Tag Archives: Christmas

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.

The Nights are (Fair) Drawing In

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It’s starting to feel quite wintery outside, though really it’s still late autumn. I’m in Yorkshire again and there are still a few leaves clinging to the trees, though there are more on the ground.

While that leaf reminded me of flames (next project must be to get some kind of cosy fire in my house) most are shades of brown. Triar has started a new game where instead of pooing on grass, he’s choosing piles of leaves. As anyone who’s ever tried to spot doggy doo among a pile of leaves will testify, it’s quite a challenging game!

While I am trying to keep up my 7,500 steps a day (thank you WalkFit) the darkening evenings and wet weather are making it tougher. There’s mud now down Blackbird Lane and anyway, it’s too dark down there at night for it to be enjoyable, so though we still go there in the mornings, evening finds us walking the damp streets, admiring the foggy drizzle as we walk through pools of light from the street lights. Soon, of course, there will be Christmas lights to offer more colour in the darkness, but despite the best efforts of the shops, the Christmas spirit hasn’t quite descended yet.

That said, I did watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone last weekend. It’s one of my annual Christmas pilgrimages and it takes time to watch all seven films. I’m also in a mood to get the last seven chapters of my novel finished. It’s set in the lead up to Christmas and definitely easier to write when the evenings are long and the mood is upon me. I’ve been writing it for years and have considered abandoning it, but I’m so far through that it seems daft not to complete it. Then maybe I can put it behind me and start something else.

It feels odd to me that Bonfire Night has been and gone, leaving barely a mark. I did hear fireworks now and then. There was a spent rocket in Blackbird Lane the other morning, but it was always such a big part of my childhood that it seems very muted now. I guess I was lucky growing up. My dad loved bonfires and fireworks weren’t frowned upon as they seem to be now. But with the build up to Christmas getting earlier, it does feel like the autumn celebrations of Halloween and Guy Fawkes now feel like they are merging into some kind of early winter celebration. Instead of seeing notices for a local fireworks display around 5th November, then Christmas lights being switched on in early December, I’m seeing mid-November dates for the lights.

Maybe I’m just getting old. The neighbour’s children certainly went out Trick or Treating. I took them some sweets round and was rewarded by the neighbour clipping the top of my too-tall to reach hedge from the roof of his shed. I have no idea if those things were related, but it felt like it to me.

Project garden is moving slowly. The top part now looks neatish, with the exception of a flowerbed that is still choked with ground elder. I’ve planted most of the bulbs I bought with Valerie and have filled my brown bin each fortnight with hedge clippings. The bin service stops through the winter so there’s only one more to go this year. Next weekend, I’ll try to get more hedges cut. At least the growth is slowing down, so anything I do will be easy to keep under control until spring.

For now though, I’d better get up and take Triar out. Those 7,500 steps are not going to walk themselves. I will leave you with some photos taken last Sunday, driving back to Dumfries from Lochmaben. Amazing how the light changes, depending on the weather and the direction of the sunlight.

Hope you have a good week and thanks for reading.

O Come…

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So Christmas day has come and gone. The butcher in Settle created a decent enough ribbe (pork roast joint, traditional in Norway) even if he cut the crackling into cross-hatched diamonds instead of squares. There were roast potatoes and pigs in blankets and Triar barked so much at the first cracker that we gave up with only one cracked. Odd that he can withstand fireworks outside without blinking an eye, but inside the house, it’s a definite no.

His harness is also significantly tighter than it was when we came down five days ago. I know he had his usual pig in blanket Christmas dinner, but in addition, I suspect he’s been a useful receptacle for leftovers in a house where throwing away food is anathema and that was before he pinched an entire packet of Scottish tablet that he found in one of the bedrooms. That was only yesterday. By some miracle, we have made it through the night, undisturbed. I was expecting explosions at one end or the other, but it seems his digestive system is robust enough to withstand 600 calories of sugar and butter. We’re going to have to do a whole lots of walking when we get home to get it all back off again. As for him, no worries about explosions, he’s still hoping for more.

