We have heat and the world is beautiful.

Friday 3rd December 2010
We had to go to Kirkwall to pick up the flue pipe and fittings for the new stove and some light fittings. I managed to persuade Pam to go to Lidl instead of Tesco's. Shearer's would have been better but at least Lidl is a small victory.
On the way back, we stopped at Dave and Claire's in Holm. Dave and I decided to take a stroll to the loch at the end of the village. There has been a "Lesser Scaup" on the loch for about a week now and I thought that we may as well take a look. Now, you may be wondering "what is a Lesser Scaup" (Or maybe you are wondering "what is he rambling about now".) Anyway I am afraid that I can't help. I don,t even know what a normal or standard Scaup is. Apparently the Lesser version is a rare american vagrant. (I assume that this does not mean that it is a transatlantic seller of the Big Issue)

We had gone about 20 yards when Dave got a text message saying that the bird was now on Graemshall Loch, about a mile or so away at the other end of the village. Dave, being a proper birder who can recognise a Scaup, subscribes to a local rare bird text alert and then I think he ignores most of the messages.
After getting the text we thought "sod it I am not walking all that way for a bloody bird" and continued to Ayre Loch. There are plenty of birds on Ayre Loch that I do not recognise anyway. There were seals in the bay next to the loch and otter footprints in the snow. Another of those "Aren't I lucky to live in such a beautiful place" moments.

After having a cuppa at Dave and Claire's we got back home to find that our nice shiny new air source heat pump was up and running. The underfloor heating in the extension was warming nicely and the fancy fan radiators in the kitchen and living room were working. Oh I do feel very environmentally thingy, smugly self satisfied and warm.