Rain on my window
Rain on my window an hour before dawn with the amber lights of Kirkwall harbour across the water.
Return to the Ayre Hotel
Time. Time to go home and leave Orkney for a little while. Time to earn a living. Time at the bar. Last …
Heading home
It’s time to head home with a heavy heart. The light on the boat is on in the daytime with blue skies …
Crunching boots on empty tracks
Our boots crunch as I walk along the farm track with Fitty Hill behind and the silver sea ahead.
Sometimes a picture is enough
Fitty Hill from East Kirbest
Sailing Westray down.
Leaving the Island is always a wrench. As I leave the Island, I watch as the ferry sails and Westray begins to …
Playing in a big space
A photo-shoot with Chris from the band Ippykak at our nearest beach. It’s a glorious Westray day and the Bay of Tafts is calm and blue. Perfect for a quick kayak.
The sun shines out of his guitar
There’s just time on a glorious day to see my friend Chris and record a video for one of the songs from his album with his band Ippykak.
Deceptive
A new day and a new beach to explore. This one is hidden behind long kelp drying walls. Over shattered rock and …
Buried Treasure
When I was a child I played on the beach all summer holiday and one day, when I was very young, I …
Grace and poise
Cycling past the Skello shop I see a vision in white, a stunningly beautiful, windswept and magnificent white horse. She has grace …
Capturing the emptiness
There’s only one road from Einar and in the wind it’s tough cycling. I stop for a breather and capture the emptiness.
Snuffle, oink, scratch
The pig needs a scratch so bicycles are stopped, bristles are rumpled. What a fine looking pig.
Spring light
It’s a beautiful time of year as low spring light gives the view from my field a golden glow and sheep graze …
Middle of the road
Middle of the road; that’s something you could never accuse Westray of being.
Peeling paint
The paint in the hall has seen better days. Layers upon layers of colours have been applied over the years that Einar …
Lambing
Lambing is a wonderful time; quivering tails and wobbly legs are always a pleasure at this time of year. Cycling past the …
Watching the Wake
Looking back across the sea to mainland Orkney as the ferry journeys to Westray.
Yet More Steps
Earl Sigurd is a wonderful ferry. It’s time to journey to Westray aboard the Earl Sigurd and there are more steps to …
Steps and Stairs
So when does a set of steps on a ladder become a set of stairs? The answer is; on an Orkney Ferry. …
All Aboard
Today it’s all aboard the Earl Sigurd. Thankfully there’s not a magical raven banner in sight. Earl Sigurd is one of the …
Viking traces
Traces of the Vikings are everywhere in Orkney; from the runes carved in the Neolithic chambered cairn at Maeshowe to the Viking …
Mice nibble… #9
Curtain tie-backs.
The truth at last about Westray tourists
So this is what happens to visitors? Spotted in a glass cabinet of curiosities at the Museum in Kirkwall.
Noltland Panorama
Noltland Castle is a wonderful castle with panoramic views of Pierowall and its bay. Here’s a 360 panorama taken with a Spinner …
Mice nibble… #7
Rubber gloves.
How am I going to look alluring now?
Mice nibble… #6
Shammy leather.
Thanks to the mice my car windows will remain dirty – they’ve eaten my chamois leather. I wasn’t going to clean the windows anyway, but now at least I’ve got an excuse.
Mice nibble… #5
Ear defenders.
What will defend my ears now that the mice have got at them? What will defend me from the mice eating everything I own?
That reminds me…
…I really must trim my beard.
Mice nibble… #4
Draught Excluder. Surely that’s a little self defeating of my mice? I’m not going to be able to make the house a little less breezy for them now.