate it.

We have continued to get away for the weekend about once a month with friends and are going to Walker Creek this coming weekend. This may be our last trip as the off- road tracks are getting very wet and many of the houses are now closed up for the winter.

I have been looking after a neighbour's hens while they are on leave and also someone else's hens and cat and walking a dog when the friend who was caring for them was ill.

That friend has just rung to ask if I would like to take her and the dog somewhere for a walk this morning so the best laid plans etc!


Sunset over the harbour in early April

Leopard Seal

Last weekend we stayed at Walker Creek settlement and on Sunday drove to a sandy beach called Seal Cove. From there Simon and I walked along the rocky coast and were surprised and delighted to find this young leopard seal resting on the rocks.

These are the rarest seals here and this is the first one we have seen - I had almost given up hope of seeing one.

It had probably swum up from Antarctica or South Georgia and was exhausted hence we were able to get quite close to it.

They can be very fierce and in the past have tended to be shot when found on beaches. Their hides were prized by makers of horse gear

They have a sinister, rather reptilian shaped head and enormous mouth and sharp teeth.


A female research diver was killed by one a few years ago in Antartica.

Apologies

Where does time go?

Apologies are well overdue for the lack of blogs and I am afraid it is not likely to get much better!

We have been trying to make the most of our last summer here so have been trying to get out and about as much as possible. This has resulted in thousands of photos being taken but little time to sort and edit them or to write blogs.

Since Christmas we have had stayed with friends at Fanny Cove House, Cattle Point House and Walker Creek (all self catering and in different parts of Lafonia) and done lots of exploration of different parts of the coastline.
We have also camped at Cape Dolphin and Fanning Head and spent 3 nights camping on Saunders Island as well as various day trips with the ramblers.

In three days time we are heading to Chile to go hiking in Torres del Paine national park, hoping to do a 10 day circular walk. In preparation for this I have done several local walks carrying a backpack of increasing weight. It is quite worrying how much what seems like essentials actually weigh. I will shortly be cutting the small bar of soap in half again but have not yet sawn the handle off my toothbrush!

We have had some exceptionally hot and dry weather which has been great for getting out and about but not so good for the garden and quite a few of my flower plants have died. However I still managed to win several prizes in the horticultural show, mostly with vegetables.

It has now turned cold and wet and the days are getting much shorter.

Simon has been very busy at work as his boss has been away but is back today. It has also been very busy at the hospital and we have several staff sick so I have also been busy with 2 extra shifts this week.

Catching up (a little!)

A lot seems to have happened since I last blogged and I will try to fill you in a bit, although it is hard to remember everything.

Despite having a recurrent infection I have made a good recovery from my operation and did my first shift back at work last week. I also started swimming again. Sitting and walking are much more comfortable now than before the surgery.

When I went for a walk round Engineer's Point on Dec 11th one of the hawk chicks had died but the other 2 had moved out of the nest (see Nov 30th blog) and were on a ledge where they were much more visible which was quite exciting.

The parents were both nearby and keeping a close watch. This is the female.

Unfortunately a couple of days we had some severe storms with gales up to 90 miles an hour and heavy hail so I doubt that the chicks survived. This also left my garden looking very battered and blackened but most things that survived have recovered reasonably well. Apparently in December there were gales on 9 days, although 27 days had gusts in excess of 33 knots, 6 days when snow fell and 12 days with hail and the rainfall was well above average!

The rockhopper penguins and imperial shags on Sealion had all their nests and chicks washed away by waves despite being situated above cliffs which are 80 feet high.

I took these photos during our visit there in October. Even the boulders surrounding this memorial to HMS Sheffield were moved by the waves.

When I walked up Cape Pembroke last week I noticed that only one pair of rock shags in the colony had young in their nest and I have not seen any fledged immature birds so I presume that they were mostly washed away. Some of the adults seemed to be incubating a new clutch of eggs but I don't know if it is too late in the season for them to be successful.

There has been an interesting vessel, the Polarcus, coming into the harbour occasionally recently. It is a 3D seismic survey vessel which is being used in the oil exploration. It has 2 smaller boats which work with it.


One day while walking near Gypsy Cove I came across a pair of Magellanic snipe. They must have had chicks somewhere amongst the diddle-dee and ferns as they were doing their utmost to distract me but they were well hidden as I was not able to spot them.

Battle Day

Last Wednesday (Dec 8th) was a public holiday for Battle Day. Before we moved here I never had any idea that the Falkland Islands were involved in the first world war.

After the British were defeated off the coast of Chile on November 1st 1914 they sent a large force to track down and destroy the German squadron of 8 vessels which were responsible.

The British force of 7 vessels arrived in Stanley the day before the German force arrived to attack the British navy supply base here. In the Battle for the Falkland Islands on 8th December 1914 all but 2 of the German ships were sunk.

There is a memorial commemorating this on the sea front in West Stanley.

On Battle Day each year there is a service in the cathedral attended by military representatives and local dignitaries, including the governor. This is followed by a parade with military band to the memorial where prayers are said and wreaths laid.

These are representatives of the Falkland Islands defence force.

The governor inspected the troops at the memorial. We have recently had a new governor with , presumably, a new set of uniform. During the ceremony some of the red feathers blew out of his hat. I wonder how they are fastened in anyway!

Local organisations like the sea cadets, cubs and brownies (who dress in red) also attend.

Simon went windsurfing and tacked his way up the harbour as far as the memorial but he didn't land. The naval vessel, the Clyde, was also in for the celebration.

Paul and Lesley Evans who are visiting our church here came to have lunch with us then in the afternoon we took them to see the lighthouse at Cape Pembroke.

There was a young elephant seal on the rocks below the lighthouse.

Stormy weather

We have been having a lot of cold, wet and windy weather recently with hail and sleet showers (this is meant to be summer!).

On Saturday afternoon Simon and I went for a short walk from the end of Surf Bay towards Cape Pembroke. It was so windy that I kept being blown sideways but was very dramatic and exhilerating (except during the hail squalls).

There is a colony of rock shags nesting on a small cliff to one side of a gulch near where these pictures were taken and as the waves crashed into the gulch they were getting deluged with spray and didn't look at all happy.


The waves were crashing onto the coast sending up huge plumes of spray (not really good for the camera).


The small bays were filled with a thick white foam which covered the rocks and pebble beaches like soft white icing and was being blown inland. I suspect that alginates from the kelp along the coast get mixed with the sea water to form the foam.

This photo is looking back towards Surf Bay.

This week

Tuesday was definitely the best day of the week. Since then it has been very cold and windy with heavy squalls of rain, sleet and hail and is forecast to continue the same for another week. As I write it is raining torrentially and just before this squall arrived there was a bright rainbow over the harbour.On Wednesday I went for a walk at Cape Pembroke. Well actually I got blown down the Cape and battled my way back against the wind. There are some interesting dunes with exposed layers of sand and peat. I'm not sure how they form but maybe different things get blown at different times depending on the direction of the wind.


Near the headland there is a lot of dense kelp and it all swirls around with the waves in the inlets between the rocks looking quite sinister. You can almost imagine yourself watching some science fiction film and getting drawn into it! It certainly isn't much fun if you get tangled up in it when windsurfing.


Yesterday I went to Surf Bay and found that almost the whole beach had become a lagoon, which the wading birds were enjoying. I suppose it was a combination of a high tide and the wind direction. I have been very surprised how much the beach changes since we have been here, with several feet of sand being washed away at times.