Fletcher saga 27 Apr 2004

On Monday (19 Apr) we had Sky digital TV installed. The ‘ordinary’ TV reception is extremely poor in most parts of the island thus making Sky almost a necessity. Needless to say we are going for the cheapest package as watching sports and daytime films is not our idea of entertainment. The chap who fitted the Sky system came over on the early morning ferry from Kirkwall and soon had the system up and running. He had intended to return to Kirkwall on the lunchtime ferry but the weather was bad with fierce winds so all the ferries were cancelled and the poor chap did not manage to get back to Kirkwall until Tuesday lunchtime. Just one of the joys of island life.
On Friday (23 Apr) the boiler man came and repaired the oil-fired boiler that supplies our hot water and central heating. If you recollect I mentioned in my earlier sagas that I had to light the boiler by dropping a lighted piece of paper into the firebox then turning the oil feed on; it always worked but it was an anxious time waiting for the vapour to fire. The boiler man, who is based in Kirkwall on mainland Orkney, rang on Thursday to say that he was visiting Stronsay on Friday and would be with us late in the day after he had finished servicing several other boilers. 'Late in the day' turned out to be 9 pm by which time we had almost given up hope. However, he is an obliging chap who understands the special needs of the remoter islands such as Stronsay. When he visits the island - about once a year - he works for as long as it takes to get things fixed. In our case he finished work at about 1.30 am on Friday morning. As it was so late we put him up for the night in a spare room which meant moving all the ‘debris’ over to one side of the room so that he could get into the spare bed. This was after Maureen had managed to find where she had stored all the spare bed linen, thinking that we would not need it for some time. Next morning the boiler man was up at 8 am checking that all was well with the boiler before having some breakfast with us, catching the 9.50 am ferry to Kirkwall and attending an urgent fault in a heater at a fish farm in Durness. It appears that our boiler had not been serviced for several years so although the boiler man was very clean and tidied up after he had finished work Maureen was somewhat upset on Saturday lunchtime to find a thin film of soot and dust over everything in the kitchen. This meant washing down and cleaning all the tiles, working surfaces and kitchen units as well as washing everything in the kitchen that was not in a cupboard. Next time the boiler man comes (in 12 months time) we shall know better and either put everything in another room and/or cover things with a dustsheet.
On Sunday (25 Apr) and today the weather was beautifully bright, sunny nd quite warm although yesterday (Mon 26 Apr) was dull and damp. Maureen has just been into the garden and cut several pounds of rhubarb so we shall be having rhubarb crumble for tea The daffodils have just about finished but on the way to church on Sunday we noticed a lot of newborn lambs dozing beside their mothers.
It was such a nice day on Sunday that I managed to get into the garage to tidy it up and Maureen has unpacked the very last box. Now all we have to do is find somewhere to put everything. It is a good job that the garden is a reasonable size because we appear to have a lot of garden ornaments; there is just one traditional gnome but lots of other creatures such as kestrel, mice, dogs, an elephant and even two 'flower fairies'.
Last week Maureen had the delightful experience of being overflown by two swans whilst she was hanging out washing in the garden. The two birds flew over the garden so low that Maureen felt she could have reached out her hand and touched them. And a couple of weeks ago we had the spectacle of the Merry Dancers (or Northern Lights) shimmering in the sky when we looked out of our front door late one evening, they should be really spectacular in the late autumn evenings.
Rocky the pet ram continues to keep the neighbour’s grass neat and tidy and saves them the expense of buying a lawnmower whilst providing a little light entertainment by bleating at all the people who pass by. All the neighbours who cut their grass always ensure that the cuttings are placed in a corner of Rocky’s field thus giving him some extra nourishment. At the moment Maureen is feeding him with a daily bag of some slightly out-of-date crisps (not cheese and onion flavour because Rocky refuses to eat crisps of that flavour) that we discovered amongst our possessions. However, Rocky is definitely not going to get any of the Seabrook Crisps that I sent away for last week.

Last updated 15 May 2004