大象传媒

Carol has been in touch with me. She says, 鈥淚 know I don't have a blog but wondered if you could publish this photo taken last night at my birthday bash, that way I can share my happiness with you all.鈥�

Not a problem...



Hope you'll still be checking in with Island Blogging when you reach NZ!

鈥淟ast ditch talks are being held to try and avert a strike on Orkney's outer isles ferries. The RMT union has given formal notice that it intends to take strike action at noon on Monday for four days after crews rejected a pay offer of 2.5%. However, Orkney Ferries say there is no more money on the table.

If Friday's talks fail, there will be all out strike on the boats which serve Westray, Papa Westray, Sanday, Stronsay, Eday, and North Ronaldsay.鈥�



What are your thoughts on the situation? If the strike goes ahead will you be greatly inconvenienced? Would you support strike action? Let us know what you think鈥�

Just a quick reminder that our very own Fetlar School bloggers will be featured on tonight. The programme starts at 1900 on 大象传媒 One. Don鈥檛 miss it!

Here鈥檚 a bit of advance notice about this week's edition of Riddoch Questions on Radio Scotland...

Tomorrow Lesley Riddoch will be in the Western Isles, asking why Stornoway 颈蝉苍鈥檛 making the news this week with a Sunday sailing of the Cal Mac Ferry to the mainland.

Many people involved with this week's had hoped for a one-off Sunday ferry service this year. But Cal Mac say they won鈥檛 consider that until they are asked "properly."

Is it time to hold a referendum on Lewis to see whether the majority are now in favour of Sunday sailings? Planes started flying on Sundays back in 2002, a Sunday sailing operates from Harris to the south and a recent report found that Sunday operations would provide the biggest single boost to the island's economy.

But would 7 day access destroy a way of life? And if most Lewis people don鈥檛 believe that who should act? The Council, Cal Mac, the government or the Churches?

Join Lesley on Friday from 1:15pm on . You can email your thoughts to lesley@bbc.co.uk, or call the programme after 1:00pm on 0500 92 95 00. The text number is 80295.

It was great to see Fetlar on last night and fantastic to see all the positive responses posted to Fetlar School Blog and Muness Views' blog.

More information about the campaign can be found at .

Watch the Fetlar feature here.

Three things to tell you about today:

1. I just want to remind you that if you activate the links on the right hand side of your blog it makes it easier for others to use them. It鈥檚 simple to do; details of how to format the links are included on the Help Guide. Any problems just give me a shout at islandblogging@bbc.co.uk

2. Another reminder that if you鈥檙e interested in the ONE Show鈥檚 campaign to find a new family for Fetlar you should apply via .
Muness Views' blog includes some handy links to other sites with information about the island.

3. Finally, Mia has been in touch with me. She says: "Staff have now returned from Harris and have kindly taken a photo of one of the innumerable bunnies that were swarming the garden, and I thought it might be my postcard to FC! I also remember that FC wondered what I looked like so have added one of me as well."



It's always good to put a face to a name, isn't it? ;-)

Anne

Update 18/07: Check the gallery again to see "something for mia and especially for the whitesettler!!" from Carol.

Hello, sorry for the problems which have delayed publication of posts and some comments over the last few days. Hopefully that鈥檚 us back to normal now, but if any of your contributions haven鈥檛 appeared yet please email me at islandblogging@bbc.co.uk to let me know.

Thanks
Anne

PS 鈥� Anyone who has been waiting to see photos of Hermit鈥檚 big bash should click here!

Today we received yet another comment for the Lonely Colonsay blog. This particular blog has just one post which was published back in 2003, but since then it has received numerous comments from users around the world who are keen to trace their ancestors from the island.

For those contributors to Lonely Colonsay, and all other users who are interested in genealogy, you might want to know that last Sunday鈥檚 edition of Radio Scotland鈥檚 Digging up Your Roots gave advice on tracing ancestors who moved around. You can listen again to the programme until the morning of Sunday 5th August.

Don鈥檛 forget to visit our Scottish Roots website which also features lots of useful hints and tips on discovering your family tree.