A day round the big city

Friday 22nd July 2011
John and Alex are going back tomorrow and they wanted to have a look round the museum so I thought that we had better get down there today. We went there the other day but no sooner had we got inside than we had to come out to go and pick Pam up from home. The museum is very good and very well laid out. Obviously there is a lot on the early prehistory of Orkney but the galleries with exhibits from later periods are equally good and perhaps all the more interesting because you do not hear about the more recent history of Orkney. Normally everything seems to end with the vikings.
We had arranged to meet Pam in the Reel after we had been round the museum but were apparently about an hour late. (You can not go round an interesting series of collections with one eye on the clock.) Anyway we finally got there and had a quick coffee before looking round St Magnus Cathedral.

Saturday was a bit overcast and windy but at least John and Alex have had a good week, not to hot but good weather.
Pam had a WI trip to the Hoxa tapestry gallery, the dolls house exhibition and a meal (Once again at The Skerries) so I had to see John and Alex off myself.
I followed them down to the ferry at The Hope and waited with them until they started loading the ferry and then returned home.
I was out in the field feeding the chickens when the ferry went out. I could not help but think that in a few hours they would be back where I was born and raised.
A poem of uncle Jack's came to mind. It is one that I have always liked because I have the same feeling for the same place. I shall therefore quote it to you.

My Birthright
This is my patch,
Here I was born.
Four lanes forming a square.
I toddled round them
Holding my mum's hand.
Boundaries of my world.

Little has changed,
I am still here.
The fabric, more mellow,
Fits like an old coat.
I hold no deeds,
I have laid my scent,
I belong.

I know that it is just nostalgia and I am more contented and happy here than I would be anywhere else but there is something about the place where you were born and raised. Many of my ancestors for hundreds of years lived within a few hundred yards of where I was born. I shall always belong there, wherever I happen to live. I have a claim on the place and the place has a claim on me.
My old friend is part of that and I shall miss him.

Still, it will soon be Christmas.