Big pig excitement
There’s big excitement at Einar as Mr Pig arrives with news of the piglets. Little Kim has produced in the night. There …
Notes on a very small island
There’s big excitement at Einar as Mr Pig arrives with news of the piglets. Little Kim has produced in the night. There …
Coastal erosion at the Links of Noltland leaves scattered stones over a neolithic settlement quicky disappearing with the wind.
The dunes at the Links of Noltland show their erosion by the wind – the grass tufts left are six feet above …
I’m standing next to a 5000 year old house looking at a bead from a 5000 year old necklace. It was made …
Pierowall is the name of the only village on the Orkney island of Westray. The problem I had was how to pronounce it. The Westray accent is beautiful and soft and difficult to understand without extreme … → 29 August, 2010
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.
Wind blows the sands into ripples and threatens to engulf the vegetation.
Today is an important day in the social calendar of Westray. It’s the day of the 75th Annual Westray Industrial Show. Entries …
I have a life driven by time. The time on my watch, the time on my phone and the time on my computer. Time to meet, time to arrive, time to leave, time to eat. Time, … → 28 August, 2010
A quick trip out this afternoon to visit Mr and Mrs Pig the neighbours, their boar Alfie and their heavily pregnant sow …
There’s now only one source of petrol and diesel on the Island – and this is it. We’re on bicycles for a …
This afternoon there was time to cycle to East Kirbest and walk to Inga Ness, skirting Skea Hill and to look out …
Cycling to the Westside of Westray I can see the Netherhouse in silhouette. A series of dwellings built up the hill, the …
The most important archaeological find of last year was found on the remote Orkney island of Westray; or at least it was …
Grobust is one of my favourite beaches on Westray. Here it is at sunset.
Grobust is a place I could (and do) go back to again and again. Being up before dawn and going to bed …
The Earl Thorfinn is a smooth ferry ride today and sails easily over the still waters between Westray and Mainland Orkney. I …
Let me never be immune to the spell this Island casts.
It’s sunny this afternoon, so it’s out into the garden to catch a rare photograph of the back of Einar in the …
Whenever you look at property details in Orkney there’s one phrase that keeps on being repeated. Yes, the word ‘ruinous’ is used …
Isn’t technology wonderful? The advancement of science never ceases to amaze me. Instead of bashing fruit flies with my precious copy of …
Teenagers. A month away with no cooker, fridge or washing machine is fine for the three of them. But a month without …
In 1136, Earl Rognvald went to church at Pierowall in Westray at the start of his campaign to subjugate Orkney. Or at …
A morning trip out on [[Westray]] leads me to the Wheeling Steen gallery and tea rooms. It’s hard to believe quite how …
It seems that in every field of valuable cattle is a magnificent beast – the even more valuable bull. Strange fellows, with …
The side of Fitty Hill is bathed in the orange glow of sunset as I reach the summit at 169m.
A miserable grey day of rain and more rain. The Met. Office say it will clear later. What do they know? I’d …
Westray is small and remote but not that small and remote. It has hotels, B&Bs, restaurants (in the hotels) a takeaway (twice …
Worm casts at the Sands of Woo.