August 2026

6th August – August has started with some pretty grim weather, we’ve had a lot of rain and some strong winds. I know that, for those of you suffering a drought, it might sound like a good thing, to get a lot of rain when your lawn is brown, but it does wear us down. One of the few benefits is the number of rainbows we get.

7th August – We were over on the Garson estate today and noticed this neatly stacked pile of navigation buoys. They all have different structures on the tops, they must mean something to sailors but I’ve no idea.

10th August – This may be the reason the buoys are at Garson. The NLB Pole Star is in the harbour servicing the buoys around Orkney. In this photo it’s changing the green buoy in front of Well Park.

You can see from this picture how grotty the weather is at the moment. Low cloud, grey and drizzly.

12th August – They’re a bit late, but it’s nice to see the Catananche and Toadflax flowering. They’re both second generation plants grown from seed collected last year. These splashes of colour make it all worthwhile.

Orkney was the perfect spot to watch the, much vaunted, solar eclipse. Absolutely no chance of damaged retinas here!

15th August – Spotted this street lamp playing peek-a-boo, it won’t be long before it’s not casting any light on the street.

19th August – I couldn’t work out if we were getting a delivery of concrete or Coca-Cola. But it’s the new bin lorry. The Rotopress Garbage Compactor sounds like a Wallace and Gromit invention. The bin men seem to like it, though.