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Could Summer be on the way?   Now that the Winter storms are nearly over and we've had a couple of days of spring, nature is getting ready for Summer. When the top of noble Benevenagh starts greening, Summer can't be far away. This famous view was taken from Aghanloo and includes the rather splendid parish church.

Air traffic   There was an air show in Portrush over the weekend and the Roe Valley was overflown by many of the old aircraft that were on show. Two examples can be studied on the left. This increased the air traffic over the town hardly at all. What with the army helicopters, four or five gliders and their tow plane, a major air corridor to America and the planes servicing Eglinton airport, this is a busy little air space.

Venus between Limavady and the Sun   A transit of Venus was forecast for the 8th of this month. Your intrepid editor retreated to his private observatory half way up mount Benevenagh to record this rare event for our readership. Observing conditions were difficult for two reasons: a) the Sun wasn't there and b) there wasn't any Sun. As these two conditions are just about normal for Limavady, our editor settled down from six o'clock in the morning onwards and waited for a lucky break. At 11:58 exactly a small break appeared in the dense cloud cover and he managed to take the historic photograph on the right. The transit is nearly over but Venus - and the clouds - are clearly recognisable.

Blues - and all that jazz.   If anybody wonders why there were so many cross-dressers in town on Saturday, be assured it is all to do with the Limavady Jazz and Blues Festival, which takes place this weekend. The festival is an excuse for a good booze up all round and brings plenty of business to the local pubs - of which there are many. It is a pity that these rather nice jazz musicians were banned to the central carpark - where hardly anybody lingers to listen. What's wrong with Market Street?

Another murder near the Market Yard 15th June 2004 There has been another murder in the town. On Sunday evening a wheelie bin was discovered behind the Masonic Hall at one end of the market yard. Inside it the police found the burned remains of a person - it took till Monday evening to determine that these were the remains of an unknown man. On Monday house to house enquiries were continuing and one disused house in Linenhall Street was guarded by the police. Some evidence must have been found in the central carpark because Newtowne Square was closed for most of the morning. It was quickly established that the murder took place somewhere else and that the body had been transported in the wheelie bin and dumped behind the Masonic Hall. Because this is the second murder involving the Market Yard within nine months and both bodies have been burned, there was a large media interest and teams from most of the local television channels and newspapers photographed the scene. The policeman who briefed the reporters said that in his thirty years with the force he hadn't seen a crime as nasty as this one.

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