Clearing up

 It's been quite depressing today, starting to clear up the mess left from putting in the heating. We both started upstairs trying to get the bedrooms looking good again. There are lots of big marks on the walls and as they left the ceiling drying, the floorboards were still up in one room.

Wasn't expecting so much damage and it's possible we will have to pay to put all the carpets back down properly. The twin room has now had the furniture put back in place 

For a cheer up, we went for a bit of a drive round the patch. It was actually pretty warm for Shetland. Lovely! Checked out all the Ringed plovers at Melby in case the missing Sand Plover decided to visit.

It was fairly quiet otherwise but it was good to see 5 puffins in the bay, if distant.

Nice wheatear family on the way home that appeared when we stopped to look at some whooper Swans.

 Stopped at West Burrafirth too to check out the harbour. Just a pair of tysties.

Off to work

 Yesterday we got up early to go to Unst to try and catch up with the Greater Sand Plover that was at Haroldswick. Unfortunately, it wasn't early enough and apparently it got flushed before we got there. We stayed all day in the hopes it would come back. Jill did lots of walking checking the coastline to no avail. We had over 30 Ringed plovers to check and 5 Dunlin. Also Eider and shags.

It was still a nice day.

We have had 6 juvenile starlings in the chimney. They seem particularly dense this year!

Today was a bit different. It was off to work for Jill.  She is now the Personal Assistant helping out our friend Mark. The plan involves dragging him out of the house, kicking and screaming, ( only kidding) once a week to  work on his already pretty good, photography skills. Couldn't have been a better day, it was gorgeous, if a bit muddy!

Jill introduced him to Valyare and Sullom wood. 

Good day with good company.

Rare thing- out with a needle

  Up early to drop Jim at the bus. His van is kaput.

As they had to take the runner up to put the heating in, it frayed the edge. Jill couldn't get the same colour so went contrasting. Hopefully this will work. There are a lot of ends to do!

Heatwise are still battling to get extractors through the wall but we have a nice new insulated loft hatch!

Jill had to get a prescription for Rob so went in to town. His diabetes sensor had failed again! The plan was to pick up Jim afterwards to give him a lift home, but phone signals didn't allow and Jill couldn't find him! Do, while waiting, there were some Razorbills and Tysties at Victoria Pier.

There were two smarts boats in the harbour.

The witness is the newest Greenpeace ship.

The water was calm.