It's still windy !

  Well we moved in to Ordaal 3 weekends ago and it was windy then and it's still windy now - and it's getting a bit tedious. The wind has been south or south easterly now for over two weeks (apart from two separate days when the wind did drop briefly) During the week, there were some big waves coming in to Norwick again, the light was foul and the wind was so strong it was a job to hold the camera still. The pic below is a poor record shot of the sea state, just look at the size of the gull and it may give an idea of the size of the breakers...........

Norwick 'beach'

  Last Friday (11th Feb) was the first of two Up Helly Ah celebrations here on Unst and that was down at Uyeasound. Even though the evening was dry (the weather that is ) there was a very strong south-easterly blowing which didn't help the torchlight procession and the burning of the galley due to the sparks being blown everywhere. Last year I had a number of large holes burnt into a fleece coat by wind blown ash and sparks. The basis of the event is the same every year but with different 'acts' in the hall after the burning of the gallery. Below are a few pictures from this year at Uyeasound and here is a little more detail about the event from last year...........

  This year there were 18 'acts' in the hall  which meant it went on until after midnight - and then there was a dance ! A lot of folk wouldn't have got home until the early morning but we left around 12.30am with two very tired children.

  This last week has been another very busy week as we were  going to have a joint house warming/ celebratory party with some friends. A friend of ours has just taken over as the Unst GP so we combined the two occasions and invited a 'few' friends around for a bit of a party on Friday (18th Feb) To say a few friends and a bit of a party isn't quite true, had everyone come that'd been invited (some were working, some were away etc) then we'd have had just over 100 folk here on Friday evening, as it turned out the numbers were in the high 80s, including 23 children. For me it was brilliant and it showed how great folk are that live up here. In the living room at one stage there were six fiddlers and two others playing acoustic guitars, the atmosphere was something I'll remember for a long time. I finally turned in around 2.30am and woke the following morning with a slightly sore head :)

The 'house warming' fiddlers

  With just a few more boxes to move from our previously rented house and the house warming having taken place, I can now start and look at the multitude of jobs that need to be done around the place. If I can put it one way, the previous couple of owners, weren't the greatest at DIY. Apart from jobs that need to be done which are basically due to the wear and tear on an old property, there are quite a number of jobs that if they'd been done properly in the first place, probably wouldn't be needing to be done now, hey ho.

                  Robbie