Christmas highlights included Triar opening his present. This year’s annual Kong teddy is a festive red effort. I also had a lovely laugh during a Zoom Christmas Eve church service I attended. I have started going to church in Scotland and wanted to go on Christmas day, but it was complicated by the fact that I was chief cook.

I know when I was a child, we used all to go to Church on Christmas morning. Grandma must have left the turkey cooking and we likely ate late, but I didn’t think that would work, and so I began to consider remote attendance. Geoff, one of my friends from the writing group I attend – also Donna’s father-in-law – is responsible for the video link in his church up in Lockerbie and so I asked him, and very conveniently, their Christmas service was on Christmas Eve.

It was a nice enough service and the filming was excellent, but the pièce de résistance came during the final carol – Oh Come All Ye Faithful. A small child had been called up to light the Christmas candle and he remained near the microphone in the aftermath. O Come, All Ye Faithful had quite a lot of verses and I spent the first couple smiling at the man who was unable to resist singing the first Oh come, let us adore him, despite the instruction that only the women should sing, but as the verses went on, the small child began at first, humming the chorus, as if to alleviate the boredom, and as the hymn went on, he was getting more and more into it. By the last chorus, he was belting the O comes out, wonderfully tunelessly. For Geoff, it highlighted a technical problem with the microphone, but I loved the raucous singing as that little boy found some entertainment. It’s also a reminder to me of the lack of children in the church I have joined. If the church is to survive, we need to embrace its children and smile at whatever they bring.

On Boxing Day, John, Yoana and I braved the fog on the tops and drove over to Malham for a walk to Janet’s Foss at Malham. Everyone else seems to have had the same idea, but we found a parking space and had a lovely walk.

Towards the end, the sun almost broke through and for a moment, there was blue sky.

But the mist met us again as we drove back up the hill and it’s been grey and damp in Settle every day since. I worked yesterday. I had received permission to work in Yorkshire for a day, though had something urgent come in, I would have had to rush back. My emergency kit is in the car. But now I am on holiday until the 7th of January, so I can now hopefully relax and maybe get a bit of writing in.

Anyway, wherever you are, I hope you have found some joy in this Christmas time. Thank you for reading and I will see you all in the new year.

Food and Festivity

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This week I’ve been out for two Christmas dinners! Last weekend, despite Storm Darragh doing its best to keep me home, I made a run for Yorkshire on the Friday. Mum had booked us a meal at the lovely Middle Studfold Farm on Sunday and I didn’t want to miss it. Middle Studfold is a farm where they do bed and breakfast as well as meals at weekends. Set in Ribblesdale in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, it’s a gorgeous, stone farmhouse. The attached tearoom was tastefully decorated and wonderfully cosy.

We were soon pulling Christmas crackers and enjoying the Christmas music. I had chosen field mushroom with goats cheese as my starter and it didn’t disappoint.

Then came the traditional turkey with trimmings. The parsnip was particularly delicious, mashed and flavoured with horseradish and the stuffing has inspired me to experiment with adding chestnuts to my usual recipe.

I had to head up the road soon afterwards, but it would have been wonderful to have lingered over dinner and perhaps stayed overnight. I would highly recommend it for a lovely warm Yorkshire Dales welcome.

It was a good week at work and I revisited one of my welfare cases and found no further problems, so I was able to close the case for now, which was a good feeling in the run up to Christmas. Because of the way the algorithms are set up, there will be another inspection, likely within the next year, which is also good as we will be able to monitor whether the changes are continuing. I hope they are as it felt like a positive visit with real progress being made.

