Rambling again

One of the many highlights of our recent trip ‘darn sarf’ was seeing my son Oliver and his fiance Nicola take part in the yearly Panto which the amateur dramatics group put on. This year Oliver was in drag as the Fairy Godmother and Nicola was the Wicked Queen ( see Photo ) . We all had a great time and finished up at the local Thai restaurant for a slap up meal.

Talking of meals, I thought I would post a picture here of one of the ‘snacks’ that Nimbus the Burmese brings in from time to time. It is a photo of an Orkney Vole, unique to the island but thankfully not rare although Nimbus is doing his best on that front !

I thought I would also post a photo of the announcement of our planning application and also the progress on the fireplace modifications in the smaller sitting room. Anna and I took out the fireplace and removed as much as we thought we should, but when Dave Major saw it he felt that more could be taken out and I think the look on our faces he offered to come back the next day with a big breaker drill and finish it off, we were really grateful for this. So another photo of the current hole in the room, it was certainly worth doing as we have discovered that the chimney is letting in water and the flue liner is in a poor state of repair, not totally unexpected as it was mentioned as a possibility in the home report. It is great to be getting started.

Tomorrow our dear friends Colin & Jan arrive on the island to baby-sit Catherine’s animals. We are looking forward to seeing them and having a few days out with them. Fingers crossed that the crossing is good for Colin, I think he loves ferry crossings as much as me!