Its thawing a bit this morning so fingers crossed.
Molly and Swona (The collie pup from across the road) met up today and got on well. Previously Swona has been put off by Molly being to bouncy. Maybe they will be friends when they are both bigger and more obedient.
We nipped into Kirkwall just to get a tub of paint for Gavin the decorator and came back with not only a tub of paint but also 4 expensive curtain poles. Still Pam does so enjoy buying bits for her house. It's justa pity that I can't get her interested in a shed.
We were back in Kirkwall later for the christmas tree lighting. (We go to all the exciting things here) The Kirkwall pipe band were playing there and the Guiser Jarl and his crew from the Shetland Up-Helly-AA were outside the cathedral brandishing their axes at everyone who went in.
Sorry about the fuzzy photo. I think that it is a mixture of long exposure time in the dark and an old shaky body.
We were going to drop into the Commadore in Holm for a meal on the way back home but we had forgotten to check and found that they were closed so we ended up at The Sands in Burray again. Having said that, I like The Sands, nice bar, friendly folk and a good atmosphere.
I was very good and tried to be very diplomatic when Evelyn, the owner of The Sands, asked how Molly had got on in her obedience test. (Evelyn owns a beautiful but huge and disobedient japanese Akita called Amy and had to employ somebody to handle Amy in the dog obedience classes as Evelyn could not hold her. Apparently Amy was naughtier than normal in the test. I didn't really gloat very much at all, so maybe the price of my beer will not go up.
When we got home I checked the meter on the heat pump and rather surprisingly it seems to be using about the same amount of electricity as the manufacturers said that it would. If this works out to be true then all the heating and hot water will cost about £1300 per year and we will get about £950 back from the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme, so it will end up only costing us about £350 per year. Not bad.
On Sunday the roads were at last clear so we decided to go nowhere. As we live in a nice place, then why should we bother to go anywhere anyway.
I did do my normal dog walk which was very pleasant. There were 2 seals and 3 Red Breasted Mergansers in the bay by Burray pier (See I am learning very slowly to recognise some of the multitude of bird species up here.) and another 6 seals just of the shore at the bottom of the hill on the way home.
On Monday just because I was gloating about the snow having gone yesterday, we got about 5 inches of fresh snow. I had to walk down to the village shop for some onions but it was a really pleasant stroll with no wind and not to cold. Everybody seemed to be in a good mood, possibly because they were snowed into the village and could not get to work so there was a very christmassy atmosphere.
The new extension is looking decent and there is not much left to do to the outside except fit the chimney cap after the flue is in properly.
Duncan, showing off with his big 4*4, came up and fetched Jock with him so I took him and Molly into the field (Jock and Molly, not Duncan and Molly). Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately from the dogs viewpoint) I could not throw a ball for the dogs as it would have got lost in the snow so they just had to amuse themselves. This is where Jocks natural talent as a rapist came into its own. Molly however was, true to type just being a tease and every time Jock got randy she just sat firmly on her backside. One-Nil to Molly.
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