There was a second festive feast for me this week with A Novel Approach, the writing group I am involved with in Lockerbie. We’ve had a couple of mini writing retreats recently, which I have enjoyed enormously and now it was time to celebrate. I decided against the turkey this time, though everyone else’s did look very good. I had a beef collop on clapshot with a haggis fritter. If that all needs translating, a collop seems to be a slice of meat and the word is thought to be derived from escalope. It was circular and I had wondered whether it was from the cheek, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Clapshot is mixed potato and swede. The haggis fritter probably speaks for itself and it was all served with a whisky infused gravy, so there was a lovely Scottish flavour to the whole thing.

Regular readers might remember that I am using the Second Nature app, kindly provided by the NHS and despite all this food, I am still following it. The principle of having half your plate filled with vegetables, quarter with protein and quarter with complex carbs is actually quite easy to fit in with meals out. Even though I don’t follow it perfectly, it’s far easier than having to weigh everything at every meal and I have lost one and a half stone so far, but that is why there are rarely cake pictures on here these days. That’s not to say it never happens, but it’s now a rare treat and most of the time I vote for the healthier option.

Somerton House Hotel where we had our Christmas meal was also decorated. I love the whole build up to Christmas. It lends such cosiness to the darkest days of the winter.

And now I am at Valerie’s for the weekend. I fear there may be cake in the near future as she has proposed a visit to Fintry and a garden centre today. Last night I was greeted by various gardens and houses crammed with lights and illuminations and I was reminded of walking round the village at this time of year, when the children were young, searching out the “crazy houses” with their wonderful light shows. Yesterday evening’s soak in the hot tub with hot chocolate was a relaxing start to the weekend. Now I can hear people outside scraping ice from car windows, so maybe tonight, I will have the hot tub on ice experience.
Have a lovely weekend all and thanks for reading!

Missing Norway

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I don’t have many photos this week. Though I was out and about a couple of days, the weather has mostly been grey and uninspiring. Now we are in the midst of Storm Darragh (though where I am, in Yorkshire, it doesn’t seem to be windy) so I’m not likely to rush out and get many pictures. As you can see from the picture at the top of the page, I have made myself an advent crown and have actually bought the proper purple candles that are common in Norway.

I am enjoying the advent calendars from Jacquie Lawson I was given last year and the year before. The Sussex one is particularly lovely. One thing I didn’t notice the first year was that the snow in the pictures gets gradually deeper as the days go by. I only realized when it reset last year, because it happened gradually. I took a couple of screenshots for comparison.

I’ve also just realised that I took the pictures at different times of day as well. It actually gets dark at night in the calendars. They really are beautifully detailed and I love looking at them in the lead up to Christmas.

There are Christmas programmes starting to appear on TV as well. Last night, we watched Susan Calman take a Christmas trip on Hurtigruten (boats that travel up and down Norway taking goods and passengers as well as tourists). She stopped off at the North Cape and at Finnsnes to visit Senja and it brought back so many wonderful memories. Though winter was very long, it was stunningly beautiful. I was rarely short of photos to share with you.

I am often asked if I regret coming back and it’s a difficult thing to answer. There were things over there that I loved. I enjoyed working for Mattilsynet more than I enjoy working for APHA, though the barriers thrown up by my imperfect grasp of the Norwegian language were always an impediment. I miss the magical feeling when the aurora lit up the night sky in its slow, endless dance. I miss my friends. I contacted Trude a few days ago when I was investigating a welfare referral from the slaughterhouse and just that small act brought me joy, as do the messages and photos from Shirley.

I feel incredibly blessed in the friends department though, as since returning to Scotland, I’ve also reconnected with many wonderful people, as well as meeting new ones. I guess the answer to whether I regret coming back is, mostly no. The reasons I returned are still there and I have some incredible memories to look back on. I guess my main wish would be that I could travel more and spend time in both countries.

