1st April – A chilly night and another fall of snow gave a picturesque homecoming for the Hamnavoe as it arrived in Hoy Sound.

Temperatures fell below zero last night, which is unusual for here. Even the redshank was wary of putting a toe in the icy water.

7th April – We were hit by a wild and stormy day yesterday, so we didn’t venture out all day.

But today has been more promising, albeit cold. I managed to do some Shorewatching today, didn’t record any cetaceans but did well with other marine mammals, including two otters.

We don’t record birdlife but some are definitely worth a photo, such as this beautiful Mute Swan gliding by.

12th April – For anyone with an interest in George Mackay Brown, the Orkney Arts Society have established a self-guided tour through Stromness to celebrate his life. The tour includes the Memorial Garden next to our house, shown as No.8 on the map.

https://www.orkney.com/news/gmb-trail

14th April – Feeling rather pleased this morning after receiving a phone call from a neighbour telling me I’d had a photo selected by the Orcadian newspaper, to be used on their Christmas cards for 2022.

I posted the photo here in February and sent it in to the newspaper for a bit of fun, thinking I’d hear no more about it. I suppose we’ll have to buy the cards later in the year.

21st April – Caution: This post contains disturbing imagery.

Today we went south to St Margaret’s Hope village to see an exhibition:
“A View from Orkney: Beautiful Lies and Ugly Truths” by Robinson RR (Ralph) in the Loft Gallery at the moment. Ralph and his wife, Patti, have exhibited in Stromness a few times and we are thrilled to have some of their work on our walls.

Much of Ralph’s work highlights the human tragedy of the refugee crisis that has impacted the countries around the Mediterranean.

“The full horror of the human tragedy unfolding on the shores of Europe was brought home on Wednesday as images of the lifeless body of a young boy encapsulated the extraordinary risks refugees are taking to reach the west.  The picture depicted the dark haired toddler, wearing a bright red T-shirt and shorts, washed up on a beach, lying face down in the surf not far from Turkey’s fashionable resort of Bodrum.”
Helena Smith (Guardian Newspaper, 2nd September 2015)

” Driftwood Toybox is a response to the heartbreaking photograph of this poor child lying dead on the beach.
I imagined a toybox dashed to pieces by the tides and rocks of a foreign coast and its precious contents spilled, spoiled and scattered along the shore.  Its cargo of memories, careless laughter, joyous imaginings and dreams of fantastic voyages; puzzles, toys and games and gifts from loved ones, once stowed safely away, now broken, shattered, shivered and pitched up by a cold, cruel sea.”   Robinson RR

11th March – It’s good to see the old, iconic, red telephone boxes are enjoying a new lease of life. This one, by Stromness Museum, has had a defibrillator installed. It might save a life one day.

14th March – We were thrilled to see the sales held in the Northlight and the Hamnavoe raised so much for the Ukraine disaster fund. Held over the previous two days, the teams raised over £8300 with, hopefully, more to come. H and I made a small contribution and hope we helped.

Art Sale Raises £8340 for #Ukraine

BY THEORKNEYNEWS ON MARCH 14, 2022 • 

The art sale at the Northlight Gallery and Hamnavoe Restaurant in Stromness at the weekend has raised an astounding £8340. All of the money raised is going to the Red Cross Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal.

DEC charities and their local partners are in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries providing food, water, shelter and medical assistance.

The Northlight Gallery sold 133 artworks : paintings, prints, photographs, ceramics and glass.

I’ve not posted for a while, we haven’t been up to anything exciting and the gales haven’t helped. But we woke to a beautiful sunrise this morning and it stayed nice all day.

19th March – Stromness is showing it’s support for Ukraine by flying their flag at the Town House by the pierhead.

20th March – Although it’s a windy day, the light is terrific and the bright sun highlights the colours in the water as the Graemsay leaves the harbour.

27th March – Spent an hour or so at Warebeth beach “bagging the bruck” with the team from Green Orkney. “Bruck” is the Orcadian word for rubbish. The shoreline is always littered with plastic waste, so it’s good to be part of the collection and disposal process.

30th March – After a spell of fine, sunny weather we awoke to a dusting of snow on the the ground. The starlings were very vocal in their demands for breakfast.

2nd February – The current spell of winter storms has brought extremely strong winds to Orkney and some wintry showers. There was a light touch of snow on Hoy this morning and more snow and strong wind is forecast through the coming week, so we will have to batten down the hatches for that.

