Positively tropical

 It was all go today and luckily the weather was glorious - up to 17 in the afternoon.

Our lovely builders chunked out some of the concrete strips in the barn and Michael made us a perfect door, making it look easy.

 

The old door followed by the new one. You called also see the replaced roof light panel.

Jill went for a short walk as the weather was so lovely. She went above the house on the hill to the remains of the RAF base. Stunning views with lots of sheep.

During the afternoon the scaffolders put up scaffolding ready for the roof to be repaired next week which is exciting. Also our friends from Yell, Adrian, Tracy and Hazel popped over to say hi. It was great to see them and show them around.

As soon as the scaffolding left we popped out for an evening drive to Nesting which is a really pretty area

 We drove back to get home too late for a scaffolding photo, will do that tomorrow. 

Nice sunset at Aith though.

Gave everyone a chuckle.

 Lovely day again here in Shetland.

Jill spent the morning cleaning out the small barn. There was an area about a foot thick of old animal manure. Well, that started a new bonfire pile! One of today's finds, buried in straw, was a lethal looking machete.

Mid morning Jill went down to the beach to do her redd- up rubbish collection. It didn't take long to fill them up , but it's a lot easier in Norfolk, it was all up hill on the way back and the bags arrived back with more holes than a teabag. Two bags will hopefully get collected tomorrow.

First line of washing went out today. It had a great view.

The builders arrived and replaced the window light in the barn roof and Connor helped Jill to get the heavy manger down and some other large bits out. Starting to look good in there.

Whilst he was clambering about fishing out wood rammed down the back of the wall, he found a full black bag. Oh dear!

Very early 80's titles!

 No sign of the scaffolding.

The bonfire got pretty big so instead of going for an evening wander we set light to it. Then we went in and had a relaxed tea with our first rhubarb crumble.

As additions. The item we photographed and asked for guesses as to what it is:

Apparently, we asked the museum, its a pit saw. It's very heavy. We are now trying to find a good home for it.

Oh my goodness!

 Well we wouldn't be going up there, but luckily Michael ( our lovely builder) will, so we now have coping on part if the roof. The bit that will be Rob's shop. It gets a new door tomorrow.

We will also be clearing the rest of it out and getting a jack hammer to the raised concrete floor to level it out.

Jill started to build a temporary wheelie bin holder to stop them ending up in the Loch. We have 3 bins, 2 for recycling and one general one. It was quite fitting to recycle a pallet to build it.

Luckily Michael found quite quickly the causes of the kitchen roof leaks. One was caused by the lead stopping well short of where it should end and the other was the lead joins sitting on top and not underneath!  Good easy fix. All the downpipes now have clips that are the right size holding them to the wall. Looks much tidier.

This was today's find in a tree hole. Along with a cooking pot and about 10 animal plastic food sacks.

It was a lovely day so all three kitties enjoyed themselves.

  They are missing trees so are making do. This is Morgan checking Jill's knots on the washing line. Our bathroom was delivered today, which was exciting, and our delivery of furniture came from the recycling centre 

It remained calm all day . Foula looked lovely. It's further out than it looks.

Bits and wellybobs day

 Popped to Walls to go to the post office and forgot about the roadworks but we had a nice chat with the workman as we waited. All very civilised

When we got back the builder had arrived so we had a catch up about our plans, as one or two have changed, and he did some measuring. He will be back tomorrow and hopefully the scaffolding will be here as the roof tiles arrived early. Lovely chat to the driver, who knew Sonny, the previous owner.We think the whole island knew him.

After the builder left to get supplies Jill popped into the garden leaving Rob with the sander. There was a big roll of rusting wire right where the tree needed to go and it turned out there was something else in the hole, about 18 inches down. Wonder where the other one is?

It had to come out as the tree has a lot of roots. We bought a Swedish Whitebeam with a bit of size. Fingers crossed......  it has a natural wind lean already

Jill then joined Rob inside for some more paint stripping.

After tea we decided to pop out for an hour or so as it was another lovely evening. We visited a little valley in the next village with trees that attracts lots of birds so Jill chatted to the owner about successful species. Lots of primroses and lambs.

It was then a quick drive for some wildlife watching. We did about an hour and a half locally and had Great Northern Diver, Red Throated Diver, Whooper Swan, Golden Plover, Arctic Skua, Curlew, Lapwing, Meadow Pipit, Tufted Duck, Greylag, Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Hooded Crow, Starling, Blackbird, Wren, Oystercatcher, Wheatear, Rock Dove, Pheasant, Mallard,  Mountain Hare, Grey Seal, Rabbit, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Black Backed Gull and House Sparrow.

Nice mini sunset on our return at 9pm ending a cracking evening

Christmas is here

 We bought a couple of left over pot grown Christmas trees for the garden today. Hopefully they will do well but we are not expecting everything we plant to make it. They also had some other plants that may be hardy enough to survive here. Combination of wind and salt... 

On the way back we visited Tingwall Loch for  pair of Mandarin Ducks which are quite unusual here. They were distant and looking quite comical on the waves.

This evening we had a message from the builder to say he can start with us earlier than planned so he will be here tomorrow. So much to do, we are not sure where he will start. The scaffolding should be here soon to get the roof repaired.

Here are some pictures of the Redpoll from yesterday

Puffin up the hill

 We, as it happens a tick for Jill popped up at Hermaness on Unst so it just had to be done. We got up early for the ferry and got there mid morning. Its a lovely spot, if a bit windy.

The Hornemanns Redpoll hadn't been spotted yet so Jill left Rob in the car park where it was last seen, and headed off to the top of the cliffs. As she got to the top, word came out it had been spotted and Rob picked it up straight away. Jill decided to continue on and catch it later

I

It's about a 2.5 mile walk to the cliffs. It is the furthest North in the UK, spectacular, and full of birds

The Redpoll was still around on Jill's return so she joined Rob in some sheep pens to watch it. It was a bit flighty but there was plenty of opportunity for photographs. Will add some more to tomorrow's blog

Then it was  2 ferries back to the mainland for  a lovely meal at the Gurkha Kitchen

And finally saw a pair of otters on the way home, at Bridge of Walls. We had been saying since the first crossing that it looked like a good place.