I entered a Christmas card competition at work. They asked for winter pictures, which I have plenty of. The one I sent in was taken on a wonderful walk on Senja with John and Triar. It was taken in 2020, our first year there and our first Polar night. An icy cold day in December, with the sun, just below the horizon, casting amazing golden light through the bare branches of the trees. I expect the competition will be stiff, but hopefully they will enjoy my entry.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I’ve already booked another holiday in Shetland for next year. That’s in May, so something to look forward to. I’ve booked a pet friendly cabin, so Triar will be able to explore Shetland with me this time. I mentioned it last night and Mum asked me last night when I would be going to Norway, which is a difficult question. Not because I’m not intending to go, but because I’m finding it hard to know what time of year I should visit. I’m very tempted to go up North during Polar night, but that won’t be this winter. I feel like a holiday hoarder, saving up the days and calculating how many I can spare for all the places I want to go!

Anyway, the rain is hammering against the window and it feels like time to go and make a nice hot coffee. Today is probably going to be a day for huddling inside. I hope that, wherever you are, that you stay safe. Have a good week all!

Tractors and Turkey Dinners

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Last weekend, despite the storm, a group of us gathered at Donna’s for an afternoon of gin tasting. My favourite was a Marks and Spencer Clemantine gin liqueur with bits of gold leaf in it, that had a light bulb in the base of the bottle so that it lit up with a kind of snow globe effect. Happily, we were pouring our own drinks, which is good for me, as these days I am a lightweight when it comes to alcohol and a taste really is enough. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise the bottle lit up when I took my photo.

As the light faded outside, Donna told us that the annual Christmas Tractor and Truck Run would be passing by in the early evening. It’s an annual event, started by farmers, in aid of the neonatal unit at the local hospital. Every year, farmers and truck drivers decorate their vehicles and drive them from Lockerbie to Dumfries. So at around six in the evening, we braved the drizzle and went outside to watch as what seemed like hundreds of agricultural vehicles trundled past. It was an incredibly cheery event and lots of the drivers had brought their children along, so it felt like a lovely family occasion. It was also a wonderful reminder of how strong the farming community is in our area.

I had booked Thursday and Friday off, so it was a short working week. I worked mostly from home as I had some studying to do for an examination in Veterinary Public Health, which I sat (and happily passed) on Tuesday. The main reason I had planned the time off was because I belong to a writers’ group, which had a mini writing retreat booked for Thursday, so on Thursday morning, seven of us gathered in the library in Lockerbie to work on our stories. I don’t often mention writing any more on here as it’s been so slow in recent years, but I am approaching the half-way point of a novel about a vet on the west coast of Scotland. It’s set in the lead up to Christmas, so I’m working on it more-or-less daily right now. I know, from experience, that writing about Christmas in May is oddly discombobulating.

Progress is finally being made on my rooms upstairs. This week the plasterer has been in most days and now, one of the bedrooms is really starting to take shape. It’s been very cheering to have him in the house. He’s obviously happy at his work as he plays music and sings along to it as he’s working, which Triar and ai have enjoyed. His rendition of How Much Is That Doggy In The Window was a real blast from the past! Later today, I shall go and buy some paint. It really does feel that things are moving along.

My car went in for its MOT yesterday and happily, it passed with no more work to be done. I had booked to go out for lunch with Donna, who drove out to The Boathouse at Glencaple, which is couple of miles outside Dumfries on the bank of the Nith. The setting is stunning and, with the winter sun being low in the sky, despite the clouds, there was a real golden glow over the landscape.

I had hoped for a Christmas menu and wasn’t disappointed. Having quickly convinced Donna that a sharing platter of festive goodies was the way to go, the waiter somehow or other managed to persuade us that what we really wanted was a sharing platter each! Despite the fact that it somewhat missed the point of being a sharing platter, we were soon tucking into turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and sprouts, with cranberry sauce. We had to ask for more gravy, but the waiter was fortunately very obbliging. Of course, there was way too much food, so the eventual outcome was that I brought home a good sized box of leftovers, so yesterday evening, I had my first turkey sandwich of the year and today, I still have another full Chrismas dinner to eat.

