Tuesday on Papay

This is how I spent Tuesday morning (actually, every morning so far on the island, alternating between book and computer).























This is how I spent Tuesday afternoon (actually, every afternoon I got out and about).

 I didn't make it very far on Tuesday because of the northerly gale that chilled me to the bone. It gave me a deep understanding of why soup and hot drinks are so popular here.

Choice

I've missed the 'cinema' on Papa Westray (it happens on Saturday night) and I've missed the pub (they open it ["it" is a cupboard of grog] after they've finished screening the film). But I can go to the cafe (on Wednesday morning).

There is only one place to get food on the island and that is at the shop which opens a couple of hours a day.

If you are on the island and need a cup of tea, they don't lock the door of the hostel and you can let yourself in to the dining room and help yourself to the tea making supplies. There is a little box you can pop some coins in.

There is some sightseeing to do, had two goes at doing that today, but got blown back indoors by the rain and hail both times. Hopefully the wind will be a little less sideways tomorrow.

I am so happy I want to kiss someone.

Colder and wiser

No, I'm not in the slightest bit wiser, but the other bit is true.

I made a snap decision to come to Papa Westray (or Papay as the locals call it [I hear Papee]) today.

I needed a change and I've been quite interested in the little islands to the North. I rang the hostel to find out if they had any rooms (there is only one other person staying, together we bring the island population to 85). My brother gave me a lift to the airport an hour before the flight was due to leave. I bought a return ticket for twenty pounds (do you hear that, Eurostar? Do you hear?) and sat down in the waiting room.

If you are heading to 'down south', they have a departures gate. If you are heading to Papa Westray, you get let out the back.

Three of us got on the peedie plane (see how I used the local dialect there?) I've been in cars bigger than that plane. The woman I was sitting next to, Mari, offered me a lift from the airport because she was going in to the shop anyway.

When you stand on the runway, you can see the ocean on either side.


















(and look, completely out of character, I have already found internet!)

Papa Westray

Well, I am heading off for a few days to Papa Westray.

It is getting colder and colder here and I find myself yearning for the south.

Skies remain clear over Kirkwall

I think this is the town hall. Or was, or something.






















 Most of Kirkwall is grey and square, but then you get little pockets of colour. The flowers are mostly gone from this garden, now, but the greens are still a welcome change from the greys.

I had applied for a  job in Canada and assumed I was going to get it and was feeling quite content that the future was all planned out. I got the rejection letter yesterday and the brother suggested I go for a walk to think about what to do next.

I went off up the hill. The weather remains marvellous.

 Cloudy, for sure, but it hasn't rained in several days, everything is drying out, and there is enough sunshine to feel quite cheerful.

I'm always a fan of hay. I think because haystacks were so much fun to play in when we were kids. They set the stage for many an imagined kingdom.

I love how the heather on the hill looks brown and unappealing from a distance.

But quite green and pretty from close up.

I later went down into the village to have a cuppa at Trenabies. I haven't been in there before because it looks a little uninviting from the street, but it has a staggering range of teas, so there is no doubt I will be back in there again.


I made my way back up the hill to my brother's place as the sun was setting.

Kirkwall really is a rather magical place.

Glorious sunshine

The reel. Just to the left is a display cabinet with a guitar I have been wishing for. That would be foolish, though, because I am leaving soon and already have enough stuff to try and lug about.






















Door.

















Sunshine on Tuesday.

Thelwell's pony on Wednesday.


















I have never seen such a perfect example of a Thelwell's pony in the flesh.


















When I saw him on Tuesday, he was standing in the perfect Kipper pose, but I couldn't catch it when I went back with my camera on Wednesday.























The bottom of the path up to the brother's house.


















A gate.



















The cool old place behind the gate.



















On a sunny day, everyone takes advantage of it.

Haggis and cracked pepper chips...

Afternoon sunshine.

On Thursday, some Orkney children put on a performance for me on the way home from the library. It involved a dancing donkey, cow and banana skins. They had asked someone going past already to be audience and that person had just ignored them.


















Sunset on Thursday.

Sunset on Friday

 The white bull in the paddock near the house. They have cleared all the sheep out of this paddock, now and he looks a little lonely.

 It doesn't feel very much like Scotland, here. Scotland is 'Down South', but there are signs.

 I want to put cushions in the back seat of my car. And I want my car to be a mini.

 Midday, yesterday. It rained in the morning and then this.

Kirkwall

There would be drawbacks to living in Kirkwall permanently, but safety would not be one of them. Here are some examples of things that have happened.

I wanted to try on a shirt in a shop and was ushered into the stockroom out the back (with all of my bags) and could have stolen any number of things with no one the wiser.

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the reel and the other day there was a little old lady with a walker who needed help with the door. I opened the door for her to get out and she asked me to open the door around the corner for her. I walked out of the reel, around the corner and held open the other door the lady needed then came back. I had left my computer open on the table and my bag with everything in it under the seat and it was all fine.

If you have a parcel delivered and you're not home, the postman goes around the back of your place, opens the back door and leaves the parcel inside on the mat (presumably so that it doesn't get wet in the continual rain)

Apparently if a visitor/tourist does something wrong, like leave a B&B without paying the bill, they just stop the ferry until it is sorted out...

Italian Chapel, Lamb Holm

On Sunday we crossed the Churchill barriers to explore some islands to the south.

We saw the Italian chapel, built by the Italian prisoners of war.

















It is built out of two Nissen huts and concrete and felt and bitumen and stuff and is beautifully painted.

It is as spectacular, in a small way, as any of the godstuff we saw along the Silk Road.

Poor buggers must have been cold and miserable. They were building the causeways between the islands. It is super cold inside the chapel now, in October. I hope they didn't have to spend too many winters like this.

There was a concrete St George slaying a concrete dragon.

We also went to see Tomb of the Eagles. I was not expecting much, but there was a great little museum and, if you followed that link, you got to touch all the stuff in that first picture. You could feel how comfortably the tools fit into your hand, asking to be used, and you could feel the spectacular craftsmanship. Then we walked out through the sheep paddocks and then along the cliffs and went into the tomb itself. You could just go right into it and look and pretend you were 5000 years ago.

It is called Tomb of the Eagles because of all the eagle talons they found among the remains. They are excavating another one a little further round the coast and there are a lot of otter bones, so it is being called Tomb of the Otters.

On Monday there were showers alternating with gale force winds.

Tuesday, I finished off a tea cosy for a friend from the truck. Hopefully I will get to catch up with him and his girlfriend in the next couple of weeks.

Life has slowed down here and I am feeling much more relaxed than when I arrived.

Skara Brae, Skaill House, Stromness

 Thursday evening after the 17 degree heat wave.

















 Friday, the garden outside my brother's place on the way down to town.

The return of normal weather on Saturday at the standing stones of Stenness.

The Ring of Brodgar.

 Skara Brae, built before the pyramids.

 

Skaill House.

Some lords or earls or someone lived here and they brought back stuff from all over Asia to stick in the house.

 Stromness.

Looks like quite a nice place to live. They have a yarn store and everything.

 Door.