Geocaching on the Ness of Hillswick

James, Martha and myself took advantage of the breezy brightness to go and check the Geocache we look after - Another Fine Ness, it's called, if you're into Global Positioning as it relates to treasure hunting.

Imagine our astonishment to find that the cache had been visited in the dreadful weather of last Sunday (it's an hour's rough hike just to get there from the road end). I hope the Fisher family survived.

A morning at Eshaness

Took Lulu the St Bernard out for a walk this morning up at the Eshaness cliffs. Ronnie was out checking his creels - that's his boat - and while it was glorious to the west (Foula can be seen, glinting in the distance) more snow showers were coming in from the north, and Ronnie was racing them back to harbour.

Blue skies and the tale of Logan Mountstuart

The snow won't let go. But gradually, in the face of inexorable spring, it is loosening its grip.
The Radiocroft is not looking its best at the moment. I'm toying with the idea of painting it country-cottage white, but I quite like the way it half-merges with the ground around it.

Which sounds, I fear, a little like mid-period Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, protagonist of William Boyd's absolutely superb Any Human Heart:The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart. I'm currently re-reading it, and this 20th-century-spanning tale of one man's complex, messy, name-dropping, tragi-comic life remains both comforting and disturbing.

In fact, it now has me poised on the edge of purchasing William Gerhardie's 'lost' novels Doom and The Polyglots and venturing into what's left of Cyril Connolly's published works, which is probably not advisable. Gerhardie and Connolly were apparently the models for Mountstuart, who made his first appearance as a 'source' for Boyd's hoax biography
of non-existent American abstract expressionist Nat Tate. Complete with photograph.

As if I don't have anything better to do! The Malt and Barley Revue's premiere is approaching rapidly, and I still can't play the ukulele properly.

How are the mighty (nearly) fallen! Toyotas, horses and Citroens in the snow

Yesterday's weather deteriorated during the programme until, at 4.00pm, I received a call from Susan to say she was stuck on what is known locally as 'The Footpath' - not a footpath at all but a steep road between Ollaberry and Ronas Voe. This despite her super-tough Landcruiser 4X4, which suffered the ignominy of being hauled out by, variously, a gritter lorry, a pick-up truck (probably a Toyota Hi-Lux, though possibly a Mitsubishi L200) and a tractor. She sends heartfelt thanks to all concerned. And is off to buy new tyres, her (legal, just) Dunlop AT20s clearly not being up to the job.
As it happens, I had to drive all the way to Sumburgh Airport to pick up Magnus, who had flown in for the Easter holidays...that was a 130-mile round trip in frequently horrendous conditions, including a complete white-out at Levenwick. The Citroen C4 (new acquisition) was amazingly agile throughout, even in deep snow...that 1.6 diesel engine has the torque and the front wheel drive walks the walk. And new tyres probably helped.
Back in Hillswick, so far the promised new downfall of heavy snow has not materialised, and the roads have been cleared, for the most part. Kilkerran the Connemara horse (AKA Crofty or Crafty) is a new addition to the local landscape and seems to be enjoying the conditions. He's soon to be joined by a rescued Shetland pony, which is apparently knee-high to the smallest snow drift. However, Shetland ponies can, in my experience, survive anything, including being hit by large four wheel drive vehicles. The ponies walk away, unconcerned for the most part. The 4X4s are usually write-offs.

Winter at The Radiocroft. In spring.

Easter Monday, and it's not just snowy, it's bitterly cold and very windy too. Still, so far the power's on and all the digital gubbins is working, so I'm fit to broadcast. Have to go into Lerwick later anyway, to pick up Magnus - he's flying north for the week from Glasgow - but if The Radiocroft is working, it's as well to use it.

Just booking a holiday in Spain for July, and looking at pictures of the Costa Brava in searing summer, it's hard to believe in a world of gazpacho, tapas, Sardanas and San Miguel. But it exists! At least, I think it does.

Anyway, this is the first real snow of the entire winter, and it's arrived just as spring begins. And for the first time I have a car which lacks snow tyres.