And as a final note, I should mention that Triar has also been getting ready for Christmas. Every year, he gets a new Kong bear as a present. In the old days, he used to destroy these relatively quickly, but at six years old, he has learned the art of toy preservation. I was starting to be concerned that we might get to Christmas with Bear still relatively intact, but I should have known Triar was merely becoming a master of timing.

So thank you for reading. Have a good week all!

Third Sunday in Advent

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It’s been a lovely, festive week. Anna, Lauren and Andrew are here for a festive weekend, with plenty of food and goodwill. Earlier in the week, I was in the tyre centre, where they had this cheery looking snowman.

In addition to a lovely tree and fabulous Lego village, Donna and Will had something to make me feel properly at home!

This is a very British sight! A red pillar box with a knitted snow scene cap.

This gorgeous wreath was on the door of The Folly in Settle.

Here’s Andrew, Anna and Lauren, getting into the Christmas spirit as they check out my mum and dad’s Christmas tree.

The end result!

Thank you for reading.

Turkey Calling

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I arrived back at Donna and Will’s on Sunday afternoon and we spent the evening putting up Christmas decorations. They’ve got a real tree and Christmas decorations from different people and places they’ve been. I was also impressed they had even more boxes of decorations than I did before my moving rationalisation, when sadly, I had to cut it down to three boxes. Can’t have too much Christmas cheer, in my opinion. The amazing Lego Christmas Village picture at the top of the page is theirs. Building an entire village is real dedication to the Christmas cause.

Although my online induction continues apace (deadline 24th December for the general program) I’ve been out on two visits this week. The first was to a veterinary practice which carries out some Official Veterinarian work on behalf of the government. Much of this doesn’t seem to have changed too much since I was doing it myself back in the early nineties, though we didn’t use much rabies vaccine back then, before the days of pet passports. We inspected equipment such as the guns that are used to inject tuberculin to check for TB and the practice microscope for looking for anthrax. There was a feeling of familiarity, being back in a mixed animal country practice, though the lingering scents of iodine, vitamin B12 and calcium were sadly absent from the stockroom.

I also went on a visit to a fallen stock plant, where culled animals that are not fit for human consumption are taken. Though they’re not going into the food chain, the animals are still tested for BSE or Scrapie (the sheep version). One thing I’m really revelling in is chatting to people effortlessly. Back in Norway, I’d go out with Birgit and she’d launch into chatting about what was happening at that time of year and perhaps more local news. Suddenly I can do it too!

We received a directive about carrying out welfare visits on turkey farms at the time of slaughter. As regular readers will know, killing animals as humanely as possible is something that really energises me, so I was hoping to get involved, but it seems that there are very few in our region and that most of them either send them outside the area or are already finished. This is definitely something I should write in my calendar for October next year. I was asked to do some of the phoning though. I can see I’m going to be leaping into this job like a pig rushing to the muddy corner of its field, only with more disinfectant involved.

Andrew arrived last night from Norway and will be here over Christmas and New Year. Triar was very pleased to see us both when we arrived at Mum and Dad’s, though it was well after his bedtime when we got here. Anna and Lauren will be arriving later today for a weekend visit, so it’s going to be a full house. I went to Aldi on the way to pick up some party food. Another novelty for me. Vol-au-vents, cocktail sausages and duck spring rolls were in short supply in Finnsnes. I miss ribberull meat on my sandwiches though. I wonder if I could make my own.

My furniture should arrive on Tuesday and I’m hoping to take a couple of days off later in the week to unpack. Donna has offered to give me a hand, which I’ve gladly accepted. It’ll be good to get my things back, though I’ll be sad to move out of Donna’s very comfortable spare room. Her social life is so busy that I will need to make appointments to see her, once I’ve moved out. We’ve already booked Pilates classes including one in January though, so we’ll be keeping fit as well as in contact.

Anyway, I’d better go and get breakfast. See you tomorrow for the exciting third installment in this years advent adventure!

