Poetry about Bardsey - and Fun at the Lighthouse

Apologies for no Social News for three months, but I had not been over to the island, nor has much news been passed on to me. But we have some news now.

First, we said goodbye to Jim and Elaine Lennon at the end of May after their winter sojourn on the island looking after Cristin and making lots of improvements to the Observatory. Thank you Elaine and Jim. I did notice that Mel Stacey wrote you a poem which you will find on their BLOG but which I have taken the liberty of "stealing" and adding to the page on the BBFO website where we already have one of Mel's poems. Her latest one - "Sounds Silenced", is about the silence now that the foghorn has been switched off.

Secondly - the Bardsey Crier has just returned from a 6 day visit to the island with friends Neil and Bevan Healey (brothers of course), Mike Baker (who returned to the island after his earlier "trip" in May when he broke his ankle) and Todd Chater (the Slater) who returned with his skills. The five of us (well, I supervised!, the rest worked damn hard), worked on repairing, re-roofing, and refurbishing the inside and outside of the old LSA building just outside the Lighthouse compound. We also had some new help from young Patrick Charles, who was on the island with his mum, our Treasurer, Dianne Charles.

It was a great week, after the weekend's rough weather, with flat calms, blue skies, clear starry nights, bright moons, a few good birds, and in the company of good friends. It was great to see Steve, Emma and Connor again, Emyr, and Steve, Jo, Rachel and Ben Porter. Oh!, I mustn't forget Shearwater man, Richard Else but unfortunately no Richard Brown (he was off the island that week but returned just after we left. One new friend I made there was Margaret (a little younger than me!).

My next posting will begin to tell you a few of the other happenings on the island which were new ventures, some very brave and surprising.

Bevan