Big Boy the cockerel and his girls

He’s a laugh a minute, and will fight off any otter.

Hillswick Ness, geocaching maintenance

Laziness has stopped me responding to the plaintive communiques from Geocachers (it’s treasure hunting/orienteering with GPS satnav, folks; outdoorsy nerdy gadget freakdom. ) that the Another Fine Ness (sorry!) cache had disappeared again.  But today, having finally worked out how the Garmin Etrex functions, I headed out to the Ness of Hillswick to  replace it.

Very, very midgy morning, utterly still. That’s three days in a row – very odd for Shetland. Took the direct route right through the centre of the Ness – the coastal walk is one of the UK’s great cliff routes, but no time today – 40 minutes to The Stone Table. Oddly, though the midges swarmed, they didn’t bite. Either my ingestion of heavy duty multivitamins or my sweaty kangaroo skin hat…

Great walk, straight back in 35 minutes, a record.

Snow, hey ho…

Brutally cold, ice on powdered snow, and very windy. Don’t let the brightness fool you! Now, after dark, the wind is really gathering force. We’ve already had one power cut, both the peat fires are on, and both tomorrow and Monday are looking grim. And yet..

The truth is, I love this sense of isolation, the notion that we’re thrown back on our own resources. It’s one of the reasons I was so attracted to life in Shetland in the first place. Having said that, I’ve booked the hotel for lunch tomorrow…