sorry for the long absence from Cyberspace. January was full of expectation then disappointment as our house purchase went wrong on completion day. We managed to rescue the process and are now the proud owners of a cute house with interesting drystone outbuildings and 8 acres (plus an adjoining two acre field that we've leased for 5 years from the sellers). Picture of property below - it's five mins walk from a nice beach where there have been seals hauled out every time we've visited. 
We've spent the past six weeks knocking down internal walls, painting, ripping up floors etc. We are expecting a second-hand Rayburn to arrive in mid-April - this will form the heart of a central heating and hot water system - I hope, I'll believe it when it's working. Various setbacks and naive assumptions proved have been encountered but nothing too major. We are still living in the place ten minute drive away, which is paid for 'til the end of May.
Work on the house had to take a bit of a back seat as we've acquired some angora goats (from which Mohair comes) who needed somewhere cosy to live - one of the old byres needed new doors and some sprucing up - a some fencing (not too extreme, they are pretty calm as goats go). We went to Caithness to collect them and they are now ensconsed - concentrating on ways of getting into the vegetable garden!
The beast below is Angus - A 2 year old Billy. Still small enough to pick up and turn around when the butting game becomes a bit boring! They are quite charming little things. Much more inquisitive and entertaining than sheep but less scary than big dairy goats. We've got two young females (who will be entertaining Angus in the Autumn - kids next Spring, we hope) and a castrated male who'll keep Angus company when they need to be split up. He's called Hawthorn and is really cute! They get their coats removed twice a year - there's loads of it! Jo will spin some and we'll sell the rest on-line.
We've also added some other little friends to the collection - two Tamworth X piglets. Their job is to rotovate a small field and provide all the bacon and sausages we'll need from September on - may do some creative things like air-dried ham. They are very entertaining to watch and are slowly getting used to Orkney wind and rain (not good this last week - by far the worst weather since we got here in November).
Other animal plans include purchase of an incubator so that we can cheaply get some chickens - some glamorous ones like Legbars to look nice and provide eggs and some boring one for the pot. A polytunnel arrived last week - it's a bit of a gamble, some last some don't, an ugly windbreak made of pallets will soon be blotting the Sanday landscape!Still exploring and finding more interesting places. Birdlife is still the highpoint. I was really pleased to come across this gang of turnstones foraging on the tideline.
Hope all's well where you are. Looking forward to some good weather this week so I can continue planting out 100s of willows to make the area round the house a bit more interesting.
