Aurora borealis: Autumn starts here

September 01, 2005

Autumn starts here

Aurora header.jpg

All very quiet on the blogging front for some weeks now... the combination of the continuing crap Shetland summer, and my impending fatherhood driving me to hitherto unheard of involvement in Extreme DIY on the poor house. Those Escape to a New Life Renovating a Charming Rural Idyll programs you see on the telly? Not even scratching the surface of how hideously exhausting it can be. Have spent the last few weeks getting up at 6.30am, working in Lerwick during the day and getting home at 6.30pm, then working on the house until 10pm, quick break for dinner as blood sugar getting perilously low (never a good idea when using power tools), then working until 1am on more house renovations. I've got a basic bone-deep weariness that saps all stimulus to do anything extra-curricular like birding.

Having said that, I'm almost finished in the house, and should have it finally cracked by the end of this weekend. And (fanfare!) the crappy weather we've had all summer now feels 'right' now we're into September. It's allowed to feel autumnal now. South-easterlies last night, and JL turned up a Barred Warbler and a Kestrel in the plantation.

Lots of Pied and alba wagtails all over Shetland at the moment, so I'm confidently predicting I'm overdue finding a Citrine Wag in the fields below the house. It's gonna happen.

Follow the Weather Starling for a forecast, or see Shetland live on the NAFC webcam…