3rd July – July is going to be a hectic month in Orkney. The county is playing host to the 20th International Island Games. Teams from around the world are arriving to participate. There are 24 Member Islands in the International Island Games Association. They are:

Orkney, Shetland, Saint Helena, Faroe Islands, Ynys Mon, Menorca, Saaremaa, Hitra, Åland, Alderney, Bermuda, Gozo, Greenland, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Froya, Gibraltar, Sark, Gotland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Isle of Wight, Western Isles and Guernsey.

Over two thousand competitors and officials are expected to arrive for the event, stretching Orkney’s limited accommodation to breaking point.

The event will be officially opened by Princess Anne on 12th July.

Hosting the tournament is TV legend and national treasure… yes, it’s Lorraine Kelly.

6th July – Passing through Sandwick this afternoon, we spotted this pair of Shetland ponies dressed in their Sunday best. They do look very smart.

They don’t get many fires in Sandwick, which is probably just as well, as the local fire brigade have let themselves go a bit! Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb have been disciplined.

9th July – A rare sight in Orkney, a double decker bus, two or three have been brought in to ferry the games participants around the various venues.

They are not ideal for Orkney’s roads and strong winds and the local drivers are receiving training on handling and, hopefully, parking!

10th July – Work is well underway on the construction of the large substation at Finstown, being built to export Orkney’s renewable energy south. The line of the cables passes just outside Stromness as it heads undersea to Dounreay. I wouldn’t like to wire a plug with these.

12th July – Well, the Island Games are officially open. A large crowd packed Bignold Park in Kirkwall to see HRH the PR Princess Anne do all the formal stuff.

She was able to get out and meet some of the competitors, here with some of the team from Åland, a Finnish island whose official language is Swedish, not confusing at all. I assume they all speak fluent Royalese.

We didn’t go over, these photos have been pinched from BBC Radio Orkney, I’m sure they won’t mind.

Stromness Golf Club is co-hosting the golfing with Kirkwall GC and today was the first of two practice days before the matches begin in earnest on Monday.

14th July – Lots of medals being handed out this week. This article from RNLI Stromness.

“Congratulations to Stromness Lifeboat Doctor, Dr Carolyn Sheehan, seen here on board Stromness Lifeboat, being presented with her 20-year service medal by coxswain Norman Brass. Carolyn is “on call” should a doctor be required to go out on a shout. She even has her own seat on the boat – the doctor’s seat – next to where any stretcher case would be carried. Many thanks to Doctor Sheehan for her service.”

Dr Sheehan is H’s doctor at Stromness Surgery, she has taken great care of H and given her a lot of support. She deserves a medal.

17th July – Today was the final of the women’s golf competition. A podium was constructed for the medal ceremony and the presentation was held in front of a small gathering.

In the individual women’s competition, gold went to the Isle of Wight, silver to Åland and the bronze medal is on its way to Bermuda.

In the women’s team event Isle of Wight collected another gold, Gotland won the silver and Orkney collected bronze. That’s Orkney’s first golfing medal in the Island Games’ history.

18th July – Arriving too late for the games, the Flying Dutchman is a former herring boat specialising in tours of the Scottish Islands.

Carrying twenty-four passengers and just four crew, it looks like a nicer alternative to the monster boats that go to Kirkwall.

19th July – Also too late for the games, this Minke whale spent some time feeding in Hoy Sound, before heading off to who knows where.

23rd July – It’s all go in Stromness. We are now into Shopping Week, Stromness’ annual carnival week, now shortened to four days. Began in the 1940s to restart the local economy after the war, it provides a few days of fun and entertainment. First event this year was the “Daft Raft Race”. This year all entrants made it to the finish line, no-one requiring to be rescued.

26th July – Blackenings are a regular feature in Orkney. Normally the victim (bride/groom to be) are paraded through the town in a truck but these women seem to be on a budget.

To be honest, I’m not sure what they’re using. It looks like a farmer is missing an animal feed cart. Probably a good way to avoid the road closures in the centre of the town.

The week culminated today with the parade of floats through the town. Every Orkney parade has to have a few Vikings, it’s the law. The police turn a blind eye to dangerous weapons being waved around.

