Pilgrimages to Burray?

Wednesday 23rd March 2011
We may become a new centre for pilgrimages. I opened a tub of butter this morning and Behold!!, a face miraculously appeared in the butter.


Now, I do not know much about the appearance of all the christian saints and so can not say which one it is. I am sure however that such a miraculous appearance of a human face must be due to some supernatural intervention.

We could get the Burray Community Association to set up a shrine to "The Butter Saint" and make a fortune for Burray. Maybe we could set up the shrine in a fridge in the old, somewhat tatty,community hall and then with all the money we make from pilgrims we could build a new state of the art hall.

Unfortunately, somewhat later I found that Pam had spread the face of "The Butter Saint" over a slice of toast. Ah well, such are the dreams of men.

Meryn and Graham from "Banks" down the road, came up to collect some eggs that we had offered them. Meryn is an archeologist and her pet theories seem to be about brewing beer in neolithic times. Studying archeology and brewing seems to me to be very close to the perfect occupation.
From what Meryn was saying, the consensus of opinion is that brewing was not being carried out in the neolithic. I think that I would tend to agree with Meryn but it seems to be a more complicated question than at first sight.
Graham is going to let me have some of his home brew when it is ready in exchange for the eggs. I may treat the brew with some caution just in case it has been brewed by some neolithic method which may involve details that I probably do not want to know about.

Later on I found that we have gained some more livestock for free. There is a rat in the shed somewhere. Well to be precise there is some rat shit in the shed so I am assuming that there is a rat or possibly more than one rat.
Now, given the earlier miraculous event with "The Butter Saint",it may be possible to have rat shit without having to have a rat but I think that I will assume that we probably have a rat. I shall put some poison down and see if the aforementioned rodent excrement ceases to appear.

A sad day.

Sunday 20th March 2011
Pam is having a lazy day and did not made any breakfast. Fortunately, The Cromarty Hall in the Hope was having a Big Breakfast and book sale. The breakfast was good and reasonably priced but we went home with an armful of books so it probably did not work out to cheap.

On returning home I had an e-mail from Ann Lane telling me that Ken Briggs had died. Ken and his wife Nancy were the driving force and organisers of the annual trips to Linga Holm. Linga Holm is an island just off Stronsay. The RBST used to own it and had a flock of North Ronaldsay sheep there. Every year Ken and Nancy organised a working party to come up here to shear, jam and sort the sheep. They were both dedicated to the flock and it was only because they invited Gareth and I to come up on the working parties that I came back to Orkney after so long. This then eventually led to our moving here.
I therefore owe a great deal to both Ken and Nancy.

On Tuesday Pam went over to Barbara's on South Ronaldsay so that Barbara could hand over all the U3A secretary stuff. While she was away I mad another chicken house. We needed a slightly larger one for the chicks as they grow. I have another two full sized chicken houses to make before Easter and then that should do.

When Pam came back she was mumbling about the fact that nobody seemed to know where there was a copy of the U3A constitution and that the accounts had never been independently audited. (I knew that she would like it, she loves a good mumble.)
We will gloss over the dog training class. At least all the dogs were bad and Mrs Thain has decided that perhaps she was trying to go too fast.

England 22: Scotland 16

Sunday 13th March
Just for a change it was windy and sleety most of the day so once again we stopped in. At least I got to watch the rugby. Who am I supposed to support though? No problem, we won. A bit tatty really but at least a win is a win. Scotland played much better than they have in other games but then they always raise their game when playing England.England on the other hand did not play well at all but it was just enough.

On Monday the weather finally improved so that I could get a little done without getting either soaked or blown over (or both). I managed to get some bracing timbers across from the shed to the wall of the old stone shed to stop it moving in the wind. I had seen it dancing a bit the other day and I could do without it jumping off its blocks. I can also use the bracing struts to allow me to roof over the gap between the two sheds so that I can have another shed.
There is enough space to get the little tractor and the topper in, so if I just build a wall at the back and put some doors on the front then Hey Presto! I have another shed.
Hamish is going to be taking down his big shed soon and has offered me as many roofing sheets as I want so it should be a cheap shed. It will then give me a good deal more room in the stone shed. Enough room for a train set that is. One day when Pam has run out of little jobs and we have then I will get a start on the train set so I will not hold my breath.

