is not a question you want answered by a slow but persistent drip, drip, drip somewhere near your head at 04:38am. It’s raining inside again.

There’s a lovely new roof on the school but the old schoolmaster’s house needs a little attention. Luckily there’s no need for one of the several builders’ buckets I’ve got as it’s only a trickle, and most of it is running slowly down the wall anyway. It’ll soon dry up I tell myself. Since I’m up before dawn, and the Met. Office says it’s going to clear, there’s time to cycle five minutes to the Castle o’ Burrian to see the dawn and the Puffins, or Tammie Norries as they’re called here on Westray. They are up and flying, coming back to their nesting burrows with beaks of sand eels. Only a few more days and they will be gone, back out to sea. Only a few more weeks and we’ll be gone too, back south.

The kitchen garden at Noltland is green and fertile as dawn  breaks over the ruin.

I’m up before dawn to scramble along the rocky coast to see a miniature rock stack.

We’re up at dawn to see the Tammie Norries (Puffins), a short walk from our house, at the Castle o’ Burrian on Westray.