This year’s theme seemed to be movies and television shows. Film classics such as Jaws, Wizard of Oz and Toy Story were represented, I’m not sure how the 40th anniversary of LiveAid fitted in but that’s farmers for you.

No parade of TV shows would be complete without the Scottish favourite, Still Game, getting a mention. Sandwick Young Farmers doing a great job here.

2nd June – We found an old estate agent photo of the corner of the house in 2018. After a bit of strimming and planting it retains the “wild” look but is dotted with native plants. Many are finished flowering and many still to come. It’s a work in progress.

4th June – A rare outing to Kirkwall on a blustery day. H had an appointment at the Balfour and we took the opportunity to give Lady Findhorn a lift over to do some shopping.

The number of cars in the carpark belies the number of people waiting to be seen inside. H had to wait all of three seconds in Radiology before being attended to.

What happened to the stacks of National Geographics in hospital waiting rooms?

12th June – We’ve had some strong winds over the last few days and many plants have had to be staked, but the viper’s bugloss has stood up well and is looking good.

13th June – Had a day out with Caroline, Lady Findhorn. We toured down to South Ronaldsay, visited a Ralph Robinson exhibition in gallery in the Hope and then had lunch in Robertson’s, it’s a quaintly styled bar diner and the food was very good.

Just near the pub is the Marengo Garden which is a nicely maintained pocket park, ideal for relaxing with a full tum.

No sunny day outing would be complete without a visit to Firth Park in Finstown. It is always full of colour and and in immaculate condition. It is maintained solely by seventy-seven year old Jockey Wood, an amazing achievement.

This photo shows a small part of the park which extends to half a hectare, mixed parkland.

21st June – After carrying out the afternoon vigil for Gaza in Kirkwall, we returned to Stromness and popped into the Northlight Gallery to view a new exhibition Ralf Robinson’s work. He seems to be everywhere just now but it’s always nice to have a chat with him.

22nd June – The BBC posted an interesting article about the actor, Robert Shaw, who grew up in Stromness.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk378kp203o

25th June – A current exhibition on Orkney’s energy potential threw up this little known part of Stromness history.

In the 1970s high concentrations of uranium were discovered in a ‘corridor’ of rock between Stromness and Yesnaby. Plans were drafted to begin extraction but the power of local protest prevented its mining. It is rumoured that Margaret Thatcher finally vetoed the extraction project.

5th May – Now that the weather is getting warmer my little garden is starting to show some colour now. It’s nice to see the cornflowers out, but the plant is being bullied by a comfrey, which I don’t think I planted. After they’ve flowered I might try and dig them up and separate them, might be risky though.

The little wall by the front window is looking nice too at the moment. I’d like to get rid of the tulips but the bulbs are buried in the stonework.

6th May – The woods around Happy Valley are still full of bluebells, probably finished elsewhere, but they give a nice splash of colour under the trees as the leaf cover increases.

There has been so little rain lately that water levels in the little burn are getting low.

7th May – We’ve been watching this strange workboat / barge combination coming and going for a couple of weeks. We never found out where it was working but it left today under escort from the pilot launch.

9th May – Another warm day and we were invited up to Dounby for tea in the garden with Terry and Judith. Both keen birders they have a lot of feeders in their garden attracting a wide variety of birds, including this redpoll and some greenfinches.

12th May – After an absence of sixteen years, the Blood Transfusion Service has returned to Orkney. They are using the sports hall at Pickaquoy Centre for three days. This first day was well attended and they had to turn people away.

Due to the ferry timetables they could only operate until 2 pm, then get the blood packed up and sent to Aberdeen. This donation brings me up to 21 pints, heading for three gallons!

======================================

We had an unusual arrival in Stromness this morning – a floating museum!

SS Hestmanden is a Norwegian steamer, which since 2017 has served as Norsk krigsseilermuseum (the Norwegian War Sailor Museum) and a national memorial for the War Sailors. Hestmanden is the only preserved cargo ship that has sailed in convoys during both World War I and World War II. It is the only remaining ship of the more than 1,000 that were part of the Nortraship fleet during World War II, and therefore represents a central part of Norway’s war history and maritime history. (ex Wikipedia)

13th May – The Hestmanden docked successfully yesterday and today opened its gangplank for visitors.