Gavin, who did the painting and decorating in the extension, popped round this morning. He was up here to see Jack Scott about something and thought that he would like to see what the extension looked like now it is finished and furnished. He was most impressed but then I don't suppose he is going to say that it is rubbish even if he doesn't like it.

Wednesday and yet another lovely day. (I could get used to this). I went on one of the U3A birdie walks. Only a short walk of about 4 miles but just for a change there were loads of birds. This is not normal on birdie walks but that maybe because everybody is wandering along gossipping and not looking for birds.
The walk was in west mainland, just north of Dounby. We started at some holiday chalets which had a bird hide behind them. This hide looks out over the Loch of Banks which is really more of a series of muddy pools and marshy ground than a loch. Not very pretty at all but it is just how the birds like it. We then walked round the Loch of Sabiston, a proper loch. There were loads of whooper swand making a great deal of noise and getting all excited as they will be leaving soon to return to Iceland.

A group of daft people by the Loch of sabiston. They have just been told to look as though they have just seen something interesting while someone else takes a photo.




The loch of Sabiston is really a hidden gem. Invisible from the road, it lies in a trough in the hills with a few scattered farms and houses around it. There is one particularly lovely old mill complete with house, mill stream and outbuildings that is being used as farm buildings. It looks to all be still in good condition and I am surprised that it has not been sold off for modernisation as it would be a beautiful place to live.

On Thursday one of the Dorking eggs hatched and another started to hatch but died before it got out properly. I originally bought 6 eggs, 2 were not fertile but the other 4 developed properly but only one has hatched properly even though the others looked fully developed when I checked. I think that there must be a problem with the incubator. I will have to give it a real good check over before I get any more eggs.

Pam had her craft meeting this morning in Finstown and while she was there, I went to the furniture auction at the auction mart. All the prices for anything that I was interested in were higher than I was prepared to pay. (or I am to mean) (IS THAT OK BABS? TO, TWO, TOO, TOOT.)
so I bought nothing. It was however interesting to see the range of stuff for sale and the prices that things reached. There was a really nice heavy duty cultivator in very good condition and I bid up to £170 but it finally went for £240 and still cheap to my mind. I did not think that Pam would understand if I told her that the little nests of coffee tables were to expensive but that I had bought a cultivator.

After they had finished their craft group I met up with Pam and Helen in The Reel for lunch before going to the U3A AGM at the St Magnus Centre.
Yesterday Barbara, the U3A secretary had asked Pam if she would consider standing as secretary because Barbara is standing down. Pam gave her a very polite but definite NO.
At the meetingthey had to elect both a new chairman and a new secretary. After much arm twisting, they managed to get somebody to agree to stand as chairman and he was duly elected but nobody would allow themselves to be put forward as secretary.
They must have spent about 15 minutes trying to get somebody to take it on and explaining that the organisation could not continueto run if they did not get a new secretary. All their efforts were met with a deafening silence and much uncomfotable fidgiting from the members.
In the end, I volounteered Pam.

Saying that she was not best pleased about this is like saying that the reverend Ian Paisley is not madly in love with the Pope. She was however persuaded that as nobody else would take the job, then there was not much choice.
I don't think that I will be getting fed for the next few days though.

Bad weather, big dogs and more bad weather.

Wednesday 9th March 2011
We woke this morning to a light covering of hailstones. As is to be expected, it soon got worse. Gales and sleet, so I decided to do nothing.
One has to be able to make decisions based on the facts and the fact was that it was not fit for anything.
Normaly the weather in Orkney changes rapidly but just for a change this foul weather continued through thursday anmd friday so again the executive decision was made to stay in and do nothing.