With the cold weather at the moment, we like to feed the birds. We don’t get a great variety of birds in the garden, mainly rooks, starlings and sparrows. But what we miss on variety, we make up for in quantity. This is a flock of sparrows attacking our seed dispenser. I reckon there are sixty five in this picture.

4th February – Our house featured (briefly) on an episode of Michael Portillo’s Great Coastal Railway Journeys on BBC2 this evening.  

5th February – We went over to Copland’s Dock for some fresh air and we certainly got some of that!!!

There’s a new arrival on the pier. The yellow cylindical thing is a 16kw ‘Archimedes Waveswing’ Wave Energy Converter that has been brought to Orkney for testing.  It will be moored to the seabed and sit under the surface of the sea to react to changes in pressure caused by passing waves.  The design enables it to continue to operate in rough sea conditions.

6th January – “And all the clouds that lour’d upon our lighthouse”.

Hoy High appearing through the murk of the wintry showers. But the bitterly cold weather doesn’t deter the Stromness Polar Bears from taking a dip. Even with snow on the pier behind them. We can see on their faces how they are enjoying the delights of a refreshing swim.

10th February – After the the recent wild weather, it’s nice to have a quiet spell to enjoy the shore path. The peacefulness and serenity, with nothing but the birds, is lovely change from the past few days.

The sharp eyed amongst you will have spotted, between 35 seconds to 50 seconds, the head of a seal swimming from left to right in the middle of the picture. OK. I admit, it’s only a pinprick but it is there!

11th February – OIC posted this view of Stromness taken from an unusual perspective. A nice way to report ongoing roadworks.

15th February – There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. A blustery day for Shorewatching at Ness Point. As long as it stays dry, I can handle the wind.

18th February – As Storm Eunice ravages the southern parts of the country, Orkney is enjoying a spell of unusually quiet weather. A big change from Tuesday (15th). For the last two days there hasn’t been a breath of wind. Here the late afternoon sun is sinking over Hoy sound, normally turbulent, it’s looking like a mill pond.

19th February – What a difference a day makes. Fresh snow and a clear sky making the view from the office rather pleasant.

2nd January – A lovely sunny morning, so H and I took a trip down to South Ronaldsay for a change of scenery. There are nice views to be found at Windwick and the cliff lined coast looks great catching the sunshine.

The base of the cliffs provides a safe, sheltered location for seals to have their pups and these two are having a snoozy moment together waiting for their Mums to return.

9th January – A beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. We went for our circular walk around Netherton Road. Passing the marshy corner of a field it was nice to see the first signs of the flag irises emerging from the water. These will provide a colourful display later in the year.

At this time of year, the sun never climbs very high in the sky and on a clear day it can be painfully blinding. This photo was taken about 1:30pm looking south to Hoy, the sun is barely above the hills.

The intensity of the sun almost burning out the camera on my phone, this next was taken from the same place at the same time, just looking slightly to the right..

24th January – It’s been very blustery recently but we’re still able to get out. Seeing some interesting over-wintering birds that I’m not familiar with. I had to get the bird book out to check these ones. These are Purple Sandpipers that come here from Greenland and Scandinavia.

These ducks are Gadwalls, they are resident in UK but many come down from Iceland for a winter getaway.

29th January – We don’t have much choice! A promotional banner, from Orkney.com, of a chilly Stromness. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted our little house in the lower left of this photo.

January 2022

February 2022

March 2022

April 2022

May 2022

June 2022

July 2022

August 2022

September 2022

October 2022

November 2022

December 2022

2nd December – H took her afternoon stroll along the shore and recorded this scene, the tide is out and starlings are feeding in the exposed tangle. Perfectly camouflaged, they chatter amongst themselves as they forage.

The peacefulness of this, with the gentle chattering is lost on those that insist on wearing headphones whilst out walking.

7th December – This afternoon, we took a stroll down to the Pier Art Centre to view the winter exhibition. Local artists have an opportunity to display, and sell, their pieces in the run up to Christmas. There’s a lot of nice work but we didn’t part with with any cash this year.

As H is still shielding, we were grateful that the gallery was very quiet and we almost had the place to ourselves.

16th December – Not much festive cheer to report. This sad story is being reported on the BBC. Dozens of weak, dying or dead puffins are being washed up around Scapa Flow.

Some are being looked after by vets, Flett & Carmichael, in Kirkwall. The cause of the problem is not clear but recent storms may have prevented them finding food.

17th December – After a long period without cetacean sightings, I was treated to a pod of Risso’s dolphins at Ness Point.

There were around ten animals in total and the group included two or three juveniles. Risso’s are, probably, the commonest dolphin in the waters around Orkney, although we do get visits from Common dolphins.

