Home Safe

This should have been posted in January.

Well Jill arrived back safely on Friday the 7^th Jan ,after fourteen day’s visiting the family down south. She managed to see all her friends and family and had a great time. Marcus came back with her to spend ten day’s with us, he was greeted by Buster who went completely manic, charging around the house and jumping all over him and trying to get his ear’s, which was very amusing .

On Sunday 9^th it started to snow again, with large wet flakes, by the evening we had about 2” of wet snow. Marcus has been taking Buster out for walks early mornings, which has given me a much needed break .

Plenty of walking with Marcus around South Ronaldsay over the ten day's , the weather has been fairly good a bit of rain in the mornings and then sunny but blustery at times . We went for a walk to Hoxa Head the other afternoon, it was a long hard walk  as the ground was water logged from heavy overnight rain, but on the way back with the sun  setting over the mainland it was a fitting end to the day.

Saturday we went to Stromness as Marcus wanted to get a closer view of the Island of Hoy and see some seals, well he saw Hoy, but it was so blustery that there were no Seals about, later it started to rain hard so we headed back to the Bistro in the town and had a good lunch before heading home.The Ten day's went by quick and it was time for Marcus to return Home, He enjoyed his stay and promised to return again in he summer.

Marcus With the Island of Hoy in the background.

Orkney battered by Windstorm Gustav

 What a night.
Thursday 3rd February, Gale force wind's hammered the Isle's all night and into Friday morning, at 11.30pm there was an almighty crash and Jill called out to ask what had happened, on looking out the window I could just about see the end of the garden and it looked as if the back gate had blown wide open ,so I went down stairs and into the garden to close the gate only to find that it was not there any more, the wind had torn it from it's hinges and it was now laying in the road one hundred feet away. After recovering the gate which measures six feet by three feet, I secured it in the garden before making a hasty retreat. I never slept much for the rest of the night. The next morning the wind had dropped a bit ,and I made a quick check of the outside of the house for damage, apart from a bit of rendering from the chimney breast all was well.
The Churchill Barriers were closed all night, as the waves were coming right over  the top, they were not reopened until 8.30 . With the help of Gale force SW winds  the sea had reached the top of the slipway and was starting to enter our road, fortunately high tide was at 10pm and the water never came any higher.

Below ,extract from The Orcadian  Newspaper.

After a night of severe winds, transport to and from the county was disrupted on Friday morning.
The highest reported wind speed overnight came from Hammars Hill, in Evie, where a top speed of over 122 miles per hour was recorded. According to the Met Office the maximum at Kirkwall Airport was around 73 miles per hour, with gusts over 100 miles per hour also reported in Stronsay.
125 mph gust is on par with the Great Storm of 1953.

After a night of hurricane force winds, the Hamnavoe battles her way out of Hoy Sound on Friday morning.