1st July – A bit of a dreich day to open July. I’ve been finding things to do around the house and H has been experimenting with her gel plate painting technique and producing interesting results.

This one is called “Do waves make a noise on the shore if there is no-one there to hear them?”

Giclee prints are available from the National Gallery website. (Only kidding)

3rd July – HMS Magpie passing the Hall of Clestrain. I wonder if the crew are aware that a previous resident of the Hall had a few run-ins with the Admiralty.
Dr John Rae fell foul of the Royal Navy establishment for reporting that members of the ill-fated Franklin expedition resorted to cannibalism when they became trapped in the Arctic. See the section in Local Heroes on Rae.

We went down to the Northlight Gallery to see Ralph Robinson’s latest exhibition, “Time and Tides: Allegories of our days”. Ralph’s work highlights the plight of refugees and the dehumanisation of this group of people.

We’ve known Ralph and Patty for many years now and it’s nice to catch up when he’s in Stromness.

4th July – Election day! H & I had postal votes, so no need to queue at the polling station.
I’m not sure if the crew of this boat are rushing to vote but it’s hard working travelling against the ebb tide. Hoy Low lighthouse is keeping an eye on them.

10th July – Our local on-line publication, The Orkney News, produced this interview with Ralph Robinson to highlight his current exhibition.

Ralph is a genuinely nice person and his personality, humour and compassion comes over in this film.

Robinson RR – Times and Tides film

n.b. An allochthon, or an allochthonous block, is a large block of rock which has been moved from its original site of formation, usually by low angle faulting. (Wikipedia).

The interviewer is Martin Laird, local artist and filmmaker, one of his animations can be seen in Local Heroes, the section on Stanley Cursiter.

13th July – Once every two years, thousands of athletes from across the globe — from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic to the Caribbean — come together to compete in the NatWest International Island Games, the next event is in 2025 and Orkney will be playing host. I’d never heard of the Island Games but investigation shows that it’s a big event for small island communities.

We’ve just had a coach load of committee members receiving a tour and being shown Stromness Golf Course.

Twenty-four Islands are represented, From the Falklands to Greenland teams will arrive here in 2025, making Orkney the place to avoid.

17th July – H has been working on her linocut technique today. This is an image of an Inuit hunter based on a stone cut image in Stromness Museum.

The day finished with a late phone call to say there were Orca heading towards Ness Point. So, with shoes untied, I dashed up to the Point just in time to catch them passing by.

18th July – It’s proving to be a productive week at Ness Point. Orca yesterday and harbour porpoise today. The size of the porpoise can be gauged when seen next to a creel marker.

19th July – We went over to Firth Park, in Finstown, this afternoon.

What a difference from our visit in April. There is an explosion of colour throughout the garden, in particular, the little stream bed is unrecognisable.

Puts the GMB garden planting to shame! Full credit to the volunteers that maintain and care for the park.

24th July – It’s Stromness Shopping Week and the festivities begin with the crowning of the Shopping Week Queen. This years Queen, Zara Johnston, and her entourage are being escorted along the pier, rather self-consciously, by the local lifeboat crew.

25th July – An early morning tip-off from friends sent me back up to Ness Point to see another visit of the Orca group that came by last Thursday. We’ve been spoilt this year for sightings.

This chap on the spit of land near the campsite had a great view.

The original “heads-up” came from Emily Wade, the skipper on the dive-boat Huskyan. Here she is letting the divers watch the Orca, prior to getting into the water themselves. Rather them than me!

This was an unusually large grouping with ten individuals. Difficult to get them all in one shot but there are eight in this one. We think there were eight adults and two juveniles.

27th July – It’s the last day of Stromness Shopping Week and the Scalloway Jarl Squad passing by the local park couldn’t resist a photo opportunity on the kiddies longship.

2nd June – As we await the arrival of “Flaming June” we are still getting haar in the mornings. The mist obscured Hoy Sound this morning and reduced visibility for Shorewatching but it did produce this rather peely-wally fogbow.

