My Day

Today, I went to Copinsay to help gather the sheep, it was a beautiful day if a wee bit cold. The seals were still there - this one was enjoying the rays.

Lots of seal pups!

View from up the hill on Copinsay

I then went for a wander around Stromness



Hoy with snow

Stromness

Brewster in the snow

Dog sitting

I am currently dog sitting, I'm looking after Brewster for a couple of days. He's currently wondering what he's done to deserve getting left alone with me for a couple of days.

Things are a bit weird in Brewster's life just now - strange house, strange garden, strange person!

It's fun having him but I'm not looking forward to the early start tomorrow - dog walking in the dark. Now that it's properly winter, I'm struggling to get up in the mornings. In fact I slept in on Wednesday, I ended getting up at 8.20, and having this mad panic, running about the house to get ready. It's lucky I only have a ten minute walk to work.

I am now the proud owner of a radio alarm.

Stromness

Puffer's Close

The garden

This is Stromness (if you can see it through the rain) and Hoy is hiding in the background in the cloud, which is not unusual.

You'll guess from the last photo - it's been a bit wet the last few days.

New Camera!

Ha! The camera has arrived, however I've not taken many photos yet. I mentioned the waxwings in my last post, a colleague caught some in the RSPB garden on Thursday (to ring them) and here is one!

The big event this week of course was my birthday! I didn't have anything planned but ended up going out which was fun. Thank you for the lovely pressies.

More photos coming soon!

It's a wee bit chilly!

This month I'm going to try and blog more than I have in any other month. Which, if I'm honest is not going to be hard as my monthly total so far has been two. I will have already have equalled last month with this one!

It's a wee bit cold up here at the moment (please forgive the talk about the weather - it kind of dominates your life up here!) but dry and bright.

This week I went to the song shop choir for the first time (folk singing), I got thrown in at the deep end as we were learning a new, quite complicated song. I'm not sure if I'm a good enough singer but we'll see how it goes!

I also got see some waxwings up close (birds that visit Britain in the winter - very pretty - look them up in a bird book). A colleague had caught some to ring them - I'm majorly chuffed that I got to see them.

Copinsay

Today, at the last minute I got the opportunity to go out to the island of Copinsay. It has been a lovely weekend here weather wise - calm and bright, if slightly cold. Copinsay is an RSPB reserve, mainly important for seabirds but today's visit was to go and see the seals. It is the time of year for grey seals to be pupping and last year there was over 2000 of them! The beaches were covered in fluffy white pups of various sizes and their very large, angry mothers!

We only had a short time on the island and I did have some work tasks but it was a fab day to be there and the views from the lighthouse were amazing - right over the east side of Orkney with Hoy (as with most Orkney views) lurking in the background.

A gentle breeze!

Blimey it's a bit breezy at the moment, proper knock you off your feet stuff. I realised I failed to mention that I am now in Stromness but you may have guessed that. I still don't have a camera but hopefully that will be remidied soon.

I had a slight problem yesterday, as in my excitment that my fuel for the stove had arrived, I went to fill up the scuttle in the shed and shutting the front door behind me I realised that the keys were still in the house. It was just at the moment that the door closed over that I suddenly remembered that I hadn't put the snib off and I had now locked myself out of the house. After a little swearing, trying various windows, finding one that I could open, persuading it that it really did want to open just enough to let me squeeze through I did eventually get back in, pick up my keys, sat down for a minute to recover from the thought that I might have had to break into my own house and went back out to fill the scuttle.

Broadband!

Papa Westray - Looking North from Fowl Craig

Papa Westray - St Tredwell's Loch

Papa Westray - Rose Cottage

Papa Westray - Fowl Craig

At last I have broadband! Here are some photos!!! Once I get a camera I'll post some of Stromness etc.

Leaving Papa Westray

Well, suddenly it's time to move again. I was doing a calculation a couple of days ago - the number of times I've moved since I was volunteering/working with the RSPB. This next one is the twelfth. You may question my maths (not an uncommon event) but it includes moving in and out of the same house several times.

Tonight I completed my rather scary end to the season - The Presentation to the Community! (Notice the capital letters) I only discovered about it well through the season and was generally trying to ignore the fact that I had to do it. At the beginning of the week I decided I'd better do something about it and the first step of putting the sign up in the shop was completed. The rest of the week has disappeared into oblivion and last night I was frantically preparing the power point presentation, finishing it this morning, dashing to the shop when it opened at 3pm and then baking what seemed like hundreds of muffins to feed people at the end of the talk. Chocolate cheesecake, lemon, maple and walnut, carrot were the options, which seemed to go down well. The chocolate cheesecake (in the middle of a chocolate muffin, a lovely cream cheese filling) vanished the quickest. It wasn't quite as scary as I thought. Mid afternoon I was seriously wound up about it all and bit more relaxed when it came to it.

I'm moving next Friday to Stromness, two days in the house and then I'm off galavanting around the country. I'm looking forward to it. I will hopefully at long last be able to post photos soon as I will have broadband in the house! I may actually join the 21st centuary and buy myself a digital camera (I've been borrowing the work one). My number of islands that I'll have lived on will be up to four. (I seem to be doing a lot of statistics tonight - it must because of the annual report/ presentation!).

Lots to do before I leave Papay. Plus packing!

Fun weekend recovery!

Food, fun and carty's! (plus dancing and drink!) The weekend was good, quite hectic. I was looking after Alan and Lal's dog which was fun to have some company. The weather wasn't the best, it was a bit windy but mostly dry at least. Sunday was warm while the carty races were on. Lal and I had fun making a sand sculpture of the Knap of Howar (minus the kids) on Sunday afternoon, in the sand castle competition. I was still feeling the effects this morning but have since perked up. Irn bru works wonders! I hope to nab some photos from other people as I didn't have my camera with me.

Talking of photos, there will be none at the moment from me as the dial up doesn't like photos.

It's suddenly July!

I can't beleive it's July already. Workwise things have calmed down a lot. I'm no longer trying to fit in hundreds of surveys in a very short space of time. I'm actually able to start thinking about maintenance (ah ha, more painting!) and I'm no longer running around like a headless chicken.

The social season has hit the island. Well, it is a very social place anyway but the fun weekend is approaching and it should be great. Crafts, silly games, tug o' war, football, cakes(!), carty races plus music, dancing and alcohol! Whats not to like.

I'm having visits from friends and mum and dad soon, which will make the time go even quicker. I'll have to start looking for somewhere to stay on Orkney mainland for the winter.

Am I really getting paid for this?

It has been absolutely fantastic weather for the last wee while. I've had seven sunlotion days in a row and am hoping for a few more. Although I am worried that this will be the summer.

Time is flying by and work is great. At the beginning of the week I was on ATV courses - quad bikes and Argo cats! Far too much like fun. Walks and other work have continued.

I've attempted to tidy up the garden a little more. Borrowing next door's mower and doing a little weeding. Next step finish digging over the veg square (it's tiny but it'll grow me some lettuce!), planting, then some weeding, thinning the daffodils, then some more weeding! This is of course if I can find the time! The garden is looking colourful with the tulips and some bluebells.

First week on a new island

Just getting settled in at mo. Unpacking, tidying, cleaning etc. Fab weather this weekend. I'll try and get some pictures soon... then I'll have to work out how to put them on the blog!