Here we can see an adult with a calf alongside, the difference in size of the dorsal fins showing the much smaller juvenile.

21st December – A stroll along the South Pier gives a good view of part of the Stromness waterfront, with the Pier Art Centre at the left. A Barbara Hepworth sculpture just visible in the courtyard.

24th December – H has made this painted wood block to wish all our friends and families a very happy Christmas and a safe and healthy New Year.

26th December – A tsunami of cloud envelopes Hoy, as seen from Stromness golf course.

31st December – After a fairly stressful year of loss, sadness and worry, we will grit our teeth and head into 2022 with determination and optimism.

A nice quiet day here at Ness Point giving us an opportunity for reflection. Geddit?

This will be our last post of the year, so we’ll take this opportunity to wish family and friends a very happy New Year. Bliadhna Mhath Ùr

4th November – OIC have bought a new passenger ferry for the Westray to Papa Westray route. It is, currently, in Stromness for trials and training. Here it is passing through Hoy Sound. It’s a very sleek looking little boat, we must try it out when it goes into service.

13th November – We thought we’d take a trip out to Birsay to watch the waves and look for groatie buckies. The waves obliged but the groatie buckies didn’t.

17th November – The recent stormy weather has prevented our getting out much but I was able to do a Shorewatch this morning, didn’t see any cetaceans but enjoyed an aerial display from these Oystercatchers and migratory Turnstones.

25th November – We haven’t made many posts this month, this November hasn’t been very photogenic, but I don’t think there’s anything as inviting as a chip shop window on a dreich day.

26th November – Storm Arwen has landed this morning, 70 mph winds, driving rain. We’re staying indoors today!

28th November – Our first snow of the winter. Hoy always looks good with a white overcoat.

A leaden sky shows off this snowman well. It looks like the kids that made it scarpered before the weather turned.

Go to December 2021

1st October – The strong Autumn winds are with us now. They’re tough on the garden but produce lovely effects on the sea. This condition where the wind lifts a fine mist off the sea surface is known as smookin’, for obvious reasons.

2nd October – Still getting a few bright days and many locals are taking advantage to get their doors weatherproofed for winter. Cautionary notices have a different ring to them here.

As an aside, Orkney Library posted this old school photo of a celebrity alumnus of Stromness Primary School. The boy at far left on the back row is Robert Shaw of Jaws fame. Stromness clearly a good place to begin his maritime career.

6th October – It can be tricky getting vehicles on to the more awkward islands around Orkney, so the Royal Mail has to endure a fairly undignified lift on to the smaller ferries.

But technology is on it’s way to replace this. Trials are being carried out to see if drones can be used to fly the mail to the more remote corners of the County.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-58792064

9th October – A grey, dreich start to the day doesn’t deter Orkney Rowing Club from their early morning practise. These boats are used at sea and are pretty fast. There is fierce competition between Orkney and Shetland in racing and the local club trains in all weathers.

13th October – The conversion of the oil facility on Flotta to large scale hydrogen production looks promising, I’d consider a hydrogen car, the local council already use hydrogen vans. Orkney innovation marches on.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-58882752

18th October – Kirkwall’s Balfour Hospital has been in the news. Opened in 2019, it is Scotland’s first net-zero hospital, meaning zero carbon emissions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58928932

The curiously curved building has been inspired by the layout of the neolithic village of Skara Brae. I’m not sure if the hospital will still be there in five thousand years.

The BBC article featured Dr. Kevin Fox, a consultant cardiologist. It’s Dr. Fox that has been treating H’s cardio issues. Apparently he divides his time between Kirkwall and Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals in London. That’s quite a commute, not green, but it saves patients travelling to him and we appreciate his coming.

19th October – Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these Shorewatchers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

It’s been a drizzly day but, with a bit of creativity, Shorewatching can continue. Unfortunately it was too wet for the dolphins to put in an appearance.

(Apologies to the US Postal Service)

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28th October 2021

A very sad day for H and myself as we said goodbye to our beautiful little bird, Monty. Monty was diagnosed with cancer in August and it gradually wore him down. He made his last trip to the vet in Kirkwall this morning and was put to sleep.

Monty was a huge part of my life for 34 years and of H’s life for 26 years; a long time in any relationship.

He had always enjoyed life to the full and was full of fun and mischief. He had a wide vocabulary and knew how to use it. Our home seems a quiet and empty place today and, I’m sure, it will do for some time to come.

“Bye, bye. Draw the curtains.”