5th June – We did some shopping in Kirkwall this afternoon and spotted this tucked away between two shops. It’s a sculpture by Ralph Robinson, an Orkney based artist, who often exhibits his work in Stromness.
It’s an effective piece depicting the journey of Earl Haakon to Egilsay, where he murders Earl Magnus for the control of Orkney.

7th June – In spite of the cold, wet and windy weather, the bumblebees still manage to get out and enjoy our little wildflower area.

14th June – A nice article on the health benefits of Shorewatching from the people at BBC Countryfile. I have to agree that there are wellbeing aspects to just sitting and watching the tides come and go.

https://www.countryfile.com/wildlife/marine-life/whale-and-dolphin-watching-mental-health-wellbeing?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR19IMVHtvJD7ulVfe1npB7SQmYjO4O0pwXcmZMHkZEtTcDasu4FLih_PBs_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

21st June – It seems to be getting warmer now (at last), and I’m spending more time on Shorewatch. I was up early and managed to record a porpoise family passing by.

The juvenile can just be seen at the left of this photo. It was very small, perhaps only one metre long.

After the porpoises we were off to Kirkwall, where H had a linocut class, in the late morning. I busied myself in the garden centre and Tesco, it’s all go!

The craft class finished in good time for us to attend the (all to regular) vigil at St Magnus’ Cathedral. As it was a nice day it was well attended, with over forty taking part.

25th June – Another sunny day here, perhaps tempting fate to say summer has arrived. Emma held one of her regular Shorewatch “getogethers” today at Ness Point and was able to train two new volunteers.

Anne and Daniel have visited Orkney a couple of times over the last year and they decided to move here from the Isle of Wight. They got the keys to the new house last week, only snag is that the furniture doesn’t arrive until next week!

No sightings, unfortunately for their first watches but Emma provided tea and biscuits, so all was well.

26th June – A chilly morning, even by Orkney standards, for watching but the early start is often rewarded with nice photos. Here Hoy has donned a cloudy fascinator.

1st May – We took a trip up to Birsay for a bit of fresh air and a walk on the beach. It was high tide and the causeway to the Brough was submerged, so this fisherman was able to take his skiff across without damaging his outboard. The causeway is just visible in this pic as a light band under the boat.

3rd May – Doing my usual Shorewatch today, but was a bit bored and tried to take a photo through the binoculars with my phone. I think it came out quite well.

5th May – A big day in Stromness. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI there was a parade of massed pipes and drums from five pipe bands, Stromness, Kirkwall, Thurso, Wick and Kincardine, Ontario. It was quite moving watching them go past and the Canadians got a big cheer.

This is a short, shaky video of them passing the GMB garden. Apologies for the quality.

All the various Lifeboat crews marched behind their respective bands, here is the Stromness crew.

Heading home on the Hamnavoe, the Thurso band were out on the rear deck entertaining the passengers and crew. The skirl of the pipes carrying across the water to us.

The weather stayed nice and warm and I think a good day was had by all.

10th May – Another pea-souper in Stromness, we’ve had a lot of this haar recently. Stromness seems particularly prone, if we go a couple of miles inland, it will be clear. This is 10am and we can’t see the harbour.

14th May – A clear morning at last, bright enough for this bonny, wee boat to venture out of Hoy Sound.

19th May – Whilst watching the sailing club out on manoeuvres this afternoon, H spotted this little stoat hiding among the rocks on the shore. Very sharp sighted, as they’re not very big.

The scourge of Orkney, these peedie predators are recent arrivals in the islands, and they are playing havoc with the ground nesting birds. There is an ongoing programme to eradicate them, or at least keep the numbers down.

20th May – I received a tip-off this evening that there were Orca passing near Stromness. I dashed out but could only see them in the distance. Luckily they were to the west and the evening sun was catching the blows. This is a fuzzy photo of a large bull taking a breath.

