It’s always interesting to see new visitors to the Island drive up to one of the two shops in Pierowall, climb down out of their people carrier and put the central locking on by remote key-fob before walking into the shop. It’s what I did first time. Then I realised that it was an insult to the people around me. By locking my car (beep, double flash) I was saying “I believe you are all thieves and would rob me immediately if I was to give you any opportunity whatsoever.” I began leaving the car unlocked to a family chorus of “You haven’t locked the car!” and slowly began to change so that I left the windows open as well and maybe even a door if it was convenient. Leaving my camera on the seat with the window open was a further barrier I had to overcome. Finally I got there. Life’s so much better when you can trust everyone around you without question.

I discussed the freedom I felt with a neighbour who is an incomer to the Island. She recounted the tale of a neighbour of hers who had to move her car for her and was berating her for not keeping the keys in the ignition.

Life’s so much better when you can trust everyone around you without question. I still don’t leave the keys in the ignition though.

There’s big excitement at Einar as Mr Pig arrives with news of the piglets. Little Kim has produced in the night. There are twelve piglets and sow and piglets are doing well. We’re on our bikes and down the road before you can say pig swill.

The piglets are unbelievably cute, with curly tails and great saddleback patterns (who would have guessed that their father was ginger?) Thank goodness there are only 12 as Little Kim has only 14 teats. Huddled snorting in the straw under the heat lamp, they are a gorgeous mass of perfect piggery.

Good luck to Mr Pig in raising the next generation.

I’m standing next to a 5000 year old house looking at a bead from a 5000 year old necklace. It was made from a cow’s tooth by someone who lived on this spot in the neolithic age. Someone who wore animal skins, who farmed barley and kept cattle. Someone who worked bone and antler and whalebone to make pins and tools and jewellery. Someone who used decorative pots and cooked on a fire. Someone with friends and family.

The Links of Noltland is a perfect example of rescue archaeology. As I stand looking at the dig I can see the newly uncovered soil of the neolithic being blown away by the wind as the dunes erode and the sea encroaches. Kept safe for thousands of years by being trapped between boulder clay below and sand above, the remains of buildings are perfect with all their context still preserved. Flint, bones and pottery are scattered in the ground fresh as the day they were covered.

In five years it will all have blown away.

I decided to ask my friend Chris who lives on the Island. “Chris”, I said, “How do you pronounce the name of the village?” He looked at me carefully and said very, very slowly “T-h-e V-i-l-l-a-g-e.”

That’s clear then.

Dreek indeed.

Urban Dictionary: dreek
It means bad weather. The kind of weather which makes you miserable: dull, grey and wet. If it rains hard and water runs down your neck it’s dreek.

Today is an important day in the social calendar of Westray. It’s the day of the 75th Annual Westray Industrial Show. Entries have already been delivered to the designated drop-off points, clearly labelled with their section number and class, with the competitor’s name inside. Judging has already taken place. It’s time to see who has won such fiercely competitive sections as ‘Fattie Cutties’, ‘Bere Bannocks’, ‘Oatcakes medium with shortening’ and ‘Potatoes, Long, Coloured’ and the all important ‘Cabbage, round’ section. There’s a lot at stake – pride as well as individual prizes for each section, with a First Prize of 60p, Second Prize of 50p and Third Prize of 40p.

Entrance is £2.50 but we are reassured that we’ll get our entrance fee’s worth at the all-you-can-eat tea. We know this, we’ve been before and Gabriel is intending to beat his Season’s Best in cake eating before the afternoon is out. (We feel he’s a little out of training to beat his Personal Best so early in the cake season.)

This year there were even more entries than last and great long tables were bursting with the best that the Island has to offer. In the nearby tea room, the same was true. Delicious salad rolls, freshly baked fancies and homebakes and tea and juice. Plus, of course, great company.

Fattie Cutties are a personal favourite and competition was particularly strong this year. All are made to the same recipe, laid out in the Prize Schedule:

3 cups plain flour
7 oz (175g) margarine
3 tblsp sugar
4 oz (100g) currants
Pinch of baking soda
Pinch of salt
A little milk

Method: Melt marg. Mix dry ingredients. Add margarine and mix with milk. Roll out on lightly floured board thinly. Cut into squares and bake on a not-too-hot griddle. Eat.

(For completion’s sake, Gabriel did achieve a Season’s Best cake record but slowed significantly in the finishing straight).

On Westray people say hello to one another when they pass. They stop to offer help when they think you might need it. They are happy to pass the day with you. On Westray the shops sell home-made and local items. They will order any food you might like to eat and get it in bulk on the next ferry. They will find someone who has what you want if, by some miracle, they haven’t got it in stock. On Westray families socialise together. I remember a disappearing world like that from my childhood.

If you ask the question ‘What time is it?’ on Westray, the correct answer is ‘The 1960s’.

A quick trip out this afternoon to visit Mr and Mrs Pig the neighbours, their boar Alfie and their heavily pregnant sow Little Kim. Here’s a typical extract from Mr Pig’s blog:

The Edge of Nowhere: About a boar
the-edge-of-nowhere.blogspot.com
How old will he have to be before he begins “work”? I was sixteen myself. Does he have to court then marry each sow in turn? What if Alfie’s gay? I mean – some pigs are just born gay aren’t they?

Being modern pigs they have their own Facebook page where you can follow the ins and outs (oo-er missus, put that chicken away!) of pig husbandry. Excellent.

Pedigree British Saddleback and Saddleback/Tamworth cross pigs from the beautiful, remote Orkney island of Westray. Pork available from Dounby Butchers (01856 771777), live pigs for fattening or breeding from Malcolm on 01857 677577.

There’s now only one source of petrol and diesel on the Island – and this is it. We’re on bicycles for a month, so I’ve not had to use it, although I should really have got some for my petrol strimmer. I’ve been too busy enjoying Island life to use it.

This afternoon there was time to cycle to East Kirbest and walk to Inga Ness, skirting Skea Hill and to look out to sea with a posing cow for company.