Its Saturday morning and there has been a gap in the weather that we have been having. Apparently the media have been calling it a ‘Weather bomb’ although the local radio here called it ‘Winter’, they also claim that if the wind stopped in Orkney everyone would fall over ! Yes the storms have been quite bad with lots of lightning a few power outages and very high seas but nothing to worry about.

Steve took the opportunity of taking the ferry as it was running again so he could head back to Suffolk, the roads through Scotland have been closed on and off because of snow over the last few days but are all open now so he should have a good drive. He seemed to have a great time and enjoyed Orkney, even the weather. I’m sure he will be back, as there is still lots to see and do.

So now I am all alone for the first time although the I have the cats for company. Nimbus has been a bit stressed the last couple of days, I think it is because of the Goose hunters and their guns beside the loch, that and the storms probably.

This morning the weather was lovely, a bit of a chill, but it did enable me to do some of the outside chores, like feeding the birds. You have to do things when the weather lets you up here. To give you an idea of the pace of life I heard a story the other day:

“An Englishman an Mexican and an Orcadian were talking. The Mexican was asking the Englishman why he was always in a hurry, the Mexican said ” In my country we have a word that describes our way of life, it is ‘Manyana’ which means ‘tomorrow’, he then turns to the Orcadian gent and asks him if he has a similar word? the Orcadian gent replies “Oh no, we have no word for anything that urgent! ”

By 10:30 this morning the weather has changed and it is now raining but I need to go out to do a bit of shopping and a few chores. Anna seems to be coping in China but is looking forward to coming home, lets hope the air traffic control don’t have another software ‘glitch’ like yesterday!

I decided to go into Kirkwall to see if I could get some inspiration on Christmas presents and I also popped into Shearers to visit their display of animals and Father Christmas, not that I went to see him, I haven’t been good enough this year! Catherine Corsie was there with her goats and sheep. The place was packed! It was lovely to hear a young mum explain to her small son that Father Christmas was having a break from sorting the toys and decided to visit Orkney today. It is fantastic to see the support these sort of events get on Orkney. Photo