Norq From Ork

This week will be forever marked as the week Sandy came to stay.  We have a very little black dog that doesn’t moult,  Sandy is a big white labrador that moults a carpet of hair every five seconds.  She doesn’t wag her tail she wags her whole body and keeps her head still.  It’s adorable and very endearing but sadly she is distributing more hair as she does it.  The vacuum cleaner refused to come out of the cupboard by day five and instead lay cowering in the corner pleading not to be used again.  Too bad.  I vacuumed constantly and even vacuumed the dog.  Sandy grew quite used to this but it had little effect as it’s pretty much like trying to sweep the path while it’s snowing. Tech Support was offered a ‘dog walking for cash’ deal which he obliged daily in all weathers and Sandy and Hope (our dog) fought for attention from Orkney Beef the whole time he was home which was highly entertaining to watch.  One lovely evening mid-week I decided to take both dogs down to the beach.  I kept Sandy on the lead as I don’t know her well enough to know if she would head for the hills and never return. (I could follow the trail of hair if she did but it would still be a lengthy process)  The minute we started across the stones she spotted another dog and made a run for it pulling me over in the process.  I regained my strength and yanked her back then made it down to the waves.  There were hundreds of jelly fish on the shore.  I ended up messaging the owner via Instagram and telling her if the dog got stung by a jelly fish it would be game over as I was not prepared to pee on the dog. Fortunately she wasn’t stung but she did manage to throw up on the carpet 4 times during her stay.  I told Orkney Beef that if he ever came home with a second dog I would leave him.  Needless to say he immediately picked up his phone, pretended to dial and said ‘I’ll take that collie we spoke about’…..

Tech Support emerges from his room to walk the dogs.

If you’re going to lie in my space I’m going to use you as a pillow

It was a week of two halves weather wise.  The later part of the week was monstrous wind and lashing rain.  It was like Autumn and the heating went back on as others lit their fires.  However the beginning of the week was beautiful sunshine.  Out and about in Stromness there are so many nooks and crannies to explore and many, many places to photograph. It’s an old fishing town that was clearly built before cars were even a twinkle in the inventors eye.  Many houses are close together with loads of little ally ways leading here and there.  I think Stromness is one of the most special towns ever!

Following gales and rain all day the evening brightened up on Saturday and a friend and neighbour of mine and I went to explore a couple of derelict houses in the field next to me.  We had a fascinating little peep into the lives of our ancestors and it would’ve been harsh living. I will write a blog about this with pictures of our finds at a later date.

This week I’m reading Island Wife by Judy Fairbairns.  It’s about a woman who moved to a remote Hebridean island and her life there.  I’m feeling inspired to keep going and follow my dream of publishing too.

Have a great week everyone.  I’m off to vacuum one last time now our visitor has left. 🙂