The shortest day of the year

It's only four days until Christmas now and it's also the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. The sun will come up here in Shetland at 09.12 and will go back down at 14.55 which means that the sun is up for just under six hours, a very short day indeed.

An hour before sunrise

Come the middle of June things will have changed. The sun will go down at about 22.30 and will come back up at about 03.30, meaning a long, long day and an almost non-existent night as at this time it is never really dark, only dusky for a while.

I find this quite difficult at times. At the moment I'm comfortable living in a predominantly dark environment. Come the spring and it starts to change, becoming very much the opposite and for a while it's hard work coping with the change but I will get into it – and soon after it will start to go the other way again and it's time to settle into that yet again.

Some things never change and yet, they change so much. From winter to summer, the time that the sun goes down changes by approximately seven and a half hours and the change in the morning is similar.

I wonder why I can't sleep sensibly?

You don't need to do it after all

Sorry to get you all on the go but you don't need to make all those sandwiches after all. The plants are all planted, as are the cacti. If and when they ever pop up then I'll let you all know and we'll have a cup of tea in celebration.

Now I'll pester everyone while I wait for them all to raise there beautiful wee heads. Be warned - there'll be no sleep for a few weeks until they pop up to say "Hello!!!" to us.

I'm going all the way into town

I slept in this morning but that 's ok because I'm going all the way into town on the ten o'clock bus to refill the cupboard before starvation takes over.

When I'm in Lerwick, I'm sure an idea or something like that will come to mind so I'll head to the library where I can get the use of a computer and I will make sure that I am no better and no worse than yesterday.

The bus service is a bit limited though. Tuesday and Thursday there are plenty of buses. Two in the morning that head for town and another two in the afternoon heading home, after a fashion, if you get my drift.

Right, better get going or I'll be walking in!!!

Maybe the sun will stay out

I think that it will be a "little said" day today because it is nice and sunny so you might find me in the back garden, irritating the birds or the sheep that are staring at me from the other side of the fence.

Then again, I might just sleep in the sun, if it stays out of course ;)

Sound daft? It's guaranteed!!!

Does anyone remember that a few days ago I commented on learning to knit? Well, the yarn and the pins arrived this morning so there's not much excuse now, no reason to dodge the column and all that.

I've found a couple of short films on youtube,  How to knit - The basics and How to knit - Casting on so I think that I'll have a good look at them, the first one is about six minutes and the second is around three minutes and after watching them I expect to be able to knit a new garden or something.

If I never mention anything about knitting again then I'm sure that you can work out why.

Please, no gales of laughter outside my front door, it'll stop the neighbours getting a decent nights sleep :))

Yesterday

Well, let's be honest, let's tell the truth, no messing - Yesterday I slept in. I didn't get to Uni because  I missed the bus because I was too lazy to get up early enough. The love of my life phoned at eight, the bus left at seven-thirty, oh well, I'll be in on Monday - If they can remember who I am by then.

The funny thing is the clocks in the house were all wrong. The alarm at the bed-side said quarter to seven and that time would have been ideal - but it was wrong. The alarm in the mobile phone had gone off at approximately ten to five, don't know why but I turned it off and went back to sleep and that was that, baw burst, ken.

On Monday, please give me a call, about half past six in the morning, the coffee's on me!!!