Alberto's Hutte

30th September 2017 (Saturday) ....  08.00    ‘Transocean Prospect’ passed through the Strait of Gibraltar overnight and is now in the Mediterranean Sea, Earlsferry from the quarry. being towed along at 5.9 knots, on the last lap of her journey to the breakers yard in Aliaga, Turkey.   You will be happy to know this.... and even happier, and even excited, to know that,  just to keep my Geography up to scratch, I am also ‘following’ a giant crude oil tanker, “Olympic Leopard” that left Hound Point last night .... ‘she’ is on her way to Ningbo in China;  and is now in the shipping lane off the North East coast of England. We have a lovely morning;   a nice morning for a daunder;  which I plan to do after breakfast! 19.30    This has been a lovely day .... mostly sunny, but beautiful clouds built up in the afternoon, with loads of heavy looking showers passing along the ‘Sooth side’.    We were ...

29th September 2017 (Friday) ... 09.30    It’s overcast and dry this morning... however, we have an improving forecast;  “sunny spells”, though a few Macduffs cave, Earlsferry. showers could creep in, later the afternoon.     Sunday is the bad day for this weekend.    There was a ‘big flap on’ before I could have my breakfast this morning!    I had to go up to the ‘Paper Shop’ for milk (and a paper);  need milk to soften up the ‘grass’; (Shredded Wheat).    Breakfast over, I will go for a walk, .... with a contented ‘puku’. 20.00     I never did get out for a walk in the morning;   I ended up doing ‘ousewifely stuff instead.    ‘Ousewifely stuff’ included a washing (had to wash the trousers that got covered in mud yesterday, plus other stuff to make a load), doing the bathroom/kitchen and lobby floors, and feeding ‘Blob’.   Jimmy cam...

28th September 2017 (Drop in Cafe Day .... sometimes known as Thursday) .... 08.30     Everything in the garden is wet after overnight rain .... but that has cleared away and we have ‘bright and sunny’, with a light South Westerly breeze; Autumnal touch to the trees.    a lovely morning... almost wall to wall blue sky in fact. I went down to the beach to get the sunrise, but didn’t;   for two reasons.    Reason one ...it was obscured by clouds,  and reason two...even if it had been visible;   I didn’t have a card in the camera.    However I filled my lungs with some exhilarating ‘Royal’ air... and felt exhilarated!   I still do.   Feel exited/exhilarated i.e.   I’ll have a ‘fly cup’, then get the bike out and head East, pick up the papers then go up through Elie Estate... stopping at the 'Oak House' to see how it's coming along. 20.00    Oh my word...

27th September 2017 (Wednesday) .... 09.30     After a really long and restful night’s sleep, I woke up to find that we had a lovely morning, albeit a bit hazy, 'Sunrise' over the Chapel ruin. but nice for getting out and about ... even though the wind is from the Southeast.    I had a good walk ... along the beach, round Chapel Green and home by the golf course:   meeting and chatting to Carol on the beach, and another lady out walking her dogs up at Chapel Green;  so I’m a contented ‘boy’, who is now looking forward to the Colinsburgh Lite Lunch at 12.30. 20.30    Earlsferry is busy with holiday makers still .... that and building work... so there’s plenty of folk to speak to.   The weather hasn’t been bad at all today, though it’s going to rain later, and overnight. We had the Colinsburgh Lite Lunch today;  a choice of two soups, and two sweets, plus tea/coffee and biscuits... and best of all... com...

26th September 2017 (Tuesday) .... 08.30    With fog blowing in from the North Sea, on a Southeast wind, it’s rather gloomy just now....  but ‘sunny spells later’, are mentioned in the weather forecast.     At least it isn’t raining... and it is warm, Sunrise time at Elie this morning. considering the wind direction.   I went down to the beach to see the sunrise ... and didn’t.    However there were interesting ‘fog blowing in’ photos to be had.    I now have them.    Orf to have breakfast ... and another cuppa.     22.30     This has been a quieter kind of day for me ....  especially after the hilarity of yesterday.   Jimmy and I visited ‘Laurie’ (Lawrence Anderson) in the Rehab Unit at St Andrews... and were pleasantly surprised to find him chatty, and looking forward to food.   Today was the first day he’s felt like he wanted t...

25th September 2017 (Monday) ...   09.30    this is the day No 267 of this year(2017) ... 163 of which, in Fife, have been ‘rain days’;  and the other 104 haven’t all been sunny days.... only ones without rain!    I must find out if fog Hazy afternoon. etc.  registers as rain.    From those statistics you will have worked out that we have a miserably dreich start to ‘today’ to add to the statistics .... not windy... but awfie wet, and it has been for most of the night by the look of ‘Blob’.    The forecast is for ‘brighter weather’ sometime in the afternoon.   This dreichness is not my favourite weather .... and definitely not my favourite wind direction!    Having said that, Bergen (Norway), where the cycle race was held, is reckoned to be the wettest city in Europe... with an average of 250 rainy days per year, and guess what?;   they are basking in 14c sunshine toda...

