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I've just realised that it is already March, the days are lengthening and I did not issue a "Fletcher Saga" in February. The old saying "time flies" is so true - it seems hardly credible that on 31 March we will have been in this house for four years.

In the last week of January I was replacing some light bulbs in the kitchen's undercupboard fittings when I managed to pull a muscle in my back. This meant I had to spend several days creeping around doing a passable impression of a geriatric Quasimodo although I did manage to help out with serving the drinks when Maureen put on a Burns Nighs supper for a few friends; this event had to be held a few days after the "proper" date because the RNLI had their own Burns Night celebration on 25 Jan.

February began with a bout of bad weather; on 1st Feb all schools & day care centres in Orkney cancelled, ferries & flights disrupted because of bad weather - severe gale F9 and storm F10. Next day about half an inch of snow fell on Stronsay but quite a bit more fell on mainland and disrupted the flights into and out of Kirkwall. The snow disappeared overnight, much to the chagrin of the youngsters who were looking forwards to some tobogganing.

In late January I was notified that I had an appointment for an MRI scan in the ARI (Aberdeen Royal Infirmary) on Wed 13 Feb. It seems that I need the scan because I've gone deaf in just one ear rather than both ears at once, the scan will show whether anything untoward is going on in and around my deaf ear. Thus it was that on Tuesday 12 Feb I took the afternoon ferry to Kirkwall and booked into the Kirkwall Hotel for two nights.On Wednesday I was up early and had my early breakfast of cereal, tea & toast before heading for the airport so that I could catch the early morning flight to Aberdeen . We took off on time and in gloriously sunny weather so I was hoping to see a bit more of northern Scotland from the air. However, although the whole of Orkney and the Pentland Firth was completely cloud-free there was a line of cloud that began at the coastline of Caithness and continued almost all the way to Aberdeen. It was bitterly cold in Aberdeen (about minus 2C) but the sky was cloudless. I got a taxi to the ARI (another 12 pounds to claim back from NHS Orkney!) and had the scan, the results of which will be passed to the specialist in a week or so. The scan was quite easy if a bit noisy, having read a bit about it on the web I expected it to be much more claustrophobic. I got back to Aberdeen airport in plenty of time to catch the afternoon flight back to Kirkwall but a dense fog descended about an hour or so before the flight was due to take off and it was soon obvious that there were not going to be any more flights that day. Eventually, after some confusion, the passengers due to fly to Kirkwall were told that their flight was cancelled and re-scheduled for 9:20 am next day. There were no rooms to be had anywhere in Aberdeen so I decided to go back to ARI to see if I could beg a bed for the night. After a short delay a charming young lady introduced herself as the support nurse for Orkney & Shetland and soon arranged for me and two other Orkney folk who were stranded to stay the night at the ARI. It was about 10 pm when she escorted me to my overnight accommodation and, thanks to the wonderful nursing staff of ward 29, I was soon sitting down with some hot tea & delicious buttered toast in a single-bed ward. Next morning I was given breakfast before setting out for Aberdeen airport. Fortunately there were no further delays and I arrived in Kirkwall just before lunch. I called into the Kirkwall Hotel to collect my things and pay for the two night stay, what a pity that I didn't get the breakfast that I was so looking forwards to. However, I still had time to do a bit of shopping before catching the afternoon ferry back to Stronsay.

Maureen's medieval hall is almost complete. The walls have been plasterboarded, papered & painted; the light fittings have been installed; and all that remains is to select a suitable carpet and get it fitted. On the recommendation of a friend we're going to put down coir matting in the small entrance hall because anyone coming in through the back door inevitably brings in dirt and damp on their footwear.

Naomi Woodward and a small team of archaeologists from Orkney College have been digging at Linkshouse on Stronsay for the last week or so. This dig was a follow-up to the when some very interesting finds were made. The field walking that was undertaken then produced significant results in almost a quarter of the fields that were walked and enabled funding to be obtained for this years dig. Last Saturday the dig had an "open day" so, after dropping the hairdresser off at the airfield after her monthly trip to Stronsay, I made my way to Linkshouse Farm where quite a few local folk were already getting the "grand tour". I should have known better and taken my wellington boots - the mud was inches deep! However, Naomi gave an interesting description of what they were looking for and showed us some of their finds which included quite a lot of flint. Just to find a few significant items involved washing, sieving and then inspecting dozens if not hundreds of wheelbarrow loads of thick, black mud that had to be brought almost quarter of a mile over a very water-logged field to the barn in which the diggers had made their headquarters. Some soil samples will be sent to Stirling University for analysis. I took then, having seen the black clouds rapidly approaching, I thanked Naomi set off for home before the heavens opened.

Some readers may remember Timber, the cat who spent a couple of weeks with us in 2006 whilst his owners (Jack & Simone) were away on holiday. We had a phone call from Jack a couple of weeks ago asking if we could look after Timber at very short notice whilst Jack & Simone travelled down to the North of England where Simone's mother was not very well. Of course we agreed and Timber arrived the following day, complete with her own enormous litter tray and ample supplies of food, cat litter, etc. Timber was the perfect (purrfect?) house guest and happily dwelt in Maureen's pig-pen with the occasional foray into the corridor and, once or twice, upstairs into the bedrooms. We kept Timber and Surrey apart because Timber is "of riper years" and we didn't think it fair on Surrey who is accustomed to being the Top Cat at Claremont. A couple of weeks later, Jack phoned to say that they were back home and that Simone's mother had travelled north with them and would be living with them. So it was that when Jack & Simone collected Timber they brought Simone's mother, a charming lady, along to meet us and take tea with us. Even though we'd only had Timber for a couple of weeks it was quite emotional when we said "cheerio" as she was carried back to Jack's car.

Some friends of ours on Stronsay acquired a dog - "Shep", a sheepdog - from Westray last summer. He's calmed down a lot from his bouncy puppy days (thank goodness) but still manages to get himself into many a scrape. When his owners came downstairs the other morhing they could find no trace of Shep. They called him and searched in all his usual hiding places but he was nowhere to be found. One of the owners had to visit the bathroom but found that the bathroom door was bolted shut. As her husband was still in the kitchen it could only be the dog who had gone into the bathroom (typical nosey dog!), somehow managed to push the door closed behind him and then, scrabbling at the door handle with his paws to get out, managed to slide the bolt across thus securely locking himself in. His owner, probably having watched too many police films on TV, decided to break the door down and put his shoulder against it. Unfortunately instead of the flimsy bolt bursting open as he intended, the whole door split, vertically, into two pieces to reveal the dog, who had remained perfectly silent when he was being called, curled up and trying to hide behind the toilet bowl whilst looking decidedly guilty.
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Bruce Fletcher