Three days in one

Wednesday 1st September 2010

The summer tourist season has just about finished now and most of the trips, talks etc that are arranged with them in mind are coming to an end. All the shows have come and gone and so I suppose it is time to start getting mentally prepared for winter although the worst of it is not supposed to be until January to March.
As there is less happening from now on, I will probably only do an entry for the blog every 3 or four days, otherwise it is likely to get full of comments like " did nothing apart from shelter from the wind" which is not going to be totally fascinating.

Anyway, now to the last few days.
On Monday we went to Kirkwall to go to the bank and to post a parcel at the Post office but Lo and Behold, they were both shut for the bank holiday. But, it was not a bank holiday in Scotland I hear you say, and you are correct. Does this mean that when the rest of Scotland shuts for two days at new year, the banks and Post offices will be open as in England? We will have to wait and see but I am somewhat suspicious.

I scored a few brownie points with Babs by joining Orkney Freegle ( a recycling website) and offering a cooker hood that came out of the kitchen when we had it altered. (It was to small for Pams new state of the art cooker which can read the recipe book, buy the ingredients and make a cake all by itself). I also put a dishwasher up for sale on Orkney Forum so I am now the recycling King and presumably a hero of my daughter.

Babs has managed to figure out how to get from Stoke to Orkney and back for £200 return in about eight hours each way using a combination of rail and air travel so I will have to check it out. Not that it really needs checking. If Babs says that it is so then it must be true.

On Tuesday morning Pam went to Balfour Hospital in Kirkwall and it looks as though she will be having her Op in a few weeks. She is just worried that if she has to go into hospital before the extension is finished then I will be left in charge of the builders. I think that the idea of me overseeing any part of the building is more scary to Pam than any hospital could be. Maybe she thinks that she would get back to find that we have a brand new beautiful shed instead of the extra superflous rooms on the house.

The energy assessor from the Energy Saving Trust came to OK us for getting an interest free loan for the heat pump (more green brownie points or brown greenie points or something). He was full of information and seemed to know much more than the people in the energy centre in Kirkwall. He told us that there is a renewable scheme supposed to be starting soon that would give us a refund of 7.5p for each KW we use. We can also get economy 10 electricity so if I have figured it correctly, we should be able to heat the house and the hot water for about £260 per year. Seems good to me.

First thing Wednesday morning was beautiful. It was dead calm with not a breath of wind. The sea on Water Sound was like a mirror. Two lobster boats going out created waves in their wake that reached the shore on both sides of the sound with no waves to break them. The sky had an autumnal feel about it, it was very clear but the colours were gentle and subdued instead of the bright glaring colours of summer. I suppose that as it is the 1st September, then autumn is not far away.
The midges also find this weather to their liking and were beginning to become a nuisance but a bit of a light breeze got up and they were no longer a problem.

I went down to the shop for some stamps first thing and met Duncan's mum there. On the way back I followed a wagon full of timber that was belching black smoke as if it were a second world war destroyer trying to hide itself. The wagon pulled up outside our house and Duncan and his dad got out along with their dog so I have a full set for todays "Happy families".
The timber on the wagon was the frame for our extension and inside a few hours they had all the walls up and fixed. I have always known that these timber frames go up quickly but to see it happen so quickly is still remarkable.





Molly had a good day playing with Duncan's dog in the field. He is a six year old black lab called Jock and he is obedient. He comes when he is called, he fetches balls back and gives them to you and he doesn' leg it off into the distance.This must have been an eye opener for Molly, maybe some of it will rub off. As well as being thoroughly disobedient Molly is also a totally shameless tart. Poor old Jock had to put up with her fawning all around him when all he wanted to do was chase balls.Still it at least got Molly knackered and she was nice and quiet for the rest of the day. We will have to start insisting that Duncan always fetches Jock up when he comes.