April 2018

1st April – A beautiful full moon last night, illuminated the Hamnavoe ferry returning from Scrabster.

4th April – A warm, springlike morning and a good opportunity to climb Brinkie’s Brae and enjoy the surrounding views. This pic is looking south, past the summit cairn, towards Hoy.

8th April – Enjoyed a nice run out to Burwick and lunch at The Skerries Bistro with Jeanne Rose. They have an excellent seafood menu and a beautiful setting overlooking the Pentland Firth. The strange looking pod in the background can be hired for groups wanting to enjoy a meal with a 360° panoramic view.

On the way back we stopped in St. Ola to watch the Orkney Vintage Club giving their old tractors an outing. Springtime plooin’ competitions are very popular in Orkney, giving the farmers a chance to show off their skills. Usually with slightly more modern tractors, though.

11th April – The midnight ferry to Aberdeen. H is en route to Kettering to visit her Dad and has just boarded the Northlink ferry, MV Hjaltland, for the southbound journey to Aberdeen. The voyage takes about 6 hours, so she has a cabin and should get a snooze.

12th April – After a bit of a choppy crossing, eased by having the cabin, she gets the train from Aberdeen to Peterborough. All went well and she arrived safely.

17th April – In a little, rockpool garden at Warebeth, sea anemones are enjoying the sunshine through the crystal clear water.

The Dutch schooner Flying Dutchman is a regular visitor to Stromness. Here it is tied up alongside MV Hamnavoe on a lovely afternoon in Stromness.

21st April – 11pm and the MV Hrossey glides up to the pier in Kirkwall bringing H home from Aberdeen. A good train run followed by a millpond crossing, textbook!

And, of course, there were some nice floo’ers waiting for her. ‘Coz that’s the sort of guy I am!

28th April – A lovely day, warm and sunny. Ideal for a trip out to Kirbuster Farm Museum. This is a farmhouse that was in use from 1732 until the 1960’s and was never modernised. It’s known as a “firehouse”, it doesn’t have a chimney, instead there’s a hole in the roof for smoke to escape. The garden has both a nice, little, stone arch and a whalebone arch. The smell of the peat smoke inside is gorgeous.

29th April  – What exciting lives we lead. Spent today bagging bruck (plastic rubbish) on Echnaloch Beach, Burray. Ocean plastic is a huge problem everywhere and Orkney is no exception. The commonest items found here are the detritus from the fishing industry, pieces of green, nylon rope and netting.  On a positive note, this was the third beach we visited, having found very little on the first two.

We rounded the day off by joining the 1,100 crowd at the Pickaquoy Centre, in Kirkwall, to enjoy the hilarious wisdom of Jon Richardson.

Go to May 2018