You can be forgiven for thinking it’s Sunday as that’s when I tend to do my week in pictures. However we’ve been having a busy time due to my sister and her family coming to stay from Colorado, so I’m a day late.
Last week was a busy week in Stromness as it held its annual shopping week. This is an event held to promote what Stromness has to offer and it’s a week of activities, games, events and street performing finishing off with a carnival parade. It’s a great boost for locals. Part of the event was the flower display. Absolutely stunning flower displays and smaller ones like the ruby shoes which I thought were great fun. I somehow seem to have agreed to going to flower arranging classes now but it might be a worth it to buy myself flowers once a month.
The weather was unbelievable extremes. While the rest of the uk melted in record-breaking heat, Orkney spent Monday shrouded in mist. I had been out in the rain and got soaked through to the skin. We ended up lighting the fire (!) and I spent the evening sleeping under a blanket on the couch. *note to self. Get thyroid checked. Just a few hours later we saw the hottest day of the year. Absolutely boiling, and typically I was at work. However it was a really lovely evening and I managed to get some great pics.
The ever-changing seasons are always reflected in the fields around me. Farmers never stop working and right now fields are full of hay bales like these.
Miss Lashes is back from a month in South Africa. I will be interviewing her for the blog on what she’s been doing out there. Those of you who have been following the blog for a while now will know she has been quite ill with a severe nut allergy resulting in several hospital visits and use of her epi-pen. This weekend she got to see a specialist and it showed she is clearly allergic to soy as well as nuts and certain fresh fruits. This was a new one that she wasn’t aware of and could quite possibly be the root of her recent problems. Vexing but good to know so she can manage things better. Here she is in South Africa where she only had to use her epi-pen once and coped fine.
I was delighted to see my sister for a visit and she was delighted to see the lovely Orkney sunsets.
This week I’m currently reading ‘How not to write a novel’ by David Armstrong. Written by a midlist author he talks about the struggles all authors face unless you’re one of the tiny percentage of high rating best sellers. He ends every chapter with a checklist starting with ‘don’t do it’ followed by the list of things to think about if you ignore his don’t do it advice. The pictured paragraph says it all. If you have to do it, you have to do it.
Have a great week everyone.
Norq From Ork 