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I`m an insomniac of sorts. So here I am, up afore the rest o` the hoosehold, typing on the laptop, been up since 4am. It`s still dark out there..well, darkish...thon`s a bright and bonny moon...and hail is pelting off the window, right hard a sound, it is.
Friends I have frae doon sooth say they had snow yesterday. Meanwhile, we`d another day o` glorious sunshine...I could stand out the front o` the hoose, looking ower towards Stronsay, and see the sunlight paint the water wi` liquid gold and roll it`s soft winter light across the fields, where the sheep grazed and enjoyed the illusion of warmth for a change. If I squinted a little to ignore the fact me rose bushes were bare nekked wi`oot ony leaves, I could kid meself it was something like summer.
That`s no` normal, I tell ye, in February!
Me ain geese positively basked in the sunshine. Even oor auld collie Lassie lolled in front o` the hoose with a sleepy eyed look. Nope, no` normal, it wasnae.
So I`m still hoping we get some snow yet, and a proper winter, nane o` the grey wet stuff called rain either! Proper, white, soft, deep snow.
It`s no` a popular view mind you! Everyone complains aboot climate change on the one hand, but moans if it gets cauld or we get an inch o` snow on the other! There`s nae pleasing some folks.

The other half made a start at repairing oor storm damaged chicken hutches yesterday. Come spring we`ll need them to put any hatched chicks and mums in. I also house the hatched ducklings and mums in them too to protect them from the big, hungry blackbacked gulls. I have stood and watched one o` them swoop doon and in one smooth gulp, steal one o` me wee new ducklings and swallow it live, and whole! Stood and watched, because it was over and done in a peedie blink and I couldnae have gotten to it in time. And the gulls are brazen aboot it! They will do this then stand for a while and look at ye with beady eyes as if tae say "Aye...and whit are you goin` tae dae aboot it?"
Not a fan o` the blackbacks, me. And then there`s the jackdaws which also steal both duck eggs and young. So the minute they`re hatched, into the hutches and runs they go.
Mind you, I have seen some funny things ower the years...a duck had hidden a nest o` eggs deep in the dog rose bushes, and I hadnae seen it. The eggs were duds...but one day I watched a jackdaw steal one o` them, but because it was a hefty size o` an egg, it got only a few yards afore it dropped it, then just as it swooped after it to retrieve it, the egg hit the ground and exploded in a mess of stinking, putrid, rotten-ness....that jackdaw let oot a great croak and veered off pretty sharpish...och, I ken they`ve tae feed themselves too...but I did feel a little sense o` natural justice.....
It`s nae wonder ducks hatch so many young mind you...they`re no` the best o` mothers. They will roll over their own young in the water trough, stand on them and squash them in the rush to get to any food, and plain just leave them stranded in the middle o` a field whilst they wander off on their own business. Between that and the gulls, it`s a wonder tae me ony o` them mak it at a`....
But each year I always get around a couple o` dozen fine healthy ducklings, and they usually mak` it, and provide a good source o` meat throughout the year.


There is to be a Sanday Sunday event come August. I`m to do a wee stint with my Viking Age warp weighted loom! Me and the other half used to belong to a reenactment group until work pressures meant we`d to leave it, and he made this replica of the loom for that. We take it for granted, being able to walk into a shop and buy cloth or clothes or blankets etc nowadays. But back then you`d tae dae it a` frae scratch. This shows just how time consuming that was. I`m looking forward tae it...it`s a test of courage o` sorts for me...because I`m a hermit and awfy shy, like.....but I`m looking forward tae it. :D