Category Archives: The Vet Who Came In from the Cold

Places and Things

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Last Monday, I spent a day at my parents’ old place, sorting out rooms so as to be ready to put the house on the market. It wasn’t my childhood home. I only lived there briefly when I came back from Norway, but it has always felt very much a haven. As I looked through the things that are left there (Mum and Dad are now in their new house) it was easy to see how so much gets collected over a lifetime.
There are things in that house that my children made. On the windowsill in the bedroom I’m sleeping in, there’s the sheep Christmas tree topper that John and I made a few years back.

I shall probably bring it home with me. It’s a precious memory. The clock on the shelf is an old fashioned wind-up clock that chimes. It’s not going at the moment, but it holds much older memories of Christmas. I can remember the feelings of anticipation as I lay in the bunk bed at my Grandparents’ house. From outside came the sound of trains passing and downstairs in the sitting room the chimes of the clock marked the passing of the hours until Father Christmas would arrive.

There were things I’d never seen before that triggered all kinds of feelings. I found a small black box and opened the lid to find a set of tiny brass weights, neatly slotted into holes. Other small squares of what looked like foil were actually even smaller weights, going down to tiny portions of a gramme. Inside the lid, in ink from a fountain pen was the address of the house with the bunk beds and the train. The weights were used by Dad when he set out as a chemist more than half a lifetime ago. They’re now in my car as he gave me permission to take them.

Rather more melancholy was an old leather wallet which I opened to find a small bundle of Euros. They’d obviously been tucked away for the next foreign holiday: a time that never came after Covid and now won’t be taking place at all. I guess this kind of tidying usually happens after ones parents are dead, so I’m lucky really to be doing it now, while they’re still here.

Work seemed a little more manageable. No new cases this week but the ones I have still took up all the available time. Staff at the two levels above me (line managers and Vet Advisors, then Vet Leads) are also bogged down with the ongoing bird flu outbreak. I wasn’t the only one who had to cancel their trip to the first ever UK TB conference. I think, in the end, only two APHA veterinary staff managed to attend. It was somewhat ironic then that the very top man – Head of Field Services (and not a vet) – sent out a happy message to say he’d attended part of it and found it very inspiring. Apparently we’re doing a great job in Scotland. Just a pity that almost none of us heard it in person.

Still, my cases are moving along. We won’t eradicate it though, until rules are put in place stopping farmers from importing cheap cows from infected areas. At the moment, those who do are not discouraged in any way. If those cheap cattle go down with TB, they are valued at Scottish values and the government compensates at that level. Similarly, if they bring it in, with high risk purchases, their own cattle are similarly compensated for. If there was some kind of penalty for not taking reasonable precautions for keeping it out, the whole package would be a lot less tempting and the poor old neighbouring farmers, who work hard to keep it out, wouldn’t find themselves having to put in all kinds of additional protections.

Alongside that, I am beginning the process of overseeing the cleansing and disinfection (C&D) of the poultry farm where I diagnosed bird flu back in January. The birds are all gone and APHA has carried out preliminary C&D. The farm has to do the rest and I’m to oversee that they do it properly. It’s not going to be easy as the buildings are both large and complex. In a few months time, when they put in what are called sentinel birds (a percentage of the flock, that are regularly tested before full restocking can occur) I will feel pretty bad if more birds go down. Now I’ve been with APHA I’m beginning to see that there are a lot of my past actions and investigations that could come back to haunt me! This one is just faster than the rest!

I’d hoped for a bit more snow this morning, but there’s barely a covering. Photo below. Anyway, enough for now. I must go and do a bit more sorting! Thank you for reading and I hope you have a good week.

Cancelled

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I was meant to be going to York this week for a conference on TB. I suppose I’m not surprised, but my trip was cancelled yesterday afternoon as they need me to cover duty vet from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning. I knew others had already cancelled, and really it was going to be hard to fit in my TB cases (and ongoing work round the bird flu outbreak) around it, but I am disappointed. It would have been a good chance to meet with the UK APHA team who are trying to eradicate the disease from the UK and to better understand the fuller picture.

I do have a day of flexi booked for Monday and at least that is being honoured. I’m paying a flying visit to see mum and dad, so that can still go ahead. They are still in the throes of moving house, so help is needed.

On the home front, the decorator finally arrived on Monday and has been doing a sterling job on the woodwork bedrooms upstairs and the hallway. I asked him to paint the hall white. It’s an old house and rather dark, so this seemed like a good plan, but it struck me when looking at it that I’m used to Scandinavian white walls with wooden skirtings, that break the whole thing up. It’s not quite finished, but I’m now looking at what I can hang on the walls and how many plants I need to bring in to break up the blank look. I don’t really have the spare mental capacity or indeed the finances to tackle it all at once, but I’ve been living in a building site for more than a year now. I can wait a bit longer.

