Drizzle

 Another drizzly day.

Michael and Patrick carried the new chicken house down the garden for assembling. It's huge and looks brilliant.

 Today's then and now if the stable block. Its currently a great workspace.

Rob had yet another hospital appointment. This time to start finding out why his iron count is low. We did a bit of hunting around the construction stores, to no avail looking for a suitable chimney.

As we were heading home at lunchtime news came out of an Oriental Turtle Dove on the island so we headed south.

We did get it but it was distant and for some reason today everyone seemed to think it necessary to stay well back. With the rain and poor light it didn't lend itself to photography.

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Surprising day

 It was still drizzly and gloomy today so this morning we did some bits at home. Rob got on with the extension plans and Jill did some internal pointing.

 After lunch we did the local patch staying out west.  We covered Bridge of Walls, Norby Beach, Melby beach, Walls pier, Michaels Wood and Burrastow. We weren't expecting much as visability was awful.

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Our surprisingly good day continued when we arrived in Burrastow. The small bay before  the hotel was full of seals practising leaping from the water. We thought it was odd but realised, when we went round the coast, why. There were 5 orca in front of Burrastow Hotel. It was nearly dark but managed to get her a handful of pictures. 

Otter and orca in the same day. Magic!

Got a bit soggy

 It was OK for the first couple of hours and then it rained all day. We left Michael and Bruce working on insulation and taking off the cracked harl on the right hand chimney, respectfully. Jill did an hour on the peat whole Rob complained to Shetland Transport about our missing pallet delivery. Apparently it was because the island Internet was down and they didn't know where Watsness was. Jill  then gathered up Rob for his foot check at the hospital and some shopping.

Jill was in and out of the car all day and got pretty wet but we picked up a reclaimed chimney that is worth a shot, 2 big bags of gravel for re doing the harl, a bit of food shopping and a new gas tank as we are getting cold  whilst we were out, the call went up about Orca. Unfortunately we missed them but we ended up sat next to Michaels house waiting for them.

We got a call saying that Shetland Transport had sent our pallet out in the Village bakery van so Michael and Bruce picked it up from Walls bakery. We now have a log burner ready to go in. Yay.

We missed the coffee shop back in Lerwick, forgetting it closed at 4pm and then went for our meeting with the MP about EON and the meter issues we have. He was very helpful and hopefully can stir them up. It's a novelty having a helpful MP.

Today the weather was dreary, dark and damp too. It was good to see brambling and goldcrest in the garden. 

We went out for the afternoon  to see the Red flanked bluetail and desert wheatear. It was even darker and wetter.

Cracktacus Pots

 The new member of our team, Bruce, started today on the chimneys.

Its great having another neighbour to help out. It will really move things along.

He has found that the harl ( pebble dash) is cracked so will be letting in water. He will sort this out. He also discovered three of the six pots have had i, so it's back on the Internet to look for new ones - oh wait, the subsea cable broke so no internet.

Michael helped Bruce today to get things started and put some insulation in upstairs. Each bit is a step in the right direction.

Jill moved yet more peat and waterproofed some of the outside pointing which should help it last longer.

Just after lunch, news broke of a Siberian Rubythroat at Quendale. We both need it as we haven't seen one so we set of as quickly as we could to get there.

Unfortunately we didn't see it as  it was very elusive but it was a nice walk. We will get one another time as they do pop up occasionally.

Taking things into our own hands

 Anyone who knows our history knows how hard it was to go to a solicitor so we have had a bad few days thinking our trust was wasted again. However, some good news, this evening we learned they believe we have a good case against the hospital so they will sort that for us.

We've turned it around too and done some research. We can take the old GP to task ourselves, not for negligence but for malpractice, so the letter has gone off to the GP and the ICB. Not sure where it will go but we didn't want to leave it. We know we are not the only people the GP has let down. Watch this space.

We heard today that the poorly lamb didn't make it. Very sad.

It was an absolutely glorious day.

Nice  work space view today. Sea was like a mill pond and quite mild.

 Jill did some more peat sorting and dug out some rocks from one of the paths to make it easier to get round

 The scaffolding is now finished so hopefully Bruce, our lovely neighbour, can get on with sorting our chimneys. The last stage of getting dry inside. Very exciting

Rob had an eye appointment so we headed to Lerwick via Kergord to see if we could find the Red flanked bluetail. No sign but we found a robin, some unusual fungi ( need to buy a book) and a Goldfinch. Oh and a late blooming flower.

On the way through Weisdale, Rob spotted an otter, so we pulled over for a bit. There  were two playing around the bridge.

We had a quick chip lunch and visited both Jewsons and buildbase for a guest bathroom.. waiting for quotes but all sorted.

 The appointment went well and as news broke of two juvenile long tailed ducks in Lerwick so we popped past. Nice views. A very dark seal watched us and we had a nice raven