On Saturday the weather improved. To be honest there was little else that it could do.
I noticed that there was a pub quiz at the Sands in aid of the Burray community association. We invited Dave and Claire to come round for tea then come to the quiz with us. I then realised that the quiz was next saturday and not tonight.(That's the first question wrong then.) Dave and Claire came round anyway and we went to the Sands without any danger of showing everybody how ill informed we were by doing a quiz.

At about 10 o-clock most of the young folk in the pub left to catch the bus to Kirkwall for the exotic night life. That just left us and one other group of people in the bar. The others were regulars and one of them works at the Sands as a barman. Evelyn, the landlady, then let Amy, her younger Akita out into the pub. Amy goes to the same obedience class as Molly, so I think that Evelyn was using us as a test to see if Amy would behave and not eat any of the customers. She is a VERY large and powerful dog and a few weeks ago I would not have trusted her. As it was, she was very good and was licking my nose rather than ripping my throat out. She did have a little growl at somebody from the other table who moved a bit quickly but I think that Evelyn was happy that her test worked.

Very few birds but a very active frigate.

Sunday 6th March 2011
We went on a trip round Scapa Flow from Stromness on the Graemsay ferry today. It was organised by The Scapa Flow Partnership. Tim Dean, one of Orkney's ornithological masters, gave a running commentry on the birds and the landmarks throughout the three hour trip.
As far as birds went, it was not a fantastic trip. There were only a few species around. On the plus side, there were a lot of individuals of these species.
It was interesting to see Orkney from the flow. Everything looks quite different when looking at it from the sea. We did the obligatory "You can see our house from here" bit, when we got round to Burray.

On the non-birdie side, we went past Lyness, the old wartime naval base which is now being redeveloped to service the marine renewable energy industry.The Pelamis wave energy device was moored up there and we also went close to Flotta for a look at the scenic oil terminal.






There were several fish farms in the flow including this one which I think is the one that was built on the links in Burray a couple of months ago.

The highlight, at least for me, was the frigate HMS Montrose dashing backwards and forwards across the flow. She was up here on a navigation excercise although I haven't a clue what she was doing.
It looked like they were just playing, going at full tilt for a bit then stopping and waiting before dashing of in another direction.
Montrose actually looked like a proper warship with real old fashioned guns and other hardware unlike HMS Dauntless who was up here a while ago. She just looked like some sort of evil, brooding machine from a science fiction film. No doubt Dauntless is a much more effective fighting ship but I do like to see big guns on warships so that I know what they are.

It was definitely a bit on the chilly side out on the flow but well worth it.

Monday and Tuesday were not brilliant days so I decided that it may be more sensible to stay indoors (one of the benefits of being retired). I did manage to get the electricity connected to the shed. According to Pam I can always find time to do things in the shed etc but have trouble finding time for other jobs that she wants doing. I have offered to pay for her to go on a DIY course so that she does not have to rely on me but this idea has not gone down to well.

On Tuesday evening I took Molly to Kirkwall for her bronze obedience test. When we left home it was windy but otherwise OK but when I reached the barriers I had to slow down to 20mph as the gale force winds were driving a blizzard horizontally and I could not see a thing. It is always handy, especially on the barriers if you can actually see where the road is.
Anyway, back to Molly's test. She is a very clever dog and knows all the things that she should do, so you would think that she would sail through the test. WRONG!! She may know what she is supposed to do but the test is for obedience, not intelligence.
As part of the test she had to sit and stay for 1 minute and lie down for two minutes. She managed about 20 seconds for each one before she got bored and wandered off. All the rest of the test she did well but I was sure that she had failed and was really surprised when I saw the results and found that she had passed. She must have got through by the skin of her teeth. Araldite on her backside is possibly a good idea for her next class.

Henceforth I think that we may resume calling her "the thick mutt" or slightly less polite terms. She doesn't care though.

Who's getting a new shed then?