I was out yesterday at two farms. One has a TB outbreak, the other has been put under restrictions because some stock from the first farm are being overwintered there. When a farm has an animal that reacts to a TB test (or where TB typical lesions are found at the slaughterhouse) that farm is automatically placed under a movement restriction. This isn’t as cataclysmic as the bans for bird flu (which mean everyone and everything coming on and off the farm needs a licence) but it does mean cattle can’t be moved on or off.

Straightforward enough, you’d think, but I’ve been amazed since returning to the UK, to find out how intricate the UK farming industry is. Perhaps I just wasn’t seeing some of the detail, but mostly in Norway it seemed that cattle were born on a farm, grew up there, gave birth and milked and/or raised their young (some of which were sent to the abattoir when big enough) then died. People sometimes sold animals and of course, they were moved from winter housing to summer grazing, but mostly I wasn’t aware of too much moving around.

Here in the UK, many beef cattle are born on one farm then go to the market and are sold as “stores”. They stay on that farm for a while, then go back to the market and are sold as “finishers”, before finally being sent for slaughter. In addition to that, lots of farms send a few of their cattle to overwinter on someone else’s farm. I guess this maximises the number of animals. If you have plenty of grazing, but not quite enough housing, and someone else has sheds they’re not using, it makes sense in a way, but from a notifiable disease perspective, all these moves are a nightmare.

So then, back to my second farm that is under restrictions because there are animals there from the breakdown farm. There are animals from three farms on that premises. They are there for the winter, but there isn’t grazing space in the summer and now they are under restrictions where they can’t be moved off until we are as sure as we can be that none of them have TB.

Not talking about the specific farm, but in general, there are various possible groups. Some might be finishers, so they can still go to the slaughterhouse (under licence) when they are big enough. Others might be dairy heifers. They are overwintered on farms where there is no dairy or facilities. If they are in calf and calving is imminent, they may need to be moved to somewhere they can calve and then be milked.

As you can imagine, this all becomes very complicated. Occasionally we can move animals on welfare grounds, but all such moves have to be justified, with an assessment of how much it will increase the risk of spreading disease and how much it might cost the government if a healthy animal is moved to an infected premises and picks up the disease. I must admit, I often look at this whole web of movements and wish it didn’t happen.

Anyway, after looking at this particular situation, I now need to apply for general licences for the two sets of finishers that are present, then I need to call the third farmer, who I haven’t yet spoken to (the land owner should have informed him of the restrictions, but I can’t control what third parties do) and ask what animals he has there and whether they are fine there for the foreseeable future, or whether being there longer than expected might create a welfare problem.

So as you can probably see, finding a single animal that has reacted to a TB test can cause a cascade of work. And that’s before we start to look at testing neighbouring animals that might have said hello over a wall, or where animals might have come from and been sold to. In one of my other cases, they have finally identified the strain of the bacteria. Now I have to look at other farms where they’ve had related strains to see if I can find any links. It’s fascinating work, but there’s quite a lot of it and a finite amount of time in which to do it. So really, it’s probably just as well I’m not going to York, but it’s still a bit sad I can’t go.

Last week, Triar and I walked up Knockendock, which is a smaller hill attached to Criffel, which we walked up last summer. It was a bit misty on top, but Triar posed very prettily beside the cairn, as you can see in the picture at the top of the page. There was a great view from nearly the top and I survived walking through a high-level peat bog without unexpectedly sitting down or falling on my face, which was undoubtedly a result!

For me, seeing Triar trotting happily ahead of me is one of the best views possible. But that’s all for now. Thanks for reading and have a lovely week.

Catching Up

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Working as a government vet, there are times when my job brings an intensity to life that I find fascinating, almost addictive at times. I am still dealing with the aftermath of the bird flu investigation. The initial visit – walking round the shed seeing the sick birds was just the start. There followed a tense period of information gathering. Behind the front line workers like me, there are teams working on epidemiology, tracings and licensing. They need to understand the minutiae of the on-farm operations.

So during that period, it’s as if nothing else matters. It’s all-consuming. The rest of life takes such a back seat that any daily struggles and all other work fall into the background. I fall into a seat in front of the TV at the end of my working day and it’s enough.

