Vic 32 and The Duke of Normandy at Crinan

(... or the tale of the exploding Velux skylight)

7.9C and fairly cloudy. Light NNW/N breeze.

We had a drive up the coast road to Tarbert where we stopped to get a desk calendar and a card. Then further North to the Crinan canal and along to park at Bellanoch.

From there we walked with Maeve the Deerhound along the canal towpath to the basin and sea lock at Crinan where we had a look around and took some photos before walking back. It was cold but most of the frost had gone even on the shaded side of the canal. The towpath itself was still frozen and there was still some ice in the water. We knew the coffee shop at Crinan would be closed so we went to Lochgilphead for lunch. There was time to visit one or two shops before we started back down the road for home.

On returning home we came into the house and Apothecary7 spotted a piece of glass on the floor of the hall. We came in carefully making sure Maeve was safely in the living room then we had a look round. We could see that the Velux window which is a large skylight above our internal stairs was broken and glass had fallen from it and was scattered on the bottom stairs and on the hall rug. It was hard to tell at the time but it turned out that the inner pane of the double glazed unit had broken and some of the glass had fallen. The rest of the pane is crazed and cracked. We had thought initially that the whole unit had broken and that the roof was no longer weather tight - bad enough in cold weather but thoughts immediately and inevitably turned to what if it had been pouring with rain or snowing heavily !

We called our insurance company and were advised to call Velux who apparently have accepted there is a problem with some of their roof light windows and that the inner pane of a certain sized unit can break when there are low temperatures. We called Velux. To cut along story short they will arrange for someone to come and replace the double glazed unit free of charge. Hopefully on Monday or if not then near the beginning of the week. Some one would have come sooner if we had been in or closer to a larger town where they had someone they could send or if they could contact a suitable tradesman immediately. They also said that should we see more glass fall then to get a joiner to come out and board up the unit (assuming we can get someone) and they would cover any cost. These sort of things never happen when they can be easily and quickly sorted out !

We eventually got round to having some dinner !

oh ... I forgot to mention ... It was Christmas lights switch on night. There was a pipe band leading a parade of floats and not long after the Campbeltown Christmas lights were switched on. I heard the pipes, went through to the front bedroom (our downstairs ... which is the second floor of the building) and kept the lights out. Ringside seats for the parade ...and we have Christmas lights right outside too. 
Bonus is that when the shutters are closed (living room and bedroom) we can close them totally out.
I did laugh when I went out later and one of the decorative light units on a lamp post outside the Coop wasn't working, and two of the main display lights across Longrow weren't working either.  Still not working on Saturday night and I expect not to be looked at until Monday. Just like our window !

DMC-LX7 f/2.2 1/100 sec. ISO-80 11mm (35mm focal length 65mm)