24th May – Well, it’s Orkney Folk Festival weekend and the town is packed. The biggest drawback of the event is the arrival of these things.

They park anywhere and everywhere, with little consideration for others. This monster is taking up four parking spaces. We’ve had issues with them parking on the grass area and blocking our Shorewatch site.

Hopefully, the installation of our new sign might help to maintain access to our survey point.

This was produced by HJM Signwriters of Well Park! I think she did a great job. Put up by Terry and myself.

It is clearly appreciated by the harbour porpoises , as this one turned up for a look within a few hours of installation.

26th May – It was nice to see this little orchid appear in a pot of Michaelmas daisies, leaving the pot undisturbed for ages has suited it.

28th May – A busy month at Ness Point. We had another pod of Orca pass through this afternoon. Their appearance coincided with the Hamnavoe‘s arrival from Scrabster. I’ve always wanted to see dolphins bowriding a ship but, for me, this is just as good.

A legend in my own lunchtime, Northlink Ferries have used the photo!

2nd April – A bright start to April, H made the ascent to the Citadel viewpoint and got this excellent shot of the view across the golf course.

4th April – The gulls must love the ploughing season, this tractor in Stenness is being mobbed.

It’s a busy time for farmers, the fields need to be turned over and the lambs are being born. It’s still too wet and cold, though, to let the cattle out. There will be a stampede when the shed doors are opened!

6th April – This is becoming a regular pensioners day out, the Saturday vigil for Gaza in Kirkwall. It would be nice to see more young people attend and show support and awareness.

9th April – I think as the house is east facing and with the afternoon sun behind us we do seem to get a lot of full rainbows. H captured this one across the harbour today.

We’ve yet to find the pot of gold, though. I think the Trowie folk keep it well hidden.

11th April – A nice piece from Emma Steel for all the WDC volunteers around Scotland: “Alice Walters and I are at the European Cetacean Society Conference this week and today we have the privilege of presenting this poster on behalf of you – and your incredible effort over the Shorewatch Winter Challenge the last 3 winters. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has taken part or supported Shorewatch, this is such a fantastic achievement & you should all be super proud!“

The observant amongst you will have spotted the breaching Orca photo on the bottom row credited to yours truly.

It’s nice to think that the hours standing in the cold wind is actually appreciated by the science community.

This is the original photo.

15th April – A nice, dry, windless day, so we went over to Firth Park in Finstown for a walk. We had visited the park before but never appreciated how large it was. There are still a lot of spring flowers showing but promising signs of new growth everywhere,

There is an all-ability path which meanders through different areas of planting, which, although just waking up just now, will look great in the summer – if it comes!

A number of architectural features add interest and this stone arch draws the visitor into the next part of the garden. We will definitely return in the summer.

17th April – Emma has written an interesting piece on our winter watched over the past three years and the data they have produced.

https://uk.whales.org/2024/04/16/beyond-the-frost-shorewatch-volunteers-rise-to-our-three-year-winter-watching-challenge/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0KKnja8xZG0RSOaQp0_hC6nbN6mur20rsigou4zlaWEZOfQv5aAqaveH4_aem_AdNeHBMUI4BUTH_ZTAggpbrNDQrzBoNt6yxHdLQMK35a1SWMn9ZjUPrb_MI1E-gProgME9RGck9WoMi9-r8wsBj3

The chap in the snowy picture of Ness Point is my fellow watcher, Kevin, from Stenness.

22nd April – We had a little bit of excitement on the shore this afternoon. A RIB slipped its mooring in the harbour and drifted down to Well Park. A local chap spotted it and was able to get hold of the mooring rope and hang on until help arrived.

He did well as the boat was quite heavy and pulling to get back to sea! The incident resulted in both the Lifeboat and the Coastguard getting involved.

4th March – A slow start to the month as the winter storms are not letting up but we had a brief window of sunshine to go for a walk. It’s on these little strolls that we notice some of Stromness’ quaint features such as this window on the warehouse at the Pole Star pier. It’s in need of some TLC but the rust and flaking paint give it some character.

