What's the weather like?

This says it all about the weather this year and tells us just how poor it is in comparison to last year. What do you think, is it just a cold spring or is it a sign of what is on the way?

Thanks to the BBC for the copy. It shows yesterdays
weather and a year before that.

I certainly hope that it gets better quickly but looking out of the window and seeing that the snow is still coming down doesn't help very much, does it!!!

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 :))

I had plans

Today, my perhaps shrunken mind was full. It was full of plans to go rushing out and grab some beautiful snapshots of the freshly laid snow and the sun bouncing off it, making the whole place really bright and beautiful.

Linlithgow Castle

Aye, that will be right. It's rained off and on all day and the sun has been hiding behind the clouds the whole time. Pity that I didn't put a little more effort into it yesterday when it was just as I needed for spot-on photo's all day but I was too bloody lazy to go out and get them.

The picture was taken a couple of years ago. It's Linlithgow Castle, down in central Scotland. It's the snowiest that I've got to show at the moment.

Shetland's shortening day

Today the sun came up at 8.27 and went down again at 3.15. That cannot be called a long day, now can it.

A good day but a short one.
In just over a week the sun comes up at 8.50 in the morning and goes down again at 3.00 in the afternoon. That's about six hours of sunlight - how much shorter can the day get? Will it be worth getting out of bed in the morning? Will I still be snoring in the afternoon? Who can tell and who cares :))

My girlfriend and I

We're all home in Shetland now, my girlfriend and I, and of course the wee cat. In all honesty, not so long ago he was a kitten but he's settled quickly and yesterday he made his first visit into the back garden. The window was left open for him, he took a quick sniff of the air and jumped out. Now he jumps in and out all the time.

The sun is out today and the wind is non-existent which is good for people to move into but it won't be long until both Kate and the cat are both aware just what the weather can be like on the Atlantic coast - and let's be honest - it's only three or four miles away from the North Sea. No protection to be had here at all.

It's going to be a good life for us here in Northmavine at the northern end of Mainland, here in Shetland. It's a good place to live if you appreciate a quiet life, surrounded by lots of natural life, both on the land and in the sea. It's amazing how many seals, dolphins and whales that you see in the water.

Must admit, I've never caught a kipper yet though :))

Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham

Strangely enough for someone that lives in Shetland, at the moment I'm sitting in Nottingham where my girlfriend lives. It wasn't a long trip down. A night on the boat down to Aberdeen and then the train to finish off the journey and I'm so glad that I made the trip. Anywhere, or everywhere, is the right place to be with the girl that you love.

Nottingham has turned out to be a lovely place. Lots of trees all around, which is a novelty to me because you don't see them up in Shetland as many years ago neolithic cut them all down and used them for fires and to build houses or whatever.

Haven't seen anything of old Robin Hood yet. Haven't spotted the Sheriff either. Perhaps it's because I've behaved myself or the Merry Men are out fighting.

Thanks to all the nurse's

Please, show the nurses some love, some care and some consideration. I've just spent a fortnight in the  Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Aberdeen in Scotland and I have been superbly looked after. If they wern't there then it would have been entirely different. Please give the doctors a pat on the back too.

If they didn't do their jobs, where would you and I be now?

Back home in Shetland

Sorry that I’ve not been around for a while but I’ve been in hospital in Aberdeen for a fortnight, dealing with skin problems that are not solved but hey, that’s life.

I’m back home now, thank goodness, and feeling good about it too. The weather is a bit fresh but better than that of a ward, eugggggh!!!!!

Now I have all the time that I need to look after my trees, the willows and black hawthorns that I grow.

Perhaps I’ll start some more, maybe something that produces some fruit. That’s difficult up here in Shetland because of the wind and the salt that we suffer but if I make the effort, I just might get a result. I will need to grow a bit around the garden as protection and then , inside of that I can put some apple, or possibly some pear, we’ll see what happens.

All these dreams, grown at ward 29 in the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and they may well turn into reality in the not too distant future.

Fingers crossed, if I try any of it, it will produce something, fruit maybe!!!

In hospital for perhaps two weeks

What do you do when you are stuck in hospital for perhaps two weeks and there is no, wait for it, internet connection available.

Personally, I am lucky in many ways as I have my eReader with me which means that I have all my eBooks with me too. I also have blogs etc on board it, which, surprisingly, update as and when there is an update available. That’s great but it would also be good to have internet access with your laptop as well, so that you could remain in contact with your friends, or if an idea came into your head you could follow it through on the internet, at no cost to the NHS, or yourself,  whatsoever. If you were able to remain in work while in hospital then there would be no time off sick and therefore no loss of earnings.

Here in the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, in sunny northern Scotland, we are told that things are on the change. Supposedly, in December of this year, there will be internet access across the board for firstly the staff working here and  secondly, the patients who can remain here for large periods of time with nothing but the copy of the Scotsman that they arrived with and a magazine about fishing that they used to get every month.

I live about three hundred miles north in the Shetland Islands, which is an absolutely gorgeous place to live, but it is very small so there is no more than purely basic medical services available. This means that you go down to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for attention to your problem when necessary and that is where I am at present.

I must admit that I’m wallowing in the care being taken but miss access to the internet terribly. As I said earlier, this will change, hopefully in December when Internet access is provided across the hospital for all and sundry to enjoy.

