It's been one of those days - good strong south westerly gale force 9 gusting to 69mph which according to my Beaufort windscale chart is gusting 'force 11 violent storm'.
I can't remember where I downloaded my Beaufort scale from, but it has little descriptions by the strength of the wind telling you what it means in terms of what you observe - only they've used trees as their main example e.g. 'force 7 - large trees sway' 'force 8 - twigs are broken from trees'. Not much use in Orkney - I think my nearest trees are very small willows about 2 miles away down at Kirbuster Farm & they're always waving about no matter how strong the wind.
I think I might rewrite it for Orkney & today it's been 'force 9 - crows flying backwards'. Why do crows insist on trying to fly into the wind on a day like this? I thought Skye the Pointador (Lab/pointer cross if you're new to this blog) was going to catch one as it was not only flying backwards it was only about 3 foot above the ground - luckily it manged to get over the fence into the next field in time. Mind you it's all in the chase with Skye - she's not a killer dog (despite the hens) - it's the fun of the chase & grab - the kill is accidental.
She proved this last night when I was busy fiddling (yes still attempting to learn) and one of the cats (Tiffin) brought an Orkney vole into the house alive & let it go in our library (bit of a grand name for what used to be a cattle byre before conversion!) - under the table where some of the many boxes of books that won't fit on the shelves are stored. Had no chance of getting it out but retrieved the dogs who were doing their best to catch it & left it to the cats - Muffin had now joined her adopted sister Tiffin in the chase.
Finally finished my practice & looked round to see where Skye'd gone - found her lying down in the library wagging at me with that 'look what I've done aren't I clever' look on her face. Found that the vole had sought the only place of safety in the house - between Skye's front paws! The cats were looking on disgustedly, the vole was fine but a bit bemused & covered in dog slobber as Skye'd been licking it, so I fetched some gloves & rescued it to fight another day. Handy hint - never ever pick up an Orkney vole with bare hands - I've still got the scar from the first & only time I did - teeth like knives & not afraid to use them.
The wind's supposed to ease a bit tonight - the last two sailings of the day on the Pentland Firth have been cancelled & the Lerwick - Kirkwall - Aberdeen boat's not sailing till tomorrow morning. I did have some folk who were coming in today for a couple of days touring but they had to cancel & rebook for July. Just as well really since on a day like this they shut Skara Brae as it's too dangerous - you might get blown into one of the houses & break a leg. It's also not much fun driving in a fairly high vehicle like my van as it's quite light & catches the wind - plus the doors get dragged out of your hands & hit the nearest obstruction. No manufacturer seems to design vehicle doors with grab handles substantial enough to hold onto in an Orkney breeze. Maybe that could be another entry in my revised Beaufort scale - 'force 8 - van doors crash back'!
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