Thursday 3rd March 2011
I nipped into Kirkwall first thing to get the shed that I am buying jacked up off the ground so that we can pick it up easily on saturday.
The shed is not sectional, having been built where it stands, so I have had to hire a HIAB to pick it up and drop it off. This is costing £42 per hour. As all who know me will be aware, I have, on the odd occassion been known be a bit careful about spending my hard earned money. I therefore thought that I had better do all that I could to speed the loading and unloading of the shed.

The shed itself is not costing anything except 2 dozen eggs and a donation to a local charity but as it is a good shed, then much against my nature I think that a reasonable donation is only fair.

At home later , we finished levelling out all the chippings on the drive and I got the blocks down for the shed to sit on when it arrives.

On Friday Pam took delivery of a sewing machine that she had won on ebay. Unfortunately the seller had forgotten to enclose the power supply, foot pedal and instruction manual. Looking at the machine, I think that a manual would be essential. I always thought that sewing machines just sewed things but this one has so many controls that i am sure it must be able to do a multitude of things but until the manual arrives we will never know.
I think that it is the craft group that has gone to Pam's head. She has not sewn anything since Babs and gareth were very young and now she says that she needs an all singing all dancing machine. If only she would get interested in something sensible like model railways.

Saturday (Shed Day)
I heard the first skylark of the year over our fields this morning. It must be a good omen.
The delivery of the shed went like a dream. As you will know if you have been paying attention, I had already jacked the shed up, put ropes under it and cut the wires holding it down. (Anything with a large surface area has to be chained down against the wind here.) The Hiab arrived on time and I just pulled his straps under the shed with the ropes and we were ready to go.
The shed hoisted very easily and quickly onto the wagon so all my fears of it collapsing when it was lifted proved to be groundless. It was very quickly secured and then off to Burray. The driver dropped the shed spot on where I had prepared and with a couple of adjustments to the breeze blocks that I had put for it to stand on, it was all done.

Maybe not the prettiest of sheds but with a lick of wood preserver and a bit of paint round the windows it will be hunky dory.
Just over 1 hour from start to finish and the driver only charged me for the one hour so I have a good big solid shed for £100 with the transport and the donation. Not bad.

Pam's chair returns.

Wednesday 2nd March 2011
We had four tons of stone chippings delivered to re-do the drive now that all the builders have finished running big wagons on it and dumping lumps of cement everywhere.
we got most of it down and it makes the drive look much better. I think that we need another couple of tons but that will wait for a while until this lot has settled in.

In the evening we went up to Harray to collect Pam's chair which has been re-upholstered. It cost a fortune but I suppose it is cheaper than a new chair and it is one that Pam always found comfortable. The lady who did it up has made a great job of it. She herself seems very proud of it. She was going to fetch it back herself but now that it is all re-done and padded out, it will not fit in her volvo estate so we had to take the lucida and pick it up.
We got it into the new lounge and then the dog decided to try and sit on it. (It can be a very unwise dog at times) Pam very gently and pleasantly asked the dog to get off the chair and Molly obliged very quickly.

And yet more cakes.

Sunday 27th February 2011
Today Pam's offering is a mascaponi,creme fresh and raspberry sandwich cake. I shall end up dying of a surfeit of cake before Pam starts her new job at the end of March.

We got a bargain from the Orkney forum today.A complete food mixer with a multitude of attachments for doing god knows what. All for £5. A real bargain. Unfortunately when we got home it did not work but Hey Ho!

Monday was another lovely day. That must be about 5 beautiful days in a row. We will pay for it soon.
The baby tractor had an outing today as I shifted a load of big stones which the builders had left along with waste cement, concrete etc along the side of the drive. The stones are from when they knocked through from the house into the new extension. It's surprising how much stone came out just to make one doorway. The walls are 3 foot thick though.
Now all we need to do is make all the crushed grass and yellow plants look a bit more like part of a garden again.

