Jonathan: It is of course true that, thanks to their remoteness, untamed beauty and thinly scattered population, these islands offer a way of life that’s profoundly simpler, calmer and more satisfying than is possible amongst the hurly burly of modern, mainland, mainstream life.  But to be honest, it can become a bit unchallenging – dare I say boring? You know – contemplating the clouds, watching out for the arrival of the skylarks from Africa, long un-hurried conversations with passing holiday-makers.  I had taken up a detailed study of the rate of growth of different species of grass, but I had to give that up as the cows and sheep kept chomping off the very blades of grass I’d decided to measure.  So all in all it was a relief this morning when we discovered a pane of glass broken on No 3 greenhouse – the first breakage for about six years. We had a spate of breakages shortly after the greenhouses were completed in 2005, but those all appeared to be due to sudden changes in temperature (from a very sunny hot day to a frost at night) where the glass was a tight fit. Nothing since – and certainly no breakages even from hurricanes.But over the past few weeks there’s been no extremes of temparature and no strong winds, so we can only suppose that a bird – perhaps wheeling and diving to escape the talons of a hawk – flew into the glass, at spead, beak-first. Ouch!  Considering that the glass is 4mm toughened and firmly bedded in with glazing sealant and glazing clips, it’s difficult to imagine the bird surviving – but there was no corpse to be found. Perhaps the hawk landed and took it away?  Except for a few ‘grains’ of the glass, most of it was still standing in place (see photo), held together with apparently nothing more than the bonds of loyalty borne out long association. (And as I’m such a sensitive, thoughtful guy, I’ve arranged that they’ll all be buried together … at the council’s landfill site.)  Due to the difficulties and high cost of transporting glass here, we’re making replacement with 6mm perspex, which unlike glass has a finite life (20-30 years, so probably as long as the greenhouses), but is clearer than glass, easier to fit (it can be filed or even sawn if needs be) and above all won’t break! So that’s on order, and in the meantime the gap in the greenhouse is boarded over.  What I’m really looking forward to is the painstaking removal of the bedding sealant from the glazing bars, with all the bits of glass still embedded in it: something to while away the barren hours and days of island life. ;~)