As the tidal wave of that work begins to slow, the rest of life and the other work tasks trickle back into focus, but at the moment, those (work) tasks are still quite urgent. Principally, I fell back from avian influenza into the slower wave of bovine tuberculosis. As well as dealing with outbreak work, I should also be doing routine work relating to trade and imports and exports. But our work is prioritised and often we are so busy that we are only skimming the top of what needs to be done. That said, I slipped in a Poultry Health Scheme inspection into my calendar on Tuesday, completed the paperwork and sent it off the next day. The deadline was March, but it was painless (actually I enjoy those visits) and now it’s done.

So picking up the reins of my TB cases, one is quite far along. At the start, there’s a lot to be done, contacting the farmer, explaining what will happen. Broadly, no cattle can move on or off the premises, other than to a slaughterhouse (where they will be scrutinized for disease) and even that is done under licence. There follows a period of testing and culling. Most of the tests are skin tests, but we do blood testing too, at the start. Any animals with positive results are culled and those too are inspected for signs of TB infection. Once we have two clear tests in a row and we have paperwork to say the farmer has cleaned and disinfected the area or areas where the sick animals were housed, then we lift the restrictions.

So with the first of my cases, we are past the blood test and the first of the two skin tests just came back clear. It’s not impossible something might show up, but generally from here it’s plain sailing. In my other case, we are just concluding the blood test. It tends to throw up more positive results, so those animals have to be processed, slaughtered and inspected. I guess it may sound barbaric, but compared with the suffering TB can cause if it goes unchecked… well these things have to be weighed against each other.
To me, those results look quite good. There weren’t so many positives. It will be interesting to see whether any of the animals have what are called “visible lesions” – the TB bacteria tend to wall areas off in the body, a bit like abscesses. If they find those, they will do further testing. Finding the bacteria is almost the holy grail because that allows us to get a much better idea of where the disease came from because they can test to see what strain it is and which other cases are closely related. It takes ages though to grow the bacteria and sometimes they can’t.

Anyway, I digress! As well as working through this process, I have to write everything up in a monthly report. My information and that of all the other cases goes to Scottish Government for oversight. The whole thing takes up a lot of time. I’ve also been allocated the job of overseeing the cleansing and disinfection work at my bird flu farm. The cull is finished and the shed is almost empty. But as the end of the week came into view, I was just thinking that next week, I have plenty to do, but that I will also be able to fit in a welfare visit that’s part of another ongoing investigation that has currently been sidelined. And then my line manager asked me to take on another TB case. This one’s just starting. What testing will be required remains to be seen because all we have at the moment is a positive result, found on a routine skin test. If they don’t find visible lesions then the regime will be different again, but my initial tasks include a Disease Risk Form – a visit to the farm to look at possible source and spread. Is this beginning to sound familiar? This is what I do!

Anyway, in among the work, I am trying to sort out when I might take holidays and who I might visit. My attention is so distracted that I realized yesterday that I’ve booked a week’s holiday that overlaps with a weekend on duty, so I’m going to have to work out what to do about that. For now though, I intend to rest and enjoy the weekend. Last week, Triar and I climbed a whole load of rough steps to visit the Waterloo Monument above New Abbey. It was quite a grey day, but I took a few photos.

We didn’t make it all the way to the top. The stairs were very dark and Triar said no halfway up. Unsurprising really and a sensible decision! Anyway, thanks as ever for reading. I hope you have a lovely week.

Another Weekend

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Another weekend is here, and looking back through my photos, most of them are of food! It would be fair to say that, when I’m out walking round a chilly farmyard all day, it is lovely to get back to a hotel, where someone else will cook for me. The picture at the top of the page was a starter – chicken skewers. I followed it up with sweet and sour prawns.

We were staying in the Premier Inn in Ayr, which was very pleasant. I know there are other staff who prefer to go out and find different restaurants to eat in, but for me the benefits of simply walking downstairs and being fed are too tempting to resist. Although the food is obviously mass prepared (it’s fairly consistent from hotel to hotel) I can usually find something I want to eat. I discovered the sweet and sour in Brighton and I would order it again.

I had to laugh at Lesley’s (the animal health officer who had arranged the trip) main course. She had ordered the chicken skewers as a main. I saw it came with flatbread, but hadn’t twigged that there were chips too. What turned up was a plate of chicken skewers (pretty succulent and with that tangy yogurt dip) with a mega flatbread chip butty! Guess it was probably not much more carb overload than mine, with its white rice and sweet sauce, but it looked way less appetizing!

Lesley had booked the rooms and, for the first time ever, I had a Premier room in the Premier Inn. I was impressed to find both a fridge and a coffee machine in the room, though in the end, having tried to coffee machine with the small sachets of cold milk, I reverted to instant decaffeinated with lattes from the restaurant at breakfast. The little bars of chocolate were nice though.