First Sunday in Advent

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I’m getting into the Christmas spirit – this’ll be my first Christmas in the UK in more than ten years. I’ve been enjoying the decorations when I’ve been out and about. The most amusing so far was this reindeer. It’s got its tail up, so presumably it’s about to poop!

There are some lovely wreaths as well. Like the reindeer, this was in the Folly – a gentleman’s residence built in 1679 – now a museum and coffee shop. Very cosy!

But I wanted to carry on my advent crown tradition – though I rarely stick to the Norwegian purple candles. I found these lovely nisse candles online and couldn’t resist.

Happy first Sunday in Advent to all my friends!

Leaf Strewn Lanes and Brand New Kit

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After days and days of rain, I woke last Saturday to one of those beautiful wintery days when the fields are pale with frost and the low sun glows golden over the world. Triar and I set out to walk along Watery Lane, which as you can see, lives up to its name.

Watery Lane runs between two, mossy dry stone walls and is lined by trees, which were mostly bare, though the floor of the lane was thickly strewn with fallen leaves.

We turned past the barns onto Lodge Lane and as we descended towards the road, a farmer drove by in his tractor. To my surprise, he grinned and waved cheerily as he passed, which improved my day even more.

I had asked my parents to take me to a garden centre. I wanted to grab a bit of Christmas spirit before the end of my time off, so they took me to Holden Clough near Clitheroe. Having previously visited Stephen H. Smith’s Garden Centre in Otley, which was filled with baubles and tinsel, like a series of Christmas grottos, Holden Clough was distinctly up-market, but cheery nonetheless.

Tuesday was another fine day and Triar and I walked through Settle, which by now, had a few decorations of its own.

We then headed up Constitution Hill and along the aptly named Highway, which runs along the side of the valley with views over Ribblesdale.

Dad took me to look at a car on Wednesday. It was an X3 like the one I had to leave behind in Norway, but I took it for a test drive and although the engine sounded sweet, the steering was behaving very oddly. I suggested I would go back and test drive it again, once they’d fixed the tracking (which was his theory as to what the problem was) but was told the car wouldn’t be fixed up until someone bought it. As I was unwilling to buy a car that I wasn’t certain would be fixed by the proposed changes, I decided to pass. On Thursday, I had planned to have a nice, easy drive to Dumfries before starting work on Friday, but having found another X3 for sale in Glasgow, I took a detour there to look at it and this time, I decided to go for it. It went for its MOT yesterday and will be serviced next week and hopefully, I will collect it next weekend.

Yesterday was my first day in my new job. I met my new boss, K (though she corrected me to line manager when I asked) who helped me with getting set up on my new computer and together, we made a plan for the coming months. There are some courses I will be taking before I start to tackle the challenges ahead. There’s a lot more work with notifiable disease in Scotland than there was in my remote corner of Norway, so I’ll be learning how to tackle bird flu first and then TB. It sounds like there will be a lot to get my teeth into. I met G, who’s an animal health officer of eighteen years standing. He seemed very knowledgeable and also makes a mean cup of coffee, so I quickly felt at home. I also met L, another animal health officer, and she’s in charge of the stores. She has sorted out my new kit for me. It looks quite extensive and I am very glad the car I’ve bought has quite a sizeable boot.

There was also this rather scary looking hood, which I will have to use if I’m on a farm with suspected or confirmed avian influenza, until I get a properly fitted mask. After watching the horror show arguments about equipment in the UK during Covid, I’m very pleased that the agency seems to take my protection very seriously.

I went to Donna’s house after work. Donna and I met thirty years ago when we were both working in Stranraer, so it was wonderful to catch up and I immediately felt at home, which is just as well as I’m staying with her and her husband, Will, next week. My furniture is still somewhere wandering on the other side of the North Sea, but I’ve been offered a comfortable bed in her lovely cottage, so I’m already looking forward to going back.

For now I’m back in Yorkshire and Triar is asleep on my feet. It feels like a good start to the weekend.