Walking on the Shetland moon

Should have waited

I should have waited a few minutes before I put out the last blog. Then I could have mentioned that the sky was going to be covered over by clouds, throwing snow everywhere.

I can't complain, I love it and hope that by tomorrow it is at the very least, six feet deep and lasts for a week. That's Shetland weather for you, always paradise :))

More Mistakes

I've done it again, I thought that spring was with us so I put the peppermint and the strawberry seeds that I'd just potted out to the wee greenhouse-on-the-wall that I'd recently put up. They haven't risen yet, not a single one of them has even stuck a finger up to test the temperature.

Peppermint leaves

Perhaps they know the truth, perhaps they know all too well that it's too bloody cold for them to come up yet. If they wait another month then they will come up smiling and the paranoia will leave me alone, at least I hope that it will leave me alone.

That's Shetland for you :))

Hillswicks weather and its internet connection

Blue sky over the water

Unfortunately, we no longer have the clear blue sky that we had for the last few days. It really was lovely and well worth going out and enjoying while it lasted. Now we have a little cloud cover and a very, very light breeze blowing at around four or five knots so not worth getting worked up about.

And because it's a Monday all the children are off to school and all the working adults are doing their bit to support society, or more likely, to support themselves and their family. This means that I have no problem getting connected to the internet – at the moment!!!

There are times when things are a little different though. First thing in the morning, between six and eight, every day of the working week, it can be almost impossible to go on the net. Every day of the working week, from four o'clock in the afternoon until perhaps six o'clock in the evening it is more use washing the windows because again, you won't get onto the internet then either.

All these promises that they make!!!

There is, of course, a reason for these problems. In effect we live, here in Hillswick, Northmavine in Shetland, at the end of the line and all the people further down the line suffer this problem less and less as they get to the beginning of the line.

Now I don't know about you but this annoys me. I pay for this service just like everyone else but I don't get the same service as those further down the road and I do not get any discount for that.

I do know that they can install what they call a “Cabinet”, please don't ask me what it is because I don't know. What I do know is that it is the solution to the problem we get in this area, as told to me by BT.

Please, please, make a real nuisance of yourselves. Moan and groan incessantly at British Telecom. If we don't do that then things won't improve.

The price won't go down either, it will only go up.

Sorry, I forgot....

With all the wang-dang about Up Helly Aa yesterday, I forgot to mention that after doing most of my shopping at the Co-op, I popped over to South Road and went into Tesco for some cheap burgers for dinner last night. Now I'm a little horse.

Having said that, I do prefer My Lidl Pony :))

Up Helly Aa again

It's Up Helly Aa today and I'm grateful that this year I've made no attempt whatsoever to be in Lerwick tonight to see the men marching through the town and the burning of the boat at the end of the march.

Normally, I wouldn't say that. Usually, I would want to go along and see the march and the burning of the boat followed up by a really good evening, sociable in the extreme, where everyone, the men that did the march and the people that went to see it, is happy and friendly but tonight, unfortunately, the weather is not perfect. It's pouring down with rain outside my house. I'm thirty-five miles away from town but suspect that it will do exactly the same in Lerwick.

Ah, well - that's life, I suppose. I bet that it will still be a great evening for all that are there.

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?