When icicles hang by the wall

This morning was still, frosty and the sun shone here just until it slipped under the cloud. So, I was out bright and early (well relatively) ... others - who had been up until midnight, some (me too) watching film noir (Double Indemnity) and others (wee folk) doing computer stuff on the kitchen table - were a little later.

When Mum was home for tea yesterday she joined in the games, in between re-arranging anything to hand, but she did scoff all of Gudrun's homemade pizza. The previous night - the day Sorley and Ben joined us - we celebrated thanksgiving with Gudrun, Maya and Sage. We had grilled organic salmon in teriyaki (Sorley had a quorn fillet) - which M & S now love and Ben discovered he quite liked too (!), then granny's apple pie (a la Laughton), which went down a treat too (last time I made it was in Mass I think).

Back to this morning: which reminds me that we had a discussion yesterday (Maya raised the topic) about what were, and what were the difference between, colons and semi-colons ... interesting but I do not think definitively resolved ... answers please on a postcard.

Part of the reason (the other being laziness and this really being a rationalisation) for not keeping our blog up to date, has been the awesome quality of Gudrun's photos. This morning I determined to try and match her.
Here are some high-flying cormorants.

And here the view back into Sandness.
I deleted the other 56 shots! And still the 3 I kept are not as good as Gudrun's ... must be the camera.

It is lovely to watch the cousins together. Even from my perspective I can remember the excitement that Sage can hardly contain as he waits, at breakfast, for Ben to get up!

Okay ... Saturday morning ... Gudrun and Sorley are off taking photos and I am looking after the kids ... very hard work.

Shortly, they are all off to the Walls pool and I will wash to kitchen floor. When they get back with Mum we will all consume Gudrun's yoghurt and spinach soup (I will observe Ben's reaction with interest - will be back with news of this, if you can wait?).

Power Cut

I think I am in danger of forgetting just what the weather can be like here. We have apparently had more sunshine in August than anywhere else in the UK! It was a lovely month and coupled with a record-breaking dry May, all in all it has been a very special summer. The downside is that I am way behind in my writing.

It all seemed to end on the 2nd September with heavy, black clouds, thunder and lightning and solid rods of rain bouncing a couple of feet off the road. I went to Lerwick just when it started and returned at teatime to find the power off ... lightning on a pole somewhere.

As it got dark I filled Lizzie Goudie's (an old relative now long gone) oil lamp and lit the stove,then lit another wee lamp in the kitchen. It was all very cosy. You'll notice a glass of whisky by Lizzie's lamp (and the wind-up radio)!

It didn't last long, the power came back, but the glow of the lamps and the smell of the paraffin brought back memories of a crofthouse somewhere when I was a visiting child.

Oh, and the weather ... has returned to stillness and sunshine, but cool, with a touch of autumn.

Mending Wall

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. (Mending Walls, Robert Frost)

What would I do on a nice day if there were not a wall to mend?
The yard wall by the cattlegrid was falling down, the inner side completely collapsed. The problem was that it consisted on the inside only of stones taken off to clear the ground in the yard. There were very few small stones, no heart.

Sorley kindly wheelbarrowed part of the excavations from the extension so that I could fill in the centre. I forgot to take the first picture inside before I had done some of it.But here it is finished and all Sorley's spoil within it.

The outside consisted of large round stones, some very large that I did not want to take out ... knowing that I might have a little difficulty getting them back! This time it was Peter who helped, when he was here in June, who barrowed some large flatter stones down from where I was demolishing another wall. With these I could tie the wall together better. This is the outside finished.
It should all stay up a little longer. Thanks Sorley and Peter for leaving me the pleasurable part. But as you can see beyond ... there is plenty more wall to repair. As Robert Frost said to the stones in the wall he was repairing with his neighbour 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

sons and grandson

Sons and grandson at Snarraness.

Just to prove that Sorley was in Paris too!

It was lovely if a little hot. Went to some great restaurants with Colette (literally) ... she was her usual generous (and immovable) self. It was all very enjoyable.

Jamie came up with Sorley and Ben on the boat (all the rest of the pictures are his) for one night. Sorley and Ben are here until Saturday. We went to Snarraness to walk to the point and to take some pictures of Bousta. The house (Snarraness) ginger cat decided to come with us. But he/she and Ben didn't always see things the same way.

I looked for purple saxifrage (long past flowering) but couldn't find it. But I did find some sea spleenwort that was not recorded (at least in the book) for there ...
then me and the cat had a rest ...
Sorley tried out his new binnoculars ...
and, reluctantly, we all went home ...
after Jamie took some pictures with his big zoom lens.
We watched some films (when we could drag Ben from his book(s), bed or the laptop), including Monsieur Hulot, Kes and Highlander, yow how the last has aged! We have also partaken in a little whisky. All in all a great week for me.

Award!