As mentioned before, it has now been converted into a floating museum to celebrate the courage of Norwegian merchant seafarers in both World Wars. The exhibition halls are surprisingly large and well presented and one area contains a cinema. The ship at one time could carry one hundred passengers with ten in First Class. The exhibits extend over three decks, and, unusually for a museum, the custodians live on board.

Judging by the galley facilities the crew and custodians are not in First Class.

14th May – There are currently two cruise ships in Stromness at the moment. The Portuguese registered Sea Spirit and the French vessel La Bellot.

Sea Spirit was able to moor at one of the piers, but the larger French boat had to anchor in Cairston Roads and ferry its guests in to the town on little shuttle boats.

15th May – It’s Thursday evening and the Stromness Sailing Club are out in force, enjoying this unprecedented warm and sunny weather.

22nd May – My French restaurant supply business is coming along nicely. The tadpoles in the peedie pond are developing their back legs now.

I think they are about eight or nine weeks old now, so next stage will be the appearance of front legs. followed by disappearance of the tail.

27th May – I’m amazed at the pace of development of these small creatures. Although many are still tadpoles, several are now clearly frogs, albeit with tails.

The long spell of, relatively, warm weather must have been beneficial, and, sheltered in the pond, they’re not affected by the current gales that we are experiencing.

30th May – Things going apace now in the pond. I think the first froglet has packed his bags and left. We watched this little chap climb out and disappear into the grass.

It’s good that they are maturing this early, hopefully this will give them a chance to spend a long summer in the garden. In August last year they were still at this stage.

Spotted our first damselfly in the pond, I hope this indicates a healthy environment for them.

3rd April – We are enjoying an extended spell of glorious weather. Today we popped up to Happy Valley. Spring is later here than further sooth but it is on the way. The daffodils here are still dominant but the bluebells are starting to show, we’re looking forward to a great display in a week or so.

8th April – Perfect day for spotting fins but unfortunately nothing but these two kayakers braving the tidal current.

9th April – We seem to being getting more and more exotic avian visitors. These two cranes have been resident in Twatt for around a week now. Photo by Aiden Semmens, Stromness poet and writer.

18th April – We had the unusual sight of a pod of orca in the harbour this morning. They very rarely enter Hamnavoe as there is a lot of ship traffic and no food. So this was a rare occurrence.

29th April – It’s been a lovely month, plenty of sunny days, but we don’t seem to have taken many photos.
I still do Shorewatches most days and found this chap at the site this afternoon. He ought to get a phone with a camera, so much easier.

2nd March – Another cold and very windy day, but Sunday is a training day for the lifeboat and they go out regardless.

This is the local boat returning to it’s berth and, hopefully, a good and hot lunch for the crew.

6th March – We went along to the Pier Arts Centre to see an exhibition of work by Scottish artist Bet Low.

We were very impressed with her artwork and there were over one hundred pieces on display. Although based in Glasgow, Low spent a lot of time in the Highlands and Islands gaining inspiration. Here are a few examples of her work at different periods in her career.

Apologies for the appalling photography. Taken with my phone and skewed to try and avoid reflections.

The gallery was also showing an exhibition of works from the Orkney primary schools. The standard of work was breathtaking for the ages of the young artists. Here are two that we admired.

These wintry landscapes were created by pupils at Hope Primary. Top drawing P7 (11 yrs), lower drawing P5 (9 yrs).

This incredible flamingo was created by a 9 year old pupil at St Andrews Primary in Kirkwall.

14th March – An atmospheric night sky with the moon popping in and out of the whispy clouds.

15th March – We’ve had a spell of beautiful sunny weather and the inhabitants of the pond are making the most of it.

20th March – The sunny spell is continuing, so we had a run up to Birsay. Not too many tourists about yet so it’s nice and quiet. The waves are always impressive here.

29th March – We were hoping for a glimpse of the partial eclipse this morning but the cloud cover was too heavy, actually raining. However, my friend, Terry, in Dounby managed this hazy shot with his phone before the clouds closed in. Rather looks like a rendering in pastel.

5th February – A nice spell of bright weather, the sunlight picks up the power of the waves coming in to Hoy Sound.

8th February – Another decent day, so H and I went for a “magical mystery tour” over to West Mainland. Everywhere is very quiet just now without the tourists and more relaxing for everyone, including these seals.