The farm visits went well. We were blood testing the cattle for a TB Gamma test. The traditional test for TB has always been a skin test, where tuberculin (non infectious liquid, derived from the bacteria that cause tuberculosis) is injected into the neck, to see if it causes an immune response . While a positive skin reaction means it’s very likely the cow has tuberculosis, a non-reaction isn’t a good guarantee that she doesn’t have it. With the gamma test, some cows without TB might have a positive result, but it can pick up earlier infections and is more likely to identify animals with TB that the skin test would miss. We use these tests in combination where there is an outbreak, to try to ensure we get as many of the infected animals as possible.

Fortunately for me, we had a great team and I didn’t have to do too much of the testing. It’s a very physical job, either lifting the cow’s tail and taking blood from a vein that runs down the centre, or getting down on your knees and taking it from the neck. I did a lot of blood testing in the early years of my career because brucellosis testing was still routinely done in cattle, every three years. It seems it’s like riding a bike, because I can still do it, which is just as well because I was asked to step in a couple of times on animals where it was difficult to get blood. The relief when I managed was significant. As my main role was in supervising a new animal health officer who was learning, it wouldn’t look good if I couldn’t do it myself.

The bird flu outbreak is going on and on, though really February is possibly the worst month for it, so it’s not unexpected. I was duty vet yesterday and another two investigations came in. One of them sounded like a certainty, so it looks like our little team will continue to be busy in the coming weeks. I have learned a lot from my involvement last week, not least because I made some errors in case handling and didn’t collect anything like enough evidence for the tracings team. I had to go back and get additional information about exactly where manure had been spread from the farm, when feed had been delivered to each shed, where they got their bedding materials and when and to where had any carcasses been taken away, before the outbreak set in. On a big farm, there are a lot of comings and goings over twenty one days. I did gather the information, but I should have returned the day after I walked round the shed to look at the birds to ask a whole load more questions and to get copies of the paperwork showing all those interactions. Next time, I will have much better oversight. This is how I learn best. As well as being a huge farm, it was only my fourth ever investigation and my first to go positive, and so the steep learning curve goes on.

I had a lovely weekend with Valerie. As well as the hot tub, she introduced me to the addictive TV experience that is Traitors. We binge watched it and it was fascinating to see the damage done in a society when some are enabled and willing to lie and deceive and others (acting innocently) cause havoc and failure through their over-confidence in their skills and beliefs. Others yet, with unseen wisdom and less self-confidence, are ignored. I realise what we see is heavily edited to give a certain slant to things, but seeing the interplay when we know more of the truth than the contestants is very interesting indeed.

Anyway, I shall leave you with my one, single, scenic photo from Ayrshire. Scotland is very beautiful, even in the middle of a sullen, damp winter. Thank you for reading. I hope you have a good week.


Positive

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This week, I’ve been involved at the ongoing bird flu outbreak at Scotland’s biggest egg producer. Case AIV2026-06 Millennium Farm was confirmed positive for infection on 15th January.
As it’s already in the press, I can say that this was not the first in the group of farms in that area, but the investigation and clinical assessment still took me many hours and the last two days have been filled with paperwork. Once disease has been confirmed, more work is triggered, both on farm, where teams prepare for the culling of thousands of birds, while in offices, other teams begin the long process of tracing which commercial vehicles came on and off the farm, delivering feed, collecting eggs and manure. Where did they go. Where might the virus have spread.
As you can imagine, our limited staff of vets and animal health officers have been working flat out. The management team must be exhausted too. I was incredibly pleased though, that when I was sent out on Wednesday, one of our most experienced animal health officers was sent out to carry out the sampling process. As I had been in full PPE for four hours by this time, carrying out my clinical investigation on the birds, I was incredibly grateful as he swung into action. All I had to do was number the swabs and hand them to him. By this point, writing clearly and getting the numbers in the right order took all my concentration.

I stayed in a nearby hotel overnight, where they very kindly kept the kitchen open for me for an extra few minutes and produced the meal in the picture at the top of the page, which was slow roast belly pork. I had already downed a pint of cola and a glass of water by the time it arrived. Having eaten it, I did begin to feel almost human again!

