We have spent a lovely week in Germany with family and friends and we arrived home safely yesterday. It was good to relax and not spend too much time with a laptop on my knees, but in stead spend time with Manuela and Annika who enjoyed the trip and holiday as much as I did. The weather was fabulous with a daily average of 27 Degr Celsius and lots of sunshine so we spent lots of time outdoors in the neighbouring Nature Park and outdoor forest swimming pool. The whole area is extremely peaceful, has magnificent scenery and endless forests. It almost feels like stepping back in time 25 years or so which is just great!

Nature Park Erzgebirge Vogtland - Altitude 950 Metres

After going through my emails I found out that I haven't missed too much in the last week although.... An interesting email popped up from Paul Graham at an Taigh Osda: "Joanie & I have just received some good news. We have just had the restaurant included in the 2010 edition of "The Good Food Guide" by reader recommendation. We are very pleased that all the hard work is paying off." Congratulations to the both of them and well deserved if I may say so! Continue reading.....

Another interesting and much appreciated news item came from the Guardian which was the first online media to publish the news about the tidal energy that will supply the entire island and the eight distilleries with electricity. I don't want to jump to conclusions too fast but I found it a bit strange to read that it will be for 23 hours a day. I'm not sure how to read this. Is this an average blackout of one hour a day? Does this mean that it can be 7 hours a week all on one day as well? Does this depend on the tides being strong enough or not?

I was also surprised to read that it will not be before 2018 that the distilleries will be connected to the new energy source and I wonder when the first houses on Islay will be connected. The article mentions that the turbines become operational in 2011. The tidal energy will put Islay on the map as an example for other areas or islands whilst raising a lot of international attention. It will probably also prevents the building of wind turbines on the island itself. I don't know if this will influence the proposed plans for the off shore windfarm south west off Islay's coast. I'm sure the Islay Energy Trust will post more news when it comes available.

Was that all? No not yet... I received an email from Elliott Bowman about ferry disruptions starting tomorrow, 31 August. I will make a separate post about that. Another interesting news item which was the press release from Bruichladdich Distillery about organic whisky. I believe they are making a right move with this and I will publish the two press releases in the next days, so from now on it's back to regular Islay blogging. Thanks for your patience :-)

Tag: holiday tidal energy distilleries an taigh osda calmac ferry