Norq From Ork

If you don’t know by now that I struggle with Autumn then you’ve clearly not been paying attention.  I whinge about it on a regular basis and make a start round about August.  However, if there’s one thing I love it’s a Sunday afternoon and evening in Autumn with nowhere to go.  It’s been an incredibly busy week where I almost met myself coming back the other way.  It all kicked off with nightmare weather to put me in the nonparty Autumnal mood.  High winds which seemed to go on for days.  I stopped off at the Bay of Skaill on my way home from work and didn’t even get out of the car, I just wound the window down and took this photo.  It felt like I was in a flight simulator and the horizon isn’t straight.  I’m sorry.

Things eventually calmed down and my friend took these stunning photos in Stromness.  I’m always grateful to people who let me share their photos and thanks to Alison Campbell for these beauties.

If you missed my blog about sailing in weather light this then it seemed to go down a treat.  You can catch up with it here Confessions of a Sea Sick Drama Queen (and a long suffering husband)

click play for 15 seconds of my boat ride.  Orkney Beef reminds me had this was his life day in day out for years.  Lucky him.

After enduring the boat ride I ended up getting stuck on the island as the return boat was cancelled.  It’s island life, it happens.  But it left me with a few hours to ammuse myself while I waited for the next one. Walking down to the pier I spotted loads of seals basking in the (occasional) sunshine.  They seemed quite happy to pose for photos, except for one that didn’t move and made me wonder if he was no longer with us.

Also on the pier was this lovely anchor.  I’m a huge fan of anchors and this one didn’t disappoint. You can see the seals in the distance.

The week went by in a whirl and before I knew it Saturday was here.  I managed to squeeze in a stint at the local charity shop serving behind the counter with my smiley friend Ruth.  The Blue Door is a charity shop where a different local charity gets the money taken every week.  It’s absolutely superb and has a tremendous turn over.  This week was Gogo Olive which was started by a Westray lass who taught women in Zimbabewee to knit their toys are sold all over to help the women be self sufficient.  A truly fantastic project.  You can see more on the website here and it’s well worth a look. Gogo-olive.com

I squeezed in a couple of hours at a birthday party last night where we had indoor sparklers until they were confiscated because they smelled funny.  Oh well, I will just have to sparkle on without them.

Have a great week and thanks to the lovely people who saw me and said they were enjoying the blog.  When I have moments of self-doubt you all keep me going!