I can’t say I slept much. Not in any way the fault of the hotel bed, which was very comfortable, but my mind and body were in that state where I was almost too tired to sleep. Still, I got up for breakfast at 07:30 to join my colleagues, one of whom, I think, was involved in the breakdown from the weekend before, and the other was my lovely, experienced animal health officer from the day before. While I went back up to my hotel room to start completing the forty pages of information I had to provide, he was heading back to the farm to start measuring buildings and assessing how the cull would go ahead. These experienced staff are invaluable and my one sour note in all this is that the civil service have removed progressive pay, so that these hugely experienced staff get paid very little more than someone who is just starting on the job.

Eggs royale for breakfast. Delicious!

I returned to Dumfries on Thursday afternoon and picked up poor Triar, who’d had to watch me rush in, pack a case, and leave the day before. I’m incredibly grateful to Donna (when am I not?) who calmly agreed to take him in and told me just to go and everything would be taken care of. I do have the most wonderful friends.

I had barely expected to get the weekend off. I was on what’s called the detached duty rota this week, which means I can be sent to an outbreak anywhere. My phone is on, my kit is in the car and, if anything else goes down, it’s not impossible I’ll be called on. But for now, I’m at Valerie’s near Stirling. Yesterday evening, I drank mulled wine in her hot tub and today (God willing 😆) we’re going to a Chinese buffet for lunch.
Next week’s plan involves blood testing cattle for two days, or at least teaching one of the new animal health officers to do so. Obviously, there’s still a chance I might be redirected, but wherever I’m sent, Triar will be here for a few days, while I’ll be away. One thing about this job, life never stands still.

Thank you for reading. Hope you have a good week.

Soup and a Sandwich

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During the winter months, it was always going to be hard to keep up with my walking intentions. I’ve mentioned before that, with WalkFit’s help, I was doing a regular 7,500 steps a day, with additional monthly challenges on top. I don’t know whether I might have kept it up if WalkFit hadn’t failed me, but with a combination of complete darkness outside of working hours and the onset of icy weather, which makes falling much more likely, I have not been keeping up with my intentions in the past week.

I did start well over the New Year break. Last week, I described my waterfall adventures and I had two lovely walks at the weekend. The first was up a path near Torthorwald which I found when looking for a different path, but went with it anyway. Triar and I ended up tramping 10,000 steps on some lovely tracks and backroads.

Sunday’s walk was a bit more limited, crammed in between church and a birthday celebration Donna held for me in the afternoon. It was another lovely day though, more backroad walking and some possible exploration for the future.

Work continues to be very up and down and that does have a bearing on my walking as well. As I mentioned above, the shortness of the days, combined with a workday where we are supposed to work from eight thirty until five leaves little time for walking in the sun. And some of my tasks, such as duty vet, which I did yesterday, leave me so exhausted and demoralised that there is little energy for anything other than slumping in front of the TV.

There are good days though. I like working on farms and with farmers. There are few places I would rather be than in a cow shed. There’s something about being among cattle that brings me a feeling of serenity. I realise I don’t instil the same feeling in them, but I do try! Sometimes, because of the nature of my cases, I have to spend time away from home and that probably happens most with TB cases. I’m dealing with two outbreaks at present and both are a couple of hours drive from Dumfries. I’ve named this week’s blog after the lunch I have most often when I’m working away from home.

On days when I work away from the office for more than five hours and less than ten, I’m allowed to claim £7 expenses for food and drink. Most cafes in Scotland offer some kind of soup and sandwich combination and as it is warming and cheap, that is the lunch I go for most often. The lunch in the picture was potato soup and a Brie and cranberry toastie and it was as rustic and delicious as it looks. The week after next, I will be spending two days at the same farm I visited this week to train a new animal health officer in blood sampling. I’ll be staying up there with some lovely colleagues, working on farm during the day, staying in a Premier Inn overnight. Those trips are undoubtedly the highlight of my job. I’m just hoping this time that it’s not too cold.

It seems that half of the UK is currently enveloped in snow, but here in Dumfries, nothing. I find it a bit disappointing after my years in the Arctic. Over there, it was perhaps too much of a good thing, but I miss the brightness it brings and I also have some fabulous spiky boots that aren’t really useful on ice as they need some depth to dig into!

Reading back, I’ve just realized I hadn’t explained how WalkFit let me down. It was always a bit of a poor programme. When I started, it offered a slow, medium or fast option, without any explanation of what those were. As I was fairly unfit at the time, I chose medium on the assumption that it would build up over time at a medium rate, probably to 10,000 steps a day. Instead, it started on 4,300 and built up , but then stopped at 7,500 steps, again without saying that was what it was doing. I waited quite a while before I realised that was it.

But 7,500 steps suited me well. It was relatively easy to stick to. With two “days off” allowed each week, I had been meeting my target steps for six months. And then my three monthly renewal fee came in. At £66 for what was a fairly limited program, it was not cheap, but it was working for me, so I went with it. And then they reset my program. Instead of continuing at 7,500 steps (as it had the first time I renewed) it started me back at 4,300.