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30th October –

Yellow Fish Tale

We didn’t go fishing in a boat
And this isn’t our abode
But we did have fish for tea
We bought it down the road

H had a “yellow” day on blipfoto and a Pam Ayers day with the poetry.

Go to November 2021

6th September – Stromness receives it’s first cruise ship since 2019. Ocean Explorer arrived early this morning and departs at 7pm this evening, plenty of time for the passengers to see Orkney!

This is an example of an X-Bow ship, designed to cut through the waves more efficiently than a conventional bow, resulting in a quieter and more comfortable voyage.

7th September – A great day for a Shorewatch, I completed my 200th today!. It’s certainly no hardship to sit out at Ness Point on days like this. Didn’t see anything, though!

10th September – H received a surprise parcel today, this lavender plant was rescued by Gillian from their Dad’s garden.

Hopefully we can do it justice and keep it flourishing in our wet, windy climate. A nice memento and a big thankyou to Gill.

12th September – After a day of incessant rain yesterday, we had a lovely day today. Spent some time Shorewatching and spotted three Risso’s dolphins.

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Luckily H was with me at the time, she’s managed to see all the sightings with me, which is great. I’d feel guilty if I was seeing all the animals and she was missing out!

13th September – H managed to snap two anglers with their catch down on the slipway. Fish doesn’t get much fresher than when it’s filleted on the slipway wall. The left pic shows a pair of pollock and the right hand is a dogfish ( aka rock salmon ).

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16th September – Coming back from Kirkwall, this afternoon, we spotted this novel approach to viewing the neolithic tomb of Maeshowe.

Apparently these paragliders (one is just out of shot) have electric motors, they are doing a tour of Scotland, sponsored by EDF, demonstrating the progress being made in green technologies.

There is a sad postscript to this post.

This photo was taken on the Thursday as the pair passed through Orkney, on the Saturday (18th ) their machines collided in the mountains to the north of Lochinver and one of the team was killed, with the other badly injured.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-58615590

A tragic end to an important mission.

21st September – A bright but blustery day here giving us a lovely mackerel sky over the Flow.

22nd September – We received a phone call from the Surgery this morning asking if we wanted flu jags this year. Naturally, we accepted and were both jagged this afternoon. Good service.

26th September – The Plumber’s day off. We met K and D at Ness Point this afternoon. He has done a lot of work for us, including the new shower room upstairs.

The couple look after horses in paddocks outside Stromness. The horses are regularly exercised around the town and provide a lot of nourishment for the town’s rose growers.

We installed a couple of sparrow nest boxes about a week ago and were pleased to see this little group having a look. I just hope they can get a mortgage!

Go to October 2021

2nd August – August is getting off to a promising start, it’s a beautiful evening for a Shorewatch, with the sea glassy calm. The evening sun always makes Hoy High lighthouse look great and the effect is doubled by the reflection.

We took a run up to Birsay this afternoon for a change of scenery. There are still a few puffins around, but not for much longer. Spotted this little group napping on a rocky shelf.

4th August – No cetaceans seen this morning on Shorewatch but thrilled to see this rose-coloured starling. According to the bird book they are a “very rare migrant from C. Europe: 40-50 per year”.

Originally thought it was just melanistic variation of our own starlings but looked it up for confirmation.

I notified the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) and they have checked it and passed the details on to the County Recorder for Orkney. Exciting stuff!

10th August – When you’ve left your easel at home the next best thing is to tape your canvas to the road!

German artist, Veronika, captures an explosion in a Stromness garden.

12th August – the £33m superyacht Triple Seven is in Kirkwall today, having just arrived from Shetland.

It’s rumoured that Hollywood A-lister, Tom Cruise, was visiting our northern neighbours whilst taking a break from filming in England. Apparently he flew south from Shetland.

Note that the portholes in the hull are quite low down, it’s so that diminutive passengers can see out.

13th August – This would normally be Stromness’ gala week, “Shopping Week”, but due to on-going Covid precautions it has been reduced to three days.

A popular event is always the raft race, a 1.16 km course from Stenigar up to the harbour. This is the first capsizing of the day, actually on the start line! Better luck next year.

27th August – It’s a while since we posted here, we’ve been a bit preoccupied with various things. Still been managing to get out and do some Shorewatch sessions though and we were rewarded with the sight of a pod of Orca passing through the watch site. The huge, straight dorsal fin of the bulls makes them easily identifiable from the others.

The Orca pods that travel around the Northern Isles are given identification tags. This group are the 27s and they can range as far as Iceland.

Go to September 2021