Dark days. On thesis recycling and cordial depletion.

With a new puppy in the house - we've been reliant on super absorbant materials in the kitchen and lounge for those wee accidents he appears to have. The spell of unclement weather has not helped puppy training. Haggis the smallest cairn in the universe, would not, it appears, like to go out in a force 8 hail storm to do his ablutions, who'd have guessed. Being the fierce recyclers we are, we've had plenty of newspapers to use and now - we've run out. However as you can see he's perfectly happy - I've finally fathomed what to do with that thesis of mine........you see if you study a PhD - you end up with a lot of paper twittered on. (The blurry tale is how excited he is about standing on my thesis cool huh?)

Haggis appears to regard his attention to detail and reading on willow growth in Orkney with great delight. At least its going to be useful isn't it? Wish I'd thought of that sooner! Perfect way to recycle 4 years of written work - and thankfully we've loads of it, which, given the forecast is probably best. And, he'll be a clever Haggis after all that reading! (A chum mentioned something about the irony of thesis to fea***es...........I'll let you finish that sentence off).

In other news - dark clouds are forming over the homesteads view to Hoy. It would appear we're into dark days indeed, the hills of Hoy are smothered in menacing clouds. I can't say I blame them.......

The reason? The Elderflower Cordial has reached critical levels, we're down to an inch.

 Despite my best efforts I couldn't bring myself to finish it whilst Mr F was in Norway - although that situation may change if he forgets the cheese he's promised to bring home. However if I get one more 'is it flowering yet' question, who knows what might occur.....

The Elder is indeed beginning to leaf up and there are flower buds (look under arrow) emerging my love, however, they are teeny tiny yet - as displayed above. Might be a while before there's any more cordial.  And, I may or may not scoff the cordial whilst Mr F floats through the air (in a plane) towards Orkney for the weekend. Oh the temptation - will I, or won't I have the last of the cordial with my lunch at work today.........!

Dark days indeed. In the mean time - Haggis will continue to research my thesis to pass the time. Whilst Peedie looks on nochantently, I imagine the coversation between the two [in broad Orcadian dialect of course, both dogs being born and bred in Sandwick, Orkney] probably went something like this:

Haggis - 'Have you read the willow work, thats so exciting'

Peedie - 'Willow? That's not exciting. Oh dear she's not been talking about that again......'

Haggis - 'Yes it is exicitng, yes it is. I'm reading all about it and you can grow fuel with it here in Orkney'

Peedie - 'Pah, I've seen enough of that crop to last me a life time Haggis.'

Haggis - 'You've seen willow here in Orkney? The kind which grows to between 3-5m in 2-3 years even with dieback and in this 'hyperoceanic climate' [Haggis is proving to Peedie he does indeed pay attention and can read and hasn't got the attention span of a tiny puppy]

Peedie - 'Yes, pup, I've seen it, been in the field trials (too often{under breath}], lugged the willow, put up with the write up months and bought the t-shirt. One day I'll show you where it all is.'

Haggis - 'Coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool'

Peedie - 'Beuy, beuy, beuy. Enough already I'm awa' fir a swag (a long lie down) after me porridge, Radio Orkney's on, shh now Haggis.''