8th March – It’s that time of year again and the Orkney fairmers are having their plooin’ competitions. It’s been a very wet winter but this field seems in reasonable condition. It won’t be long before they let the kye oot fae the sheds. I think I’ve been here too long!

9th March – Sadly we are still maintaining our vigil for Gaza at St Magnus Cathedral. We’ve not missed a Saturday since early November. I think this was the warmest so far.

13th March – A sunny day but gale force winds make outside activity difficult. I carried out a couple of Shorewatches, barely managing to stand up in the wind, setting off home I was faced with the water having risen over the road!

It a flooded about 100 meters along the golf course road. I had to give the car a good hosing to wash off the salt when I got home.

Scottish Water are installing new drainage to the campsite, I imagine they took today off!

16th March – Still need for yet another vigil. One of our group has created a series of small flags, each carrying the name and age of a few of the children that have been killed in the conflict.

On a cheerier note, we were joined a group of lads taking part in an Orkney “blackening”, a ritual whereby an imminent groom-to-be is paraded around the town on the back of a truck and is publicly humiliated by his “friends” by being covered in treacle and other noxious substances. He is eventually cling-filmed to the Mercat Cross, in front of the Cathedral, and abandoned (for a peedie while).

It’s rumoured that the tradition was invented by Kirkwall Dry Cleaning & Laundry Services Co. Ltd.

20th March – Our friend, Terry, has come over from Dounby, to lend a hand with upcycling an old bed frame. We lost a fence panel in a recent storm and decided to repurpose the wooden slats to make a fence that will slow the wind and hopefully give some protection to the plant pots.

Although things are still a bit bare at the moment, I’m hoping this will create a sheltered corner.

23rd March – Gale force winds don’t deter the Kirkwall vigillers, it was wild on Saturday and windy days are tricky to capture in a photo but I think the person wrapped in a flag is a good indication of the conditions.

26th March – It looks like we’ve not seen the end of winter just yet. Woke up this morning to a covering of snow on the Hoy hills.

30th March – What a difference a few days make! Today’s vigil was held in warm sunshine and under a blue sky.

You’ll notice that many vigilistas are carrying kites, apparently 31st March is “Land Day” in Palestine and the people celebrate the fruitfulness of their land by flying kites. We were told that a few years ago children held a mass kite rally on Gaza beach and earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. After our vigil everyone went to a nearby park to fly their kites.

31st March – Did an early Shorewatch this morning, didn’t see anything as usual, but the early light catches the view beautifully. Compare this pic with the one taken five days ago.

7th February – After a gale force start to the month there is not a breath of wind this morning. We had quite a fall of snow overnight and it looks beautiful but, of course, there are draw backs, the roads are blocked! We will just stay in and around the house today.

The bird boxes on the shed are now well insulated. It seems a shame to walk through the snow but the birds will have to be fed and watered. The lack of wind has produced some pretty effects with snow lying on a very thin fence, enhanced with the sun shining through it.

It must have been cold in Kirkwall last night as the harbour basin froze over. This is a very rare occurrence. This photo from Graeme Campbell this morning.

10th February – As the tragedy continues unabated in Gaza, we still maintain our vigils. Today was particularly cold and energy draining. Fellow Stromnessian, Jeannie, looks especially cold here.

We shelter in the lea of the cathedral and have the opportunity to see, at close hand, the wear and tear brought about by 900 years of Orkney weather. I think it has seen 900 years of erosion during this winter alone!

16th February – We were touched to see a memorial bench has been installed at the Links Battery by the Kimmett family for our friend Cati and Elena and Elena’s husband Archie who passed away before we came to Orkney.

Elena was Postmistress in Stromness and was badly affected by the Fujitsu Horizon scandal, an event which undoubtedly affected her health.