Last night I was at the Museum restauarant for the judging of the short listed buildings for two architectural awards. This was the Orkney and Shetland section of a Highlands and Islands competition and the 7 short listed buildings had been selected from some 30 entrants. There were two categories ... New Life for Old Buildings and New Buildings. We were entered in the former and up againt 3 others. The finalists for each to go through to the grand final in November in Inverness. I was there with Richard and Victoria, Fred and Magdelena and a couple who owned a new building Richard had entered. I have to say that I had mentioned this competition to Richard some months ago!

First, yesterday morning, I had had a visit from the four judges (all architects). They were all very complimentary about the extension, inside and out, and the setting ... I had a good feeling!
Richard's photos must have been taken last autumn as I have finished the wall below. Well, Richard won the category with the Muckle Bousta extension!! The judges commended everything it seemed. They were especially taken with the high quality of the detail and finish (need to thank Archie and Andrew for that) and the way the extension adds to the old house. Richard had entered it as 'phase 2', which I did not know when the judges were here. One of them had said to me 'of course, this is still in progress, isn't it?' I had the gumption to say 'yes' but didn't know what he was talking about! Richard had meant that phase 1 was the old house; phase 2 the extension; and phase 3 Sorley's house!! In fact the chairman of the panel said to me last night that Muckle Bousta could have been entered in a category for 'place in a settlement (Bousta)' and that when Sorley's building is up we must do that!

The evening didn't end there. Richard then won the other category with a building he had designed for close to Clubbs. I was speaking to the couple who were the owners and we found that we had met, way back in 1974 when we were living at Netherton, when Dirk was overseeing some dredging for one of the first oil developments (a shore base across the bay from Netherton). This is their house below. They live near Southampton and have another house in Italy. When I suggested we might meet in Inverness in November he said unfortunately not, that they would be busy picking olives in their grove ... ah well.

I'm really delighted for Richard that he won and that he scooped both awards! So they go on to Inverness in November. I'm quite tickled of course to be part of it ... I did have a wee influence here and there.

The meal was not very great but the company was good anf I had a fascinating discussion with Magdelena about Slovenia and with Fred about his wool (fleece) insulated water (heat reservoir) tanks he is working on with Oxford University. Had a wee dram when I got back at midnight and smugly stroked the cat.

Sandness Hill

Last Friday, Elizabeth (Crossroads) came in the afternoon for 3 hours to look after Mum. It was a beautiful day so I took off for Sandness Hill (249m). Great feeling to be out in the open spaces listening to curlews, skylarks and ravens. From the top there was a great view back to Bousta in the distance across Sandness. The bare gravel in the foreground indicates that the climate here can be arctic-alpine! Bousta is in the middle of the picture on the near coastline ... if you look very, very hard. Looking south west gave me itchy feet but the old leg muscles said otherwise. That's the walk back to the Dale of Walls that I think Sorley has done.
The view north to Ronas Hill takes in the Melby area of Sandness.
The white house on the far end of the row of houses on the righthand side is Sand Cottage where Gudrun, Maya and Sage will be staying.
Using the full zoom this is all you can see of Muckle Bousta. Sitting at my desk and turning my head to the left I can look up and see the top of the hill from where I took the photo.

This is an old (relatively, Gudrun) poem that I just had published in a Borders poetry journal.

Leaving Edinburgh

When Gudrun left that morning
for the Guildhall in London,
Tricia went to Marks and Spencers
to buy curtain rings,
I went home over the Bridge
listening to Tippet in the fog
and Beth went back to the flat
to have a good cry and
await the plumber.
On the counter were her earrings,
in the sink, her hair,
and in the music, her song.
Now that she has gone, somehow
we have to come to terms
with the Gudrun she left behind.

You may know it but hope you like it.

Wallpaper

Sorley kindly took these pictures as my camera seems to refuse to focus properly at the moment ... just too lazy to take it in to an expert in Lerwick, probably something trivial. We are really pleased with the results, though Richard has reminded me that the colours will fade over time. I have no problem with that. It has really made the room a little more intimate and throws out the colours pof the pictures, especially Roger's little Mediterranean village.
Sorley also helped me move the resting chair out into the front porch, much appreciated by Polly. I have the feeling that she thinks she's a dog sometimes, the way she stretches out on the hearth in front of the stove. She has also turned into a night animal and loves to go out when it is dark. The other night I had to leave the outside door ajar at midnight when I went to bed. I woke at 2am and went down to find her in the porch.

Went to Bressay for the day yesterday on an invitation from my old pal Jonathan: still, cold and sunny (the weather, not Jonathan, full of warmth, knowledge and bonhomie as usual) Took a walk along the coast while he was gathering waar (seaweed for the garden) to a very old graveyard with the remains of a medieval church with the graveyard extending up and over an old broch. In the graveyard is also a pictish stone with wonderful and enigmatic carvings. A very refreshing day for the body and the mind. Jonathan offered me a job guiding on his boat for a week in May but I had to turn it down, would have been fun, though I doubt I am up to the physical aspects anymore!

More summer visitors returning by the day, red throated diver the day Sorley left and yesterday the wren and twite back in the garden. Daffodils now upright again after the blizzard, but the tulips - or what remains of them - look very sad!