Orkney Folk Festival - how to party Orcadian style

We nearly didn't manage to get tickets to the folk festival.  Just days after they went on sale to the general public, many of the shows were already sold out.  I was lucky to get tickets for a couple of the late night sessions, starting at 10.30 pm.  Now given that I'm an 'early to bed, early to rise' type of person it was going to be a real challenge for me to stay awake - not only until the shows ended but simply until 10.30 when the shows started.

The Biker Man and I have never been to a folk festival - and we didn't want to miss the opportunity now that we are living on Orkney.  Next year though, I'm going to be queuing at the door of the box office the day it opens.  What a brilliant time we had at both events.

The highlight of the weekend was 'The Chair'.  Such a huge collective talent on stage - they had everyone foot tapping, clapping or dancing from the moment they opened their set.  Absolutely brilliant.  Orcadian's really know how to party.

More about The Chair can be found on their website The Chair - Stomp Music from Orkney

The youngsters are comming out to play

Everywhere we look there are young animals.  We've had lambs in the fields for about a month, skipping, gathering in little gangs and generally misbehaving.  The landscape is now being filled with cattle.  Baby calves totter by their mother's side or sleep in little nursery groups in the sunshine.  And now we are beginning to see young wildlife.  For the last few days we've had a young hare in the garden, often nibbling on the dandelion leaves just below the window.  The evenings are light until quite late now and we are able to go for long walks.  It's still a little chilly though.

The weather has been variable but it has produced a constantly changing light and, as you can see, the landscape is becoming greener and more lush.  Summer is on its way.
 

Sunshine ... it makes everyone content

What a different a little sunshine and warmth makes.  This week Kirkwall has suddenly boomed with visitors.  The cruise liners are now calling every week and the main street is full of people looking in shops or simply enjoying the atmosphere.  The tour guides are starting to get busy again.  Above is a photograph of St Magnus Cathedral with a tour group just outside the door. For Orkney, you could call this crowded.

Round the corner at the Bishop's Place it was a little quieter. Oh, and by the way we have more trees than many people think on Orkney.  In Kirkwall, Stromness and Finstown there are a number of small rookeries.  The birds are quite raucous and over the last few weeks have been nesting.  It's been quite an art to avoid being hit by 'little presents' as you pass by.  

Early mornings

It's just after 6am, the sun is shining and I've already been awake for 2 hours.  The light mornings are beginning to affect my body clock.  I must order a pair of blackout curtains for the bedroom or I'm going to be awake even earlier as the length of the day expands.

Happily, the benefit of waking so early is that I can get my exercise routine out the way and spend little more time online.  

Outside the birds are chattering away.  Below are a couple of photographs to show what it was like earlier on.  As you can see we are getting more and more cattle in the fields.  Many of them have young calves with them.

Not a cloud in the sky.

Long sunny days - weather to make me smile

The Biker Man is at work this weekend, so yesterday I took myself off to Stromness.  Mainly it was to purchase some tickets from the Orkney Folk Festival box office but that was only an excuse.  I just wanted to meander up and down the main street, popping in and out of the shops.
 

Stomness - a view up the main street

I love Stromness, it's quirky and there's always something to see up and down the narrow alleyways.  Every now and then you catch a glimpse of the harbour, or the islands across the water, through the gaps between the houses.

Glimpses between the houses

The streets are narrow and every time a car drives through you have to step back against a wall or into a gap or alleyway between the houses.  It's the sort of street that makes you stroll rather than hurry.  The architecture and style of the area is interesting, so you are always looking up at roof tops and down into tiny little gardens.  Last year the gardens were full of hanging baskets and pots of flowers sat beside doorways.  Already people are growing small plants in pots in sunny corners.

I think it's a shame that so many visitors appear to drive off the ferry and straight out of Stromness.  I'm sure that they catch up with the town later in their visit, but if they don't then they've missed a gem.  There are some wonderful craft shops down the main street and I spent a lovely morning getting ideas for birthday and Christmas presents.  I ended up at the library and left with three recipe books to look at for inspiration.  It doesn't really matter that I've got more than 200 recipe books on my own book shelves.  These were different ones, and there's always room for another idea or two. 


I spent the afternoon pottering and putting some more rhubarb in the freezer.  We are going to really appreciate this taste of spring next winter.  Rhubarb crumble and custard.  Lovely.


The days are getting longer and after dinner we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny evening and took ourselves off to Evie for a walk on the beach.  As we left the beach at 9pm, the sun was just setting.

Our shadows on the beach

Looking across to Rousay

Orkney Weather. Orkney Colours.

Evening colours on Orkney

We've had sunshine.  We've had cold wind.  We've had hail.  We've had snow.  And that is all in the space of one day.  Even in the space of half an hour at times.  It's never boring, weatherwise, on Orkney.

Many of the seeds I've planted are refusing to pop their heads up, and I don't blame them.  This week we've had Artic winds bringing colder weather to the islands.  Yesterday I looked across to the hills on Hoy to see them snow covered and glittering in the sunshine.  Half an hour later they were capped with clouds.

What the changing weather does bring is a constantly moving palette of colours in the landscape and sky.  Absolutely beautiful. 

 

Playing hookie - going to Rackwick for a walk on the beach

It's been a little busy in the Learner Gardener household just lately.  The rhubarb is growing faster than I can pick it and I need to get some more beds dug for some of the seeds I've been buying.  I'd like to get a herb bed established this year.  We've also had one or two days of nice weather.  Which in this household means a trip out to see some of the local views.  We always play hookie when the weather is good.  Just over a week ago we went across to Hoy and, after visiting the museum at Lyness (well worth a trip I must say) we spent a lovely afternoon at Rackwick.  We had two guests with us and had a lovely time on the beach.  Here are some of the photo's of our trip.

 The ferry from Houton to Lyness - blustery and chilly but a nice sunny day

 Looking across at Hoy from the ferry

Rackwick - it's difficult to show the scale of this beautiful bay from this photograph

However, 'J' took her trainers and socks off and walked down the beach - what look like pebbles are actually multi-coloured boulders - stunning

Closer to the cliffs

The other side of the bay

The Bothy at Rackwick

These images don't really show just how beautiful the place and the day was.  We had the beach to ourselves until two surfers joined us.  Who, by the way were incredibly hardy given the temperature at the time!  We watched the birds nesting on the cliffs.  Watched Bonxies (the Orcadian name for the Great Skua) flying over the beach and inland over the moorland. A little bird (and I still don't know what it was) followed us on our walk down past the small river to the beach, chit chatting at us all the way.

Days like this are something special.  The garden just had to wait for another day. 

Start of the Season

The Statsraad Lehmkuhl in Kirkwall

The Orkney Islands attract a large number of cruise ships each summer, and this year will be no exception with 74 cruise and 7 training ship calls expected between April and September.

Last week saw the start of the season with the Statsraad Lehmkuhl arriving in Orkney.  She is a three-masted barque sail training vessel and she looked simply stunning berthed in the harbour.  As you can see in the close up photograph there were four people up in the rigging.  What a view they must have had of Kirkwall in front of them.  Not my idea of fun, I have enough trouble going up the loft ladder!