Cati was our neighbour at Gray’s Noust, she was quite deaf and her daughter’s passing left her feeling extremely isolated. After we moved to Well Park we kept in touch but Covid restricted our contact.

Cati loved “dining out” and here we are at the Merkister Hotel for spot of lunch in 2018. My orange juice appears to have slipped between H and her pint of lager!

19th February – A sad but interesting tale of a short life. This shag was found at Stromness campsite. The ring was reported to BTO, they provided the following:

This bird was ringed by Isle Of May Bird Observatory as a nestling, sex unknown on 06-Jun-2023, at Isle of May, Fife. It was found on 17-Feb-2024 at Stromness, Orkney, 256 days after it was ringed and 311 km from the ringing site.

Obviously it didn’t get here “as the crow flies” but must have taken a longer coastal route. The wee guy didn’t survive his first winter.

January 2024

February 2024

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

July 2024

August 2024

September 2024

October 2024

November 2024

December 2024

1st January – A Happy New Year to family and friends. We are having a great day here, it’s actually warm and sunny!
If the day couldn’t get any better, we had a visit from the 27s Orca pod at Ness Point.

These visits attract a lot of attention locally and it wasn’t long before there were dozens of people arrive to see the orca.

I cobbled together a short clip of breaching from the photos, it’s not great but gives an idea of the power of these animals.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/vTJESLAM6qJBFZAw6

Hopefully this is a good omen for the coming year and we will have many such sightings.

6th January – Here we are again, on the Gaza ceasefire vigil in Kirkwall. Sadly there is no sign of an end to the suffering of the Palestinians trapped in the rubble of their homes.

With better weather there was a good turnout today. Mostly older folk, it would nice to see more younger people getting involved.

13th January – One of our vigilistas, Susie Shearer, is an artist and she sat and did a painting of our little gathering. She has captured the cathedral nicely.

14th January – Tried to do a Shorewatch this morning but kept getting caught in snowy squalls. Not good for me but my colleague seemed to be fine with it. Not sure if he saw anything, I didn’t like to ask!

16th January – We are getting a good covering of snow now. Only the hardiest of folk are out walking.

With the combination of the weather and as the ferry Hamnavoe is away for a refit and the Pentalina has mechanical problems, the shops are running out of fresh goods. Northlink are putting on extra visits from the Aberdeen boats. Tesco has suspended home deliveries until things improve. With a full store cupboard, I think we can survive until about Easter.

22nd January – Storm Isha arrived with a vengeance last night. The strongest winds hit us around 3:00am and we feared for the roof! Last nights wind speeds have been issued for Scotland and of the top fifteen, five were recorded in Orkney. The highest wind speed being 105.5 mph, recorded at Black Craig, 2.6 miles from my solar panels!

We were at the Stromness Surgery this morning and noticed a few areas of property damage en route, some fence panels down and one roofless shed! We’ve checked our estate and don’t appear to have any trees down, so fingers crossed that’s the worst over…till the next storm!

26th January – In the lull between the gales we have had some nice days. An interesting sky over Hoy, followed by an impressive sunset over the golf course.

30th January – Well, January started well and is going out with a flourish (from a Shorewatch perspective), Orca on the 1st and Humpback on the 30th! They produce a powerful blow.

A beautiful day for it too.

1st December – Orkney’s hi-tech experimental mail drone met a watery end yesterday as the machine fell from the sky into the sea, where it promptly sank. I think it unlikely that it can be retrieved.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0j29yy4yp3o

2nd December – Another Peace Vigil at St Magnus’ Cathedral, attended by the LibDem MP for Orkney and Shetland, Alistair Carmichael. Might be worth watching this peedie video from The Orkney News.

“The eyes of the world – and the eyes of history – are watching.” #Gaza

3rd December – The days are very short now and we are still three weeks away from the shortest. This photo of the harbour was taken around 4pm. The harbour lights must seem very inviting to ships arriving on stormy nights.

The dark evenings and the calm sea always enhance the moonrise light. One of my favourite scenes, moonlight on water.

