Another lovely Orkney week

Saturday 18th June 2011
A lovely day today as of course it always is in Orkney. Sunshine, no wind and a clear sky.
We took the dog for a run on the beach in the hope of getting rid of some of her excess energy. It never works. She has more energy than can possibly used up by just running about for a bit. I think that putting dogs in treadmills similar to the ones that they used to have for turning spits over fires would be a good idea for renewable electricity generation. I am sure that Molly could generate enough power to run our house for the cost of a tin of dogfood per day.
RSPCA may not like it though.

It always astounds me that we can go down to such a huge,lovely beach and have it all to ourselves on a beautiful hot day in the middle of summer. Very occassionaly we see somebody else walking a dog but most of the time the beach just stretches out right across to South Ronaldsay with nobody in sight.

Sunday was another beautiful day so I took myself for a bit of a bird watching. I am no bird watcher but I enjoy wandering aimlessly around in nice places and the bird watching gives me an excuse to wander not quite so aimlessly.

There has been a water rail at The loons reserve this week, apparently nest building. I have never seen a water rail and I like The Loons anyway so I decided to beetle off there. Needless to say, when I got there water rails were conspicuous by their abscence, not a one, zilch. It was really pleasant just sitting in the hide for an hour or so just looking over the pools and watching the birds that were there.

On the way back home I stopped off and had a wander round the Loch of Ayre in Holm. Again there was nothing spectacular, a few seals in the bay and some shelducks amongs the other ducks but again it was just pleasant to have a wander round in the sunshine.

In the evening we went with David and Claire for a meal at the Commodore. I was pleasantly surprised. I had always thought that the Commodore looked a fairly souless place but I had never been in. In fact it was really good. So good in fact that Pam put on a pound in weight, so now the next few days of her diet will be just an attempt to get back to where she was yesterday.