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As our summer nights are very short so our winter nights are very long. At this time of year it is dark just after 3 pm and does not really become light until after 9 am. The Maeshowe webcam is now back online at http://www.maeshowe.co.uk ready for the Solstice this week; it remains on-line until 05 Feb 2007. Let's hope the weather this year is a lot better than it was last year. Especially when Highland Park Distillery (http://www.highlandpark.co.uk)have now sponsored the webcam and thus allowed the purchase of a new computer and other hardware which will greatly enhance the reliability of the site.

During these dark evenings Maureen has been continuing her sewing, mostly cross-stitch and blackwork. Our cat, Surrey, usually watches for a while then gets bored and wanders off. The other week Maureen had finished a piece of blackwork so, for a change, started to knit a new hat for herself. To Maureen's amazement, Surrey jumped down from her seat on the window ledge, picked up a spare knitting needle that had fallen onto the floor, strolled across the room with the needle carefully held in her mouth then jumped up onto Maureen's knee and for all the world it seemed that she wanted either to help Maureen to knit or she wanted Maureen to knit her a hat.

At the end of Nov the leaking flat roof on the big room at the back of the house decided to shed a piece of ceiling plasterboard onto the carpet. One of the builders on the island has tried to fix things up temporarily until next spring when the flat roof comes off and a new, better roof is put on. However, one part of the roof is so bad that, even after the builder's best effort at a temporary fix, water is still getting in and we are having to empty the buckets after every rainfall. We had hoped that the new roof would have happened much earlier so that we could have the big room for some Christmas entertaining but it was not to be.

I went over to Kirkwall at the end of November to see the ENT specialist from Aberdeen. I took the LoganAir flight rather than use the ferry as it makes such a difference in travelling time - 8 minutes each way to fly as opposed to 2 hours each way on the boat. Some strong cross winds made the flight "interesting" and we made the return trip in record time thanks to a strong tailwind. I'm glad I saw the specialist though. New medication has unblocked my nose and now I can fully appreciate the taste & smell Maureen's delicious cooking - just in time for Christmass.

Malcolm, our multi-talented handyman, has not been well lately but he has managed to complete Maureen's raised beds in the back garden. The three beds, constructed from cement blocks on a concrete foundation, have been left empty for several weeks so that the mortar & cement can "cure" but now they are ready. All I have to do is transfer umpteen barrow-loads of material from the compost heap and fill the beds ready for planting in the Spring.

Dr George MacKay, our genial island GP, now has a kitten to keep him company. The kitten's name is Jaffa but I believe that she is soon to be renamed Katie (after George's grand-daughter). Jaffa/Katie has already discovered the great joy of re-arranging several dried flower arrangements.

We have read in the national newspapers that some town and cities have cancelled the official switch-on of their Christmass lights because of public safety fears. Stronsay had no such inhibitions and we had the official "switch on" of the Stronsay Christmass Tree lights at 7:30 pm on Sat 02 Dec. The weather was just about perfect - a dry, clear night with a good moon, virtually no wind and a mild (6C 43F) temperature. After the "switch on" ceremony everyone moved back into the Community Centre for some community carol-singing lead by the Stronsay Singers, who consist of those folk attending the regular Monday evening class in singing. I didn't inflict my voice on the assembled company but helped by accompanying the carols on a small, portable keyboard. The social evening continued with items by the school-children and by other island inhabitants.

The island's two shops are now absolutely crammed with Christmass-related goodies but, fortunately, there is NO "canned" music therefore their customers are not forced to listen to interminable repeats of Christmass songs and carols. The other week we were shopping in Ebenezer when we noticed a toy unicorn which was almost the size of a small Shetland pony. Maureen remarked "I wonder where they found the virgin!" The shopkeeper was quite perplexed by this remark until Maureen told her of the legend was that a unicorn can only be captured by a virgin. Last time we were in the shop we noticed that the unicorn had gone from the shelf, so somewhere on Stronsay a little girl is going to have a very, very special present on Christmas Day.

One of our neighbours first moved to Stronsay from England nearly 20 years ago. He recently paid a short return visit to England in order to visit his family and the family of his wife. He also intended to purchase a large, powerful motorbike, having retained a love of motorbikes since spending many years as a despatch rider in London before moving to Stronsay. Apparently the most difficult part of his "Easy Rider" drive northwards from England was not saddle-soreness nor the unaccustomed heavy traffic but the process of actually getting onto his new motorbike for the first time whilst wearing his brand-new, very stiff waterproof clothing. He made the journey northwards without further incident and soon showed up on our doorstep in his "Dennis Hopper meets Marlon Brando" outfit to show us his new pride and joy (which we have nick-named the Yellow Peril).