I contacted them, of course I did, but the response was insulting. Instead of acknowledging that an error had been made, Nicole told me that the app “sets up daily goals for you based on your personal parameters”. She told me I could change my daily goals, but left it to me to find out that 7,500 was not an option. I could have whole thousands only and the only way to get back to 7,500 (with which I had been very happy) was to work up through the medium program again. Not only that, but it was obvious to me that the whole thing might happen again in three months.

I wrote again, explaining that it was obvious something had gone wrong and the reset should not have occurred. Nicole replied once more, saying “the app occasionally adjusts goals based on recent activity or completion of the personal plan”. As this was a bare faced lie, I decided (quite regretfully) to cancel my account. They did add insult to injury afterwards, by offering me a year’s use at £30 (so much for rewarding loyal customers) but tempting as it was to have the app back again, I wasn’t going to send them any more of my money, whatever the terms.

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My search for a replacement app has, so far, been unsuccessful. All it was, basically, was a step counter with flashy awards when you managed to reach your totals and some fairly useless fitness programmes that very quickly rose beyond 20 minutes, which exceeded my boredom threshold and couldn’t be readjusted down to a level I was happy with. So if anyone wants to set something up, I’d happily pay for it. I guess the WalkFit false advertising (promised weight loss) wouldn’t be an option for a decent person, but it might just take off anyway, at the right price.

I shall leave you with a picture of Triar in his favourite place. I brought my (financially worthless) squashy leather sofas all the way from Norway because we both like them and this one is in front of a radiator, so double comfort for him lying up on the top. Have a good week all, and thanks for reading.

The Old and the New

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I went out on New Year’s morning to find a waterfall. I guess the main aim was to find somewhere new to walk and I stopped briefly about a mile short of Routin Brig because there was a sign that said there was a path to it. On closer examination, the notice said the path (which followed the river upstream) could become impassable after a lot of rain (tick) and had narrow segments that had a steep drop into the water. I’m not the best on my feet these days and didn’t really want to start 2026 with a trip to A&E, so I got back in the car and drove.

It was worth the drive, though it would have looked better under a blue sky.

The current bridge, which carries a road, is from the late 18th century, but there apparently has been a river crossing there since the 16th or earlier. The river is called the Cairn Water and it’s rumoured that witches used to meet here and the area is closely associated with the Covenanters (and their persecution). The only people I met there were taking a New Year’s dip though, which involved a degree of yelling, so I assume it was chilly!

Because I am on standby for work (quiet so far, fingers crossed) we couldn’t walk too far, but we wandered a bit in the woodland and Triar celebrated New Year by doing zoomies four times round a tree on his extending lead. I was expecting to have to disentangle him, but he resolved it by changing direction and zooming round the other way three times on his own. I had to persuade him round the fourth time, but he did pretty well for a dog at speed.

I stopped a couple of times on the way back, once to look at another sign, which indicated a path “Coffin Road to Shawhead”. I shall go back and explore that one another day. Coffin roads were, as the name indicates, footpaths that led from villages or towns to a church. These were the pathways by which the dead were carried to their burial place. The associated church in this case is the eye catching kirk at Kirkpatrick Irongray. Isn’t that a wonderful name?

Again, there is history here associated with the Covenanters. History is complicated m but in essence, these were Scots who resisted the establishment of the king as the head of the church as only Jesus could be that. As with being a witch, the punishment for preaching at “conventicles” – places outside the church in the open air or in barns and houses – was death. History is bloody, is it not, but those who stand by their principles against changes they see as wrong, despite appalling consequences, are a fascinating study.

Though I had hoped to spend New Year in Settle, it has been a good few days, filled with rest and good food, much of it provided by Donna. At short notice, I joined her family for the traditional Scottish New Year meal of steak pie, then for a “festive food from the freezer” meal last night and am going again for a birthday celebration with friends tomorrow. I know I am truly blessed to have such a generous neighbour.

Next week will be interesting. The decorator is due to start painting and varnishing on Monday. After that, I will need carpets and a few of the electricals need tidying up, but 2026 should hopefully be the year when I can start having overnight visitors again. I hope the end stages go smoothly.

In the meantime, I will leave you with another end of the year picture from Blackbird Lane. The sky was beautiful on Wednesday and I took some more photos after I had turned and begun to walk back. Thank you for reading and Happy New Year to you all.