Tuesday 1st March Well it's March now so spring is getting nearer and it feels like it.
I started making a little chicken ark so that the ones that we hatched can go out when they are off the heat lamps. It may not be the most beautiful chicken house in the world but it works. One or two wrong measurements led to last minute modifications but who cares, they are only chickens and they are not really known for their architectural taste. (PS the photo was taken on the 9th March when the weather was not so beautiful).

In the evening I took Molly to her obedience class. She was terrible. She managed everything OK except sitting or lying down for any length of time. After about thirty seconds she gets bored and gets up to have a sniff around. If she does that next week on her test she will fail. Then I will have to shoot her and get a more obedient dog.

The northern lights were visible over Orkney tonight and there were some good photos on the forum but all we got here was avery feint tinge of colour in the sky. I think the problem is that St Mary's is due north from us over the other side of the hill and the lights of the village cause a bit of a glow in the sky anyway.
We shall have to move somewhere darker.

A beauuuuutiful Day

Saturday 26th February 2011
A really beautiful day today. One of those days when it would be a sin to stay inside.
I took Molly out for a walk to the western end of Burray overlooking the causeway to Hunda. It's the first time that we have been all the way but it was so pleasant that we just kept ambling along. there was one part that was a bit iffy. The cliff top had crumbled away leaving a remnant of the path about one foot wide and a bit crumbly. I held onto the fence while going along this bit and asked Molly to stop pulling. I was thinking at the time that grabbing hold of the barbed wire fence if I started to fall could have been painful but probably less painful than falling.
The photo is Molly just in front of the causway to Hunda to prove that we actually made it there.

It was worth the hassle getting there though. The western tip of Burray is low lying, flat and a bit marshy with lots of little pools. There are loads of little pools and loads of birds. More than a dozen seals were lounging about on the rocks until we startled themand they all humped off into the sea where they sat watching us.





There is a lovely view and you can see the scenic oil tanks and flare on flotta.




When we got back I let Molly loose in the garden with a long string attached to her collar so that I could catch her if I needed to. She only chased the chickens once and was quite good for Molly, lounging about on the grass most of the time. She even helped a little with the gardening by eating all the chicken shit that was on the lawn until she made herself sick. (She still hasn't learned though and chicken shit is still one of her favourite foods)

Pam made more cakes to try out on me as a cake guinea pig. This time it was Brandy snaps and chocolate muffins. Although they were all well baked, (I have to say that) I am not to keen on chocolate but the brandy snaps were good.

Pam's craft and sailing craft.

Thursday 24th February 2011
Thursday is Pam's craft day so she has to get up early (well 8 o-clock which is early for Pam). She picked up Helen, the vicars wife from the village and off they went.
Now, should I take advantage of this and lounge about aimlessly or not? On reflection, when Pam gets back she will ask what I have done, so I had better do something or think up a believeable story.
Doing something is probably easier, so I shifted some more soil and rubbish.

In the evening there was an interesting talk on the archeological digs done in Orkney last year. We both decided that we would like to go for a listen to see what had been happening. I let Pam off cooking duties for the evening and we went to The Shore for a meal before the talk. It is the first time we have had a meal at the Shore. It has a good reputation and it lived up to it.

The archeology talk was very good. particularly interesting was the analysis of disease and vitamin deficiency in skeletons from The Tomb of Eagles. As an aside to this, the speaker pointed out that the Tomb of Eagles may have been mis-named. Large numbers of Sea Eagle bones were found in the tomb when it was originally excavated and it was thought that these may be linked to some sort of ceremony. It turns out however that the eagle bones are a lot younger than the human skeletons and it may just have been that wild eagles used the tomb as a roost.

We managed to book some tickets for a cruise round Scapa Flow organised by the folk festival during the tall ships race.The folk festival organisers have chartered the ship "Wilde Swan" for an evening cruise with a load of local folk musicians on board so it promises to be a real good night.
Then a couple of days later we are going on a cruise on another of the tall ships so I will get all off hand about it.

Friday was another lovely day. I managed to get the poly-tunnel down and "yes", it is concreted into the ground so tomorrow we will see if I can get the bottom bits of the frame and their lumps of concrete out.