This group are in the harbour at St Mary’s, we don’t have any in Stromness now, this must be a quieter harbour.

Passing through St Mary’s is Barrier No.1, built over eighty years ago, it has lasted well and survived all the storms.

13th February – The spell of quiet, mild weather continues. No wind today and a very calm sea, enough to tempt the kayakers out.

14th February – How we captured images before smart phones. An artist does a great job keeping his work on the bench in a stiff, and chilly, breeze.

16th February – The Northern Lighthouse Board vessel, Pharos, is currently at anchor in Cairston Roads, just outside Stromness. We had always assumed that they just maintained Scottish lighthouses and bouys but we recently watched a documentary on their work and they also cover the navigation lights around the Isle of Man.

17th February – After an unproductive couple of watches at lunchtime, I received a tip-off that there were two humpback whales in the vicinity. Just managed to catch them as they passed through the Sound heading west.

22nd February – We were promised to receive, on loan, Ralph Robinson’s sculpture “Small boat in Peril on the Sea” and it has duly arrived. It’s a very poignant piece representing the tragedy of people fleeing war, famine, persecution around the world.

This is an extract of an interview made last year with Ralph, in which he gives a brief description of the work.

The full interview, made by Martin Laird, can be viewed here in the posting for July 2024.

1st January – A cold and chilly start to the year, but at least we’ve no snow as had been forecast. Even the wind has died down. Managed to get a couple of early Shorewatches in, there was nothing to report except the Stromness lifeboat going out on a call. Not a great time of year to be in difficulties at sea!

2nd January – Local chap, Graham Campbell, was on duty at Kirkwall harbour last night. He wasn’t complaining doing a New Year’s Day shift when he could see this from the office window.

I did go out for a look myself but it was cloudy over Stromness unfortunately.

9th January – Amid some wintry flurries we did manage to spot a small group of Orca pass by Stromness. The usual culprit gets too close in his boat.

12th January – The Stromness lifeboat has training sessions on Thursdays and Sundays, today they were practising rescuing someone from the water.

I hope this is a dummy or it might be classed as bullying in the workplace!

The lifeboat returned briefly to harbour after this but went immediately back out on a genuine call.

15th January – An old, derelict dive boat, Sharon Rose, finally gave up the ghost and sank in Stromness harbour. It received a rather undignified removal as it was broken up in situ and, piece by piece, dumped in a skip.

A boom was placed around the site to prevent debris and oil escaping but there didn’t seem to be too much of either.

16th January – The dawn exploded across the sky this morning with a spectacular display just before the sun came up.

January 2025

February 2025

March 2025

April 2025

May 2025

June 2025

July 2025

August 2025

September 2025

October 2025

November 2025

December 2025

3rd December – A eventful afternoon. Set off to do a Shorewatch but was flagged down by a woman to say there was a seal pup on the shore, and it looked poorly. My initial reaction is to leave well alone. But as I came closer it looked in poor condition.

I phoned BDMLR* and their chap arrived within 20 minutes. He confirmed it was weak and arranged for a vet in Kirkwall to receive it.
So between us we got it into a large crate and lifted it off the shore. Hopefully the vet can revive it sufficiently to be transported to the Shetland seal sanctuary, where hopefully it can recover and eventually be released.

*British Divers Marine Life Rescue

4th December – An update from BDMLR on the seal pup:

“The little lady in the photos below was looking very sorry for herself on the shingle beach alongside the popular dog walk. After an on the beach assessment by medics it was discovered that she was very underweight and was covered in lots of small wounds some of which were showing sign of significant infection. The decision was made to uplift her and take her to Flett & Carmichael Vets where she underwent another assessment as well as had her wounds cleaned and antibiotics given to help her fight her infections. She is now tucked up in our seal unit for ongoing treatment before heading off to continue her rehab journey. As ever thank you to those who reported her as well as the medics and vet team that have looked after her.“

5th December – More news from BDMLR. The grey seal pup, now named Stevie, is doing really well and enjoying plenty of fish. She will soon be able to join the other rescuees at the Hillswick Sanctuary in Shetland.