The staff all care very well for me but the internet will make the difference.

Scottish Independence

Quite an interesting poll is being run by The Scotsman at the moment. It’s a simple Yes/No question, “Should the independence referendum be brought forward from 2014?"

At present, 61% of the people that have taken part have said no and that’s quite a good answer, I believe. Alex Salmond set the date in the first place and there is no reason to cause an argument about it, there is no reason to rush into it and there is no reason to screw it up.

Personally, I'm looking forward to escaping fom the U.K. It does nothing but cost us money and get us into wars.

And don't forget - It's our oil, it always has been.

Wind Power Coming On

Viking Energy has the go-ahead to to put up approximately 103 wind turbines here in Shetland. That produces enough power for 175k people but there are only 22k living here in Shetland. The remaining power for 153k will be, in effect, pumped down to Scotland.

That means a profit of something like £30m per annum for Viking Energy Partnership. That is split up and Viking Energy Ltd own 50%.

That breaks down again. Shetland Charitable Trust have 90% of  of Viking Energy Ltd. That means that Shetland Charitable Trust are going to receive a very healthy income from the wind power that is produced, without polluting or destroying the Island.

Good, eh :))

Sunny Shetland

I've cocked it up again. A real beezer this time but I suppose it's something that we all can do. The trouble is, sleeping in this morning has been timed really badly. I woke up twenty minutes ago, sprang out of bed and immediately realised just what the weather was like.

The snow is but history, there is no wind at all and the sun is beating down, just ready for me to get a cup of coffee out there to top up my permanently sun-burnt skin.

I reckon that, come ten o'clock I'll have it all done and I'll be out there, basking in it.

Oh, I nearly forgot, Scotland. Shetland sends its regards :))

They're young, very spiky and in really good health

Tomorrow won't be much different, I don't think. It really has been on and off, on and off all day and it doesn't look like changing much.

The piccies that I promised of the new forest in the huge back garden will turn up but the way that things are going it may well be a bit nearer to July before they get taken. That's Shetland for you.

The trees do cheer me up though, they're young, very spiky and in really good health - at the moment. Hopefully I'll get the pic's taken before things change. Last year they took no time to go downhill and the worst bit was the fact that I never really worked out what happened or why.



Fingers crossed, this years trees will be better :))

Jocky Wilson

I hope that Kirkcaldy, in Fife, shows some respect at three o'clock this afternoon. It's Jocky's funeral at Kirkcaldy Crematorium and he deserves some respect. I'll be silent for a couple of minutes, please show him some respect too.


He was a big man for Scotland, doing well both in and for darts. He'll be remembered for a long, long time.

Keep smiling, Jocky.

It's Sunday tomorrowI

Goodness, it's Sunday tomorrow - or is that off with the change of time.



Ah well, I suppose that we can only hope.

Two trees planted

That's them planted now. No doubt that they will spring into death within the next couple of weeks but nobody can say that I did anything better than bugger all useful.

I must admit that I do hope that it makes a comeback as it will break the wind when I'm out sunning myself - when the sun comes out again - the day after I've collected my thirty-sixth payment of my retirement pension - which probably won't exist then.

And before I run away and hide, I do have to apologise to a very small mistake I made on the last post. It isn't a Scots Fir as I called them - it is actually a Scots Pine on its last legs.

I really will be delighted if the one showing and its pal come on. They will do what was first intended and that was to break the wind - and they will cheer me up immensely by not keeling over in the first fortnight

A big decision

That's it, I've made a big decision. Instead of sitting on my fat arse all afternoon, I'm going to stand on it instead.

I have two Scots Firs in pots at the front door and at present they don't look too well at all. In the garden they will get watered better as it rains a little more often than I get the hose out. It's rained this year and that says it all, I think. Therefore, they might recover, you never know.

Fingers crossed, eh.

18th Century Cittern

This is a chap playing some old Scottish tunes on an old Scottish cittern. I think that it's really good and makes me want to get the dancing shoes on (even though I can't dance to save myself!!!), it is a pity that we don't hear more of this sort of music!!!

What the U.K does to us, designed by Osbourne.

I didn’t pick this one up yesterday because I was more interested in what he was doing to Scotland, but this does affect Scotland, it affects the pensioners in Scotland who might be your mother or father, it might be both of them or it might be your granny or granddad and what he has done is utterly disgusting.

The current rate for over-65’s is £10,500 per annum while the over-75’s get £10,660. Those of us that retire in the future will not claim the higher rate, they will, from April 2013, get the new rate. It is a booming £9,200.

Is that not great. The price of everything, including food, goes up while their pension goes down, in effect, a cut in income.

That is what the U.K does to us. That was designed by Osbourne.

Scotland, a nation alone.

Some more info on the Scotland Bill

So, what are they going to try to palm us of with and stop us becoming a nation alone?

Well, Holyrood are getting the power to deal with borrowing and income tax. That means that there will be new rates of income tax. There will also be the power to create new taxes.

Not only that but Scotland will have the power to control - wait for it - air guns. The Tories ain't messing around here, are they.

We will also have a role to play in the new appointments for the BBC and the Crown Estate. In other words, we can recommend someone and they can tell us to bugger off.

They are trying to stop us from going for independence, while in fact they are strengthening our wish for, our need for and our fight for independence.

We will leave them. It won't hurt us - and we won't go back.