I checked the place where I deposited the rat poison…gone! I thought it had been quieter the last few days. I put some more poison down just in case the rats decide to come back for seconds.
Fire practice last night was first aid. We couldn’t take it seriously, spinning babies, using the bandages to make ouselves look like Bin Laden and a few less than satisfactory ways of seeing a casualty is just sleeping or unconcious.
The northern lights were “on” again tonight, just greens this time. I took my camera and tripod down onto the beach and was able to take some pictures this time, they can be seen here. It was almost surreal watching the northern lights while a seal splashed just yards away from me. Other than that the bay was completely silent.
F8 winds blowing from a westerly direction, this means the cat flap is almost permanently in the horizontal (open) position.
Updated the pictures on www.longhope.co.uk, well it’s been 3 years! Another calm, sunny day.
Saturday 15th November
My snowboarding boots sold for £51 on Ebay! Yay! Calm day, after a run I cycled round South Walls and took some pictures. Still lots of seals around, one right outside the Custom House making that strange noise that they make.
Friday 14th November
In town this afternoon to collect a WC and basin from Jewsons, I don’t trust Groats to deliver them without damaging them. Plus plenty of other things to do in town too.
Still catching up and busy with the house. Today some porpoises were in the bay, they were too quick for my camera so I had to be content with a picture of some seals basking just along from my house. It’s here. Having got the Canon and the big 500mm lens out I thought I’d try for a picture of the moon at night, it’s here. I’m really proud of it, it’s my first decent astrophotography effort. 
I haven’t blogged for 3 weeks, 2 of those I was away in Inverness. I’m still catching up with things but pictures from the trip can be seen on the following links…… Dunrobin Castle, Inverness, Loch Ness, Culloden. More pictures to be added.
My new and long awaited (well, 3 weeks) running shoes arrived last night and were christened this morning with my “standard” 3.5 mile run, no problems. The run cleared a mild hangover from post-FB drinking too. Incidentally, I am currently running about 14 miles per week.
Monday 29th September
I found a dead bird in the hall this morning, it’s heart literally torn out. Vodka was sitting on the kitchen table trying to look innocent. A bird feather attached to her fur established her guilt as surely as a smoking gun.
Sunday 28th September
A beautiful day so I took my new camera (and my older camera) up to Ward Hill which I climbed in just over an hour…its interesting, the walk is difficult to be sure, but mentally difficult too. I will post the pictures in the Longhope site in a few days.
Website of the day: The Skeptic’s Dictionary
Friday 27th September
I bought a 3 month old Canon EOS-10D digital SLR camera with 750300mm USM zoom lens from Ebay the other and today it arrived! It’s brilliant and a bargain at half the new price too. The seller was helpful and seemed genuine.
Sigh, I haven’t blogged for nearly a month. Luckily I have a diary of recent events…..
Monday September 15th
BA exercise on the Hoy Head. Very tiring, very useful. I was number one for the first time. Then we sojourned to the pub where I drank 4 pints (the most for some time) and felt decidely rough the next day.
Sunday September 14th
Lovely day so I went for a walk to the greenheads in the afternoon. Very pleasant. I will post some pics on the longhope.co.uk site sometime.
Wednesday September 10th
First RNLI exercise for absolutely ages. A lot of new (and very young) faces on the crew now. Nothing demanding, fortunately.
Monday 8th September
Pump exercise, used the pump to empty out a sheep dip. Somehow we all got wet and stank. We had to hose each other down with water from a hydrant before we could go home.
Sunday 7th September
A beautiful day for being outdoors and I got stuck in a classroom revising First Aid. Actually it wasn’t too bad and I did get paid for it too. I learnt something new; a defibrilator actually stops the heart. The brain then restarts it and hopefully restarts it with a regular rhythm. This is why CPR is important, the brain needs oxygen to survive.
Easter never seems like Easter here. The buses don’t run, the banks are shut but apart from that everything is pretty much business as usual. It’s a bit of a shame. Thank heavens for cute lambs! I went to Kirkwall on my motorbike this morning. I’m getting better at taking corners faster although some town riding needs improvement. I bought an airline ticket to Bucharest today; a break I’ve planned for next week. Apart from that I had a look round, had lunch and came home. Did some more work on the stairs, had a run, attended a fire practice. Pretty mundane huh? The diver who died yesterday was a 60 year old Canadian.
