Christmas has started . . .

An appointment in Kirkwall today, followed by a visit to the opticians, a steak roll with caramelised onions each in Trenabies, then Shearers Christmas shop.

They open it every year, upstairs above their 'General Merchant' shop. It's decorated with old items from the shop accumulated since it opened in1857. There are oil lamps, wooden boxes and decorative tins, ledgers, wonderful old blowtorches and electric heaters, advertising signs and posters, calendars, lots of old bottles, jars etc and much more besides.  

There is always a fire too, a real one, and an armchair which often has the shop's cat sitting in it. There's a photo in extras, but no cat today! All very traditional and reassuringly timeless. Just what we needed today.