8th December – We visited the Christmas Exhibition at the Pier Art Centre today. As usual there is a lot of great art on display, clearly a lot of talented people in Orkney. I was particularly impressed by this, rather more prosaic piece by Joanne Holdinga.

Clever stitching shows a blank image when viewed face-on but viewed from an angle it shows the Orcadian phrases “Whit like the day” and “Beuybeuy”.

Well it amused me anyway.

16th December – An horrendous morning here, really strong wind and heavy rain. H and I got soaked on the first half of our vigil but it cleared up enough to venture from the shelter of the cathedral to take a photo.

The weather reduced the turnout but, as this is week six and the weather is awful, it’s pretty good.

19th December – Had some errands to do in Stromness this afternoon, it was nice to see some of the Christmassy windows and shops lit up. This is looking up Victoria Street towards Argo’s Bakery, we were lucky to catch a lull in the shopping crowds to get this photo!

Victoria Street rivals Regent Street in London for its bright lights and the Christmas gaeity.

Further along, in Graham Place, the Northlight Gallery always provides festive windows with their collection of Santa’s.

23rd December – Here we are again, sadly no progress of note being made in Gaza, so the vigils are being continued. Despite the driving sleet there is another good turnout in front of the cathedral. H is well wrapped up but really felt the cold today.

This sleet was falling as snow between Kirkwall and Stenness and the road was quite tricky. However there was no snow to be seen in Stromness and the cloud is too low to see if Hoy is white.

28th December – St Magnus Cathedral during a lull in the storms.

We had an appointment at the Balfour, so we took advantage of the trip to have a look around Kirkwall with it’s Christmas lights.

1st November – There’s a definite drop in temperature now. Winter is upon us. Recent storms have stripped the leaves off most of the shrubs and the birds are finding it trickier to locate food. We had some waxwings in the GMB garden this morning looking for the cotoneaster berries, it was nice to be able to sit in the warmth watching them.

4th November – A beautiful day with hardly a breath of wind nor a cloud in the sky, nicely rounded off with this sunset.

8th November – A little article from the BBC on the possible introduction of electric aircraft for freight deliveries to the islands. They’ve used a nice photo of Stromness to illustrate the piece.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv2k21xwk2eo

9th November – Last night (Wednesday 8 November), urbanists from across the UK and Europe gathered at the Blue Fin Building, Southwark, for the Urbanism Awards Ceremony. Following a programme of public nomination, member-led shortlisting panels and in-person finalist assessment visits, the Academy of Urbanism (AoU) announced the winning Great Place, Great Street, Great Neighbourhood, Great Town, European City of the Year for 2023.

Representatives from 13 of the 14 shortlisted places attended the event, where finalists were celebrated by poems, written and performed by Poet-in-Residence Ian McMillan, accompanied by illustrations by Artist-in-Residence David Rudlin AoU. Great Town finalist Stromness was represented in spirit, as a local event prevented in-person attendance.

https://www.theaou.org/articles/the-urbanism-awards-2023-winners#:~:text=Stromness%2C%20in%20the%20Scottish%20Orkney,above%20its%20size%20and%20weight.

10th November – The starlings in our garden are particularly tame and this pair were happy to pose for a photo so they could show off their stunning plumage. Who said starlings were drab?

Although today has been fairly calm with very little wind the sea still has quite a bit of energy in it. This breaker is crashing in past Hoy but the surrounding water is fairly flat.

12th November – A mixed bag of weather today, mainly dry but the occasional shower is producing magnificent rainbows.

15th November – It was great to have a sighting at Ness Point today, the first for a long time.

A pod of common dolphins were feeding for around an hour this morning. The sharp-eyed amongst you will spot two youngsters in the pod.

18th November – Despite the wet and windy weather, H and I were able to attend a vigil at St Magnus Cathedral to raise awareness of the terrible plight of the population of Gaza. It was well attended as were the hundreds of other vigils held around the country today.