A Long, Long Week

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So I’m in Yorkshire and Christmas day is past. I wasn’t sure I was going to get down here at all. Last week at work was crazy. Shortly after returning from church, a phone call came in from a devastated farmer. He’d gone into his shed and found the birds silent: all either sick or dead. Technically, the case was in the South, so I should have been the one setting out, but by a twist of fate, the farm was closer to the vet covering the North, who offered to go. I am still incredibly grateful. Tuesday saw another case come in. Each involves a tonne of paperwork, even for the phone vet. Tuesday night, a member of the public called at 11 pm. Another twisted neck goose, also handled by a human. If you’re reading this, if you see a sick bird, don’t pick it up. If it’s dead, you can put on thick rubber gloves and double bag it (two dustbin bags, seal well) and put it in the outside bin. If you’re in the UK, you can report it. Details here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-dead-wild-birds

My line manager decided I shouldn’t work at Christmas. I’d worked both days last weekend so by civil service rules, I had to have two days off in a fortnight anyway. I suspect I will be working New Year. Lots of our vets are in other countries for the Christmas break. The three cases so far are in a cluster, so more is a strong possibility. It may already be reality, but my work phone is firmly switched off.

I made some lovely, vegan gravy on Christmas day. Also stuffing and various other things. It seems Helen is now more vegetarian than vegan though, which is a lot easier. Good to know that vegan beer and onion/vegetable gravy can be delicious though. Never know when that might come in handy! Helen is going home today, so it will be just me in the old house. Mum and Dad have moved out and the place is half gutted. When I was thinking yesterday about my last night here, I was reminded of my last night in my lovely house in Norway, which never happened. The removal men arrived a day early and took my bed and that was that. At least this last night won’t be so stressful, even if it is rather sad, after all these years. I have loved this house and am already assuming I will be hosting Christmas in Dumfries next year, all being well.

Anyway, I’m going to go now. My much loved Auntie Margaret is coming over today. She’s Dad’s sister and I have wonderful memories from the 1990s when I was working in Yorkshire and would randomly turn up at their house, to be immediately assimilated into their family, whatever was happening. Helen will be off shortly too. I want to make the most of the time we have.

Have a good week all and thanks for reading. Happy New Year when it comes.

This Peaceful Scene

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Good morning from me, on this, the fourth and last Sunday in Advent this year. It seems astonishing that I’ve only been back at work for one week. I’m on call this weekend and my holiday feels long gone. I’ve been handed another TB case since my return and I’ve also carried out the on-farm epidemiological investigation for one of my collegues, who unfortunately is not well enough to do field work.

Last night, someone called from a veterinary practice. They’d had a wild goose brought in with torticollis (a twisted neck). What to do now was the question, given we are in another wave of bird flu? I was able to answer quite easily. There’s a ScotGov web page about reporting wild birds of certain types (geese being on the list). It’s really for found dead birds, but would apply here. As neurological signs (torticollis included) can be a sign of bird flu, I also urged caution and PPE including goggles, double gloves and an FFP3 mask. I don’t know if vet practices have those available, but that’s the minimum I would wear. I sent a link to the list of government approved disinfectants and advised that if anyone developed signs of flu, including conjunctivitis, they should phone their GP or 111 and tell them they’ve been in contact with a bird that may have been showing signs of avian influenza. This was all such familiar ground to me that it felt good to impart it. The vet seemed very grateful, but keeping people safe is one of the best parts of my job and I was happy to help.

Christmas is only a few days away, but I have today and two more days on duty before we get there and it’s hard to see beyond that. All being well, I will head to Yorkshire on the evening of the 24th. I plan on leaving late. Traffic will be awful in the afternoon, so I shall go to the evening service at my church before heading down. One of my regrets in going away for Christmas is missing it in my church. I have found a minister who seems to love Christmas as much as I always have. One day, I shall stay here and will share every joyful moment with the friendly parishioners. Today is the Nativity service. Church was a normal part of Christmas when I was growing up and it’s lovely to see children being put first in a church, even though most of those attending are older than me.

I was out in Wednesday night with Donna and her friend Debs for a pre-Christmas meal. La Dolce Vita in Dumfries was suitably cosy with low lights and plenty of chat alongside some quite delicious food. I started with a huge chunk of deep fried brie! Yum!

Then I had chicken breast in a Parmesan sauce. This did have an Italian name, but I was a glass of wine in by this point, so I failed to note it down! I left most of the carrot for Rudolph, but the rest was delicious.

I finished with a coffee with Chocolate Orange flavour Bailey’s. I wasn’t expecting it to come in a bucket with an inch of cream on top, but had no problem in drinking it when it did!