8th December – WDC co-ordinator for the Northern Isles, Emma Steel, is taking up a new job as the Senior Science Officer with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, based on Mull. She set up Shorewatch in the Northern Isles four years ago and has recruited dozens of volunteers in that time. She organised a mulled wine and mince pie get together this afternoon for her Ness Point recruits and we were blessed with decent weather for it.

Emma will be missed and we all wish her good fortune for her new adventure.

11th November – A sad message from Hillswick about Stevie the seal pup:

“It has really been a heartbreaking day here at Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary. Last weekend we noticed that both our remaining two underweight seal pups from Orkney were showing signs of a similar problem as Sandy who passed away last week. We immediately started them on an intensive course of antibiotics and fluids following advice from our local vets, treating them every three hours. We were confident that both Frankie and Stevie were recovering well throughout this week. They had more energy and all the other signs indicated that they were improving. So it was a devastating shock to walk into the seal unit at 6am this morning to find that they had both passed away. We are determined to find out what the cause of death for all three Orkney pups is, so we have already taken them for a post mortem and hopefully will have some results fairly soon. May they both rest in peace xxx“

It’ll be interesting to hear if the post mortem shows any unusual causes in the deaths of the three Orkney seals.

12th December – One of the many problems facing the local fishermen is the loss of creels in rough seas. This is a local crab fisherman collecting one of his creels at Ness Point. At £100 each they need to be recovered.

19th December – MV Hamnavoe departing Scrabster for Stromness. Rather them than me!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/859334479486360

20th December – We are bracing ourselves for some wild winds tomorrow. Gusting up to nearly 87 mph, these are perhaps the strongest winds we’ve seen in Stromness since moving here.

A lot of Norwegian children will be getting Orcadian trampolines for Christmas!

24th December – We visited our friends Terry and Judith today. They certainly put a lot of work into their Christmas decorations.

27th December – Santa brought a weather station so that Well Park can record the gales that whistle through here.

Hopefully it will be sturdy enough to withstand the winter storms.

30th December – We have snow forecast for this coming week and the first has arrived on Hoy last night. The straight line effect clearly showing the altitude at which the temperature allows the snow to settle.

31st December 2024 – Hogmanay sees the annual log pull in Stromness. A team of Northenders vie with the muscle of the Soothenders to drag a piece of tree through the town.

This year the junior event was won by the Northenders but Soothend took the senior event. So honours shared this year.

Happy New Year everyone and a prosperous 2025.

1st November – With the storm clouds passing, the evening light on Hoy can be truly magical.

We’ve had some strong winds lately, and a lot of rain but the forecast is reasonable for the next week, so might be able to get some Shorewatches done. Having just passed 2000, I’m keen to keep the momentum going.

13th November – H and I took a stroll along to Stromness Museum this afternoon. It was good to see the old team working away, preparing the winter exhibition on the theme of seaweed.
There have been a lot of changes since my time there and the place looks good.

Amongst the new artefacts on show are these Malagan funerary carvings from Papua New Guinea. They were presented to Kirkwall Museum in 1928 by John Muir, a merchant seaman from North Ronaldsay.

Some things never change though, and poor old John Rae is still paddling across an Arctic river using a tin plate.

14th November – A large fire lit up Stromness harbour this evening. A shed adjacent to the Pole Star pier was engulfed in flames and the fire was so intense that nearby windows were blown out.

Some residents were evacuated and other homes were advised to keep their windows closed. This incident is almost next door to Gray’s Noust, so that would have been a worrying time for us.

18th November – First flurry of snow this season, it’s cold but still sunny enough to charge the car.

19th November – This excellent painting hangs in Stromness Library. Stromness Books and Prints is the tiny bookshop in Stromness that was run for many years by Tam McPhail, more in the way of philanthropy rather than a profit making exercise.

The following is from the Library description. “The Bookseller of Stromness combines a portrait of Tam McPhail, of Stromness Books and Prints, with a surrealistic tapestry of literary achievements. Orkney has a thriving literary and cultural life, which stems from the creativity of local authors.

Many of the books whose covers are shown are instantly recognisable as being written by Orcadians, about Orkney or have some other Orkney connection.

It is a painting about connections, and in a small community such as Stromness, connections are the lifeblood of the town, giving a sense of belonging and weaving people and place together.

The painting was purchased for Stromness with aid from The Art Fund and the National Fund for Acquisitions.”