24th September 2017 (Sunday) .... 08.30    “Red sky in the morning ... shepherd’s warning” .... and we had a red sky this morning.    It was bonnie down on Elie Bay. the beach, but the tide was full in:  I need water like a mirror, or wet sand for reflections... and, because there’s breeze from the Southeast, we didn’t have mirror like water.    The sky had a lot of red in it, for the 20 minutes or so, preceding sunrise;   the actual sunrise was bonnie, but not spectacular. Tugs, Atlantic Kestrel and AH Varazze, with platform Transocean Prospect in tow, are three-quarters of the way across the Bay of Biscay.   For some inexplicable reason I have been able to pick up AH Varazze now and again, even though ‘she’ is well away from land masts. 20.00     Well ... I tell you something;   Bergen is one hilly place.   I am absolutely kn ... shattered, having spent six and a ...

23 rd September 2017 (Saturday) .... 08.00        We’ll begin today’s ‘Hutte News’ with a piece of  exciting local ‘news’ ....   ‘Oliver’  ... no, I won’t spoil this news ... click on ‘Oliver’ (Mennie) and see it all for yourself! Isn’t that brilliant!    .... and the new Captain of the Royal and Ancient, Bruce Mitchell, wisnae bad either!     It is only a week ago that Oliver graduated, with a BA(Hons), from the Highland and Islands University at Dornoch.    Well done Oliver .... heaps of congratulations! We have a gorgeous morning ... and it began with a bonnie sunrise!    I was on the beach half an hour before the ‘event’;  it was beautiful down there.   Apart from me, Sunrise ... from the Cockstail Rocks, Earlsferry. and the birds...  the beach was empty:  I expected at least one jogger, or dog walker, but neither put in an appearance this morni...

22nd September 2017 (Friday) ....  09.00    The Autumnal Equinox....  and ‘official’ start of autumn.   We had a really bright start to the morning but ... there’s always a ‘but’ .... the sky is Elie from Chapel Green. beginning to cloud over, and we could have rain by midday by the look of the North-western sky.   I intended making up flasks for Jimmy and I to have our morning cuppa up at Chapel Green, but it’s too cold for that.    We’ll have our cuppa in Ivy.      20.30     By the time I walked up to Chapel Green this morning, the temperature had risen and it was pleasantly warm;    we could have had our cuppa sitting on the Boss’s seat after all.   On the way up the High Street, I stopped to have a chat with David (Allan) the painter;  he was saying how this has been a really bad summer for getting outside painting done.... no decent, long spells of dry, s...

21st September 2017 (Thursday)  .... 08.00   Mmmmmmm.... we have one dreich morning;   raining and cheerless looking.     As has been the case quite often this ‘summer(?)’, late afternoon and evening time looks like being the best time Golf Court, Elie. of day.   It is not a morning for wandering about.    There have not been many days this year when we haven’t had rain.... but we are lucky compared with what is happening in the Caribbean!    Must ‘go’ .... “slight flap on”;   I have to deliver the car to the garage, then walk down to Sainsbury’s ... the rain is forecast to peter out in mid morning. Transocean Prospect and ‘her tug pals’, are bumbling along, at 3 knots, in the English Channel, midway between Penzance (England) and Brest (France).     21.30    Once again we have had a gorgeous evening... after a day of,  more or less, nondescript ki...

20th September 2017 (Wednesday) ... 13.30    When I went along to Elie for the papers this morning, I got slightly diverted and ended up along at the old Pittenweem tidal swimming pool.  Pittenweem  swimming pool.    Unfortunately we have a, mostly overcast, with occasional spits and spots of rain, morning.     I must go back on a ‘bright and  sunny’ morning... this will show up the different colours of the sandstone rocks etc better.    It is an interesting spot, and would have been busy in the 1930’s , 40’s and 50’s.        20.30     My day has been spent pottering around Ivy... including baking a batch of wholemeal scones.    Note to self .... I must remember to freeze some of them this time;  rather than feed them to Blob and his pals.     It has been a grey and sometimes damp day;  not a day for bumbling about outside....

19th September 2017 (Tuesday) .... Transocean Prospect is in the English Channel, off Brighton and Worthing;  the normal towing speed appears to be 4.4 knots (5mph).   The 7 knots that I saw yesterday must have been either, an anomaly, Leven High Street. or one of the tugs manoeuvring.   Each tug has its individual transponder... the platform indicates position only, ... no speed.   They are now through the most congested bit of the Channel, and in the south bound shipping lane.   Jings, this is interesting stuff!    We have a beautiful morning, wall to wall blue sky, with hardly any wind, but definitely the coldest morning so far this autumn.   I am going to Leven to do a shopping;   with the car going in on Thursday I’m thinking I may not get her back until Friday... if then.      20.30     It may have been chilly in the early part of the morning, but we’ve had ...

18th September 2017 (Monday)   08.30    ..... Hmmmmm .... it is overcast, as was forecast, but... and this is good ... I can see the odd blue break in the Interesting clouds over the Toft, Elie. general greyness;  we could have sunny spells later.   Then again... we could have showers.    I’m feeling quite perky this morning;  yesterday I felt ‘one degree under’... as if I was coming down with a cold... probably caused by the east wind, we've had for the past few days. Ocean going tugs, Atlantic Kestrel and AH Varazze, with oil platform Transocean Prospect in tow, have entered the English Channel shipping lane and are now making for the Straits of Dover;  I will lose them again, once they pass through the Straits of Dover,  and out of range of the land based masts. South Street, Elie. 20.30    The oil platform Transocean Prospect, has passed through the Strait of Dover and should be nearl...