This lovely evening event was actually hard on the heels of our Christmas meeting at work. I made another ginger cake, this time writing down the recipe. I’ll try to get it written up this afternoon and then I shall post it on here.

The picture at the top of the page and the one I’ll share below were taken yesterday in Blackbird Lane. Usually I take close ups or photos looking out over the fields. These were looking back towards the houses on the edge of town and I’m surprised how peaceful and pleasant it all looks in the last of the winter daylight. Triar is telling me it’s time to go out now, so as we’re limited by having to be available to leave within 30 minutes if a notifiable disease case comes in, it’ll be Blackbird Lane again. No complaints from me!

Helen (my sister) and I contemplated our perfect Christmas day yesterday and concluded a climb to the top of Malham Cove, followed by beans on toast and a mince pie would be blissful. Unfortunately we’ll probably have to go with something a bit more traditional, though Helen is vegan, so it won’t be a meat feast as it usually is. She and my niece are joining us in Yorkshire. It’s a long time since I’ve seen them, so it will be good to meet again.

Anyway, I’d better take Triar for his walk. Hope you all have a lovely peaceful Christmas when it comes. God jul to my Norwegian friends. Thanks for reading.

Lights in the Darkness

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It’s nice to start the weekend with something amusing. Last night, I sent a selfie to Yoana, my son John’s partner. Last Christmas, she gave me a headband that she had knitted herself. I was touched. Homemade gifts are precious. It’s been a while since the weather has been suitable for a knitted headband, but one frosty morning last week, I put it on to keep my ears warm when I was walking Triar. I don’t normally take selfies. Too old perhaps, and anyway I’ve always been curiously preoccupied with photographing scenery rather than people. Anyway, I took a photo of me in the headband and sent it to Yoana with the caption, “Warm ears on a chilly day!”.

I woke this morning to a message, “Thank you. Wish the same for you.” I was slightly surprised. It wasn’t quite the response I was expecting, but having lived in Norway for a long time, I’m used to conversations which didn’t quite go where they would have with a fellow native Brit. I was happy just to hear from her.

A couple of hours later, a new message arrived. “Just showed it to John and he mentioned the headband which I didn’t notice!” A laugh emoji followed. I found myself picturing the scene: Yoana maybe unsure of my original message. An odd sentiment about warm ears? Rather a strange thing to mention? I’ll check with John.

And maybe John… my mum sent a selfie? Odd!

Then of course, the revelation that it wasn’t a selfie per se, rather a thank you for an appreciated gift, and it all makes sense. She and I were both amused. It was a good start to the morning. I took photos other than my selfie. It was a gorgeous sunrise over the frosty ground.

More than a morning, more than a weekend, this is the start of a two week holiday. I’m here until Tuesday, then I’m off for a week of Polar Night. Sometimes there’s a dull warm period up there at the start of December. I’m hoping for snow on the ground, sub zero temperatures and clear skies (with some Northern Lights as a massive bonus) but even if it’s wet, I get to spend time with friends. My friend Shirley was concerned it might not be good weather, but when I suggest we could stay inside, bake and cook all week, watch TV and maybe write, she agreed this was a wonderful plan. Really, I’m going to see her Nothern Norway is just the world’s best bonus!

The photo at the top of the page is of the Nith as it runs under the Devorgilla Bridge in the centre of Dumfries. I was out last night for a low-alcohol beer with a friend and was struck by how lovely the water was, with the lights shining out in the darkness. It felt like a good start to a winter holiday. Tomorrow I’m joining some colleagues in Glasgow. A group of female APHA vets, we’re going to an escape room as our Christmas Day out. There are no trains to Glasgow on a Sunday morning, either from Dumfries or Lockerbie, so I’m about to find out what the bus service is like. Hopefully on time, as well as relatively cheap!

I have a decorator coming this evening to look at my building project. Hopefully he’s going to tackle the complications of partially removed lining paper on (probably) lath and plaster on my stairwell. He’s unlikely to do the work before Christmas, but I am eyeing up carpets and thinking I might be able to get the bedrooms finally in order. There are buried clothes in my bedroom which I haven’t seen now for over a year. Getting them out (and putting them away in actual drawers) will be a novelty after a year where my clean clothes are piled on a table and there are four beds, a pile of boxes and no other useful furniture in the room where I sleep.

Anyway, December is almost here. For anyone who hasn’t seen my photo Arctic Advent calendar, you can find it here: Arctic Advent

As for me, I’m off there shortly to make some new Arctic memories. I shall leave you with more frosty morning pictures. Have a good week all and thanks for reading.