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I started this blog last month (November) but kept on putting off publishing it. Now it is December so I thought I'd best put it on the web before the New Year was upon us.

Margareth thought that readers of this Saga might like to see how the captive fruits of her Monstera Deliciosa are progressing. The flowers appeared on April the 1st 2008 and according to Botanical Knowledge the fruit takes twelve months to ripen. The fruits are filling out nicely and are well on the way to ripening. They are still living in her daughter's bedroom and being thoroughly neglected - Margareth says "no change there!. Margareth and her husband, Al, have now put on the market and wonder if the house will sell before the due event. Maybe a kindly prospective purchaser would take it on! Margareth's daughter has bought a flat and it doesn't look as though there will be room for the plant to be accommodated there!





Margareth, her husband, Al, and her unusual plant family send seasons greetings and a healthy and prosperous 2009 to you all.

Together with a handful of hardy souls Maureen and I attended the annual service at the Stronsay War Memorial at mid-day on Sun 9 Nov. It was a bitterly cold day which felt even colder because of the strong wind and the exposed location of the War Memorial. Our minister, Jennifer, made the service a very short one and we all shivered as we stood in silence to remember all those who had given their lives for our freedom.

For some time now Maureen has been complaining that the kitchen seemed to be very dark and she needed to use the under-cupboard lights in order to see what she was doing when preparing meals. As the existing 6 foot fluorescent tubes had been in use for 2 or 3 years I decided to replace them with a couple of new tubes from Ebenezer Stores. What a difference it made. Now we need dark glasses whenever we go into the kitchen!

In my last blog I mentioned that the car's windscreen wipers had stopped working. After receiving a lot of help and advice from a friend on the island I discovered that one of the the bearings had siezed up; no doubt Stronsay's salt-laden wind had contributed to this problem. However, after the application of a bit of non-too-gentle persuasion and copious amounts of lubrication the wipers are now functional once more. Now all I have to do is replace a worn-out wiper blade. The car's annual road-worthiness test becomes due in January 2009 but I think our trusty Discovery will become an "island car"; this will mean that it no longer needs annual road-worthiness tests but is prohibited from being driven anywhere except on Stronsay's roads.

We had a delivery of heating oil last month and were delighted to find that the price has now dropped back to 46.75 pence per litre; much better than the 64.8 pence per litre we paid in July. And when I took Surrey over to Kirkwall for her annual innoculation last week I found that I could buy petrol at just under a pound per gallon.

Recently I discovered the which has been very handy when Maureen wants to find out whether the library has more books by an author she enjoyed reading. The library staff are extremely helpful in responding to requests for a particular book to be put on the mobile library when it visits Stronsay, on last month's visit Maureen was delighted to receive the very latest Bernard Cornwell book "Azincourt".

This will be the final Saga for 2008; Maureen and myself (not forgetting Surrey, our white cat) wish all our readers a very happy and peaceful New Year.