Yet another bolshie ovine Saturday

The chief forecaster of the Met Office was suggesting on the Today programme yesterday that we might see something of an improvement in conditions as this next week goes on, in that although it’s going to carry on being wet, it will be more the usual sort of February wet, not the horrendous Atlantic gales of the past fortnight.

We must hope that he’s right, as last night and this morning was another furious sheep event (it was wild and woolly)

/no

Sorry.

As before, we managed a brisk walk round the marina this morning in the dry spell between the overnight rain and the next lot that arrived at lunchtime. Apart from that, we’ve been lurking in the boat, catching up on emails, struggling with the giant general knowledge crossword in the Indy and watching yet another episode of the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries.

This one was Dead Water, originally set in the West Country in the book, but transferred to the Argyll coast for the TV episode. We spent a bit of time during our half time tea making break speculating as to why the move. Possibly it was just because the scenery there was less encumbered with evidences of the 20th century, maybe because they had a lot of stock Scots actors on contract. And they used a lot of stock Scots actors; anyone familiar with Taggart would go “that’s so and so and that’s whatshisname…”

Sheila spotted that the location was indeed another stock character, Plockton, as used in Hamish MacBeth. So there's a real tough TV trivia question for you:

"Which Scots village links Patrick Malahide and Robert Carlyle?"

As it happens we last holidayed in Plockton just as they were shooting the final series of Hamish Macbeth, so I’ve stood right next to Robert Carlyle in a bar, so there. He’s just like you’d expect and very pleasant with it.

Finally, to come back to the subject of the weather: the waterways will have suffered an awful lot as a result of the floods, especially the Kennet and Avon and the South Oxford, so CRT have launched an emergency appeal for donations to tackle what is bound to be a load of extra maintenance. Now that they are a charity, they can raise extra money this way, though they can’t look to HM Treasury for more funds.

You can read about it and donate here.