Chatting in Stromness

Oh my, the excitement of meeting up with two Orcadian blippers, Northern and Poppy was almost too much for a lady of my advancing years. We hit it off beautifully, the three of us. As expected his Lordship bought us drinks ( and of course a second double Highland Park malt for himself, when he thought no-one was looking) and then scarpered. The hours slid past too quickly and I realised how lucky they are to live in such idyllic surroundings. I loved hearing about their exploits.

Today is the last day of our Northern Isles holiday. The Ferry leaves at midnight for Aberdeen.

We have spent the day in Orkney's second town, Stromness, an interesting little town, and the birthplace and home of the late George Mackay Brown, the Orcadian poet and writer.

It's narrow winding main street is made of huge flagstones with a central strip of setts. You could be forgiven for thinking it was pedestrianised, but not a bit of it . There are cars weaving their way through it with inches to spare from the walkiing public. I'd be surprised if no one gets knocked down sometime soon.

We visited the brilliant space of the Pier Arts Gallery, a modern low building on the waterfront. The internal space is in sections all beautifully white and airy. The main space was given over to an exhibition by Jim Lambie while the upstairs galleries had exhibits by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Roger Hilton, Barnes Graham and Alfred Wallis to name but a few.

There was also an excellent collection of colour photos by John Bulmer, entitled 'Orkney in Colour', with some fascinating portraits of old Orcadians.

It is a priceless gallery and matches anything on the mainland.

Back in Kirkwall, the town seemed to be busier than ever. The warm weather with little wind had brought out the tourists and locals to sit at the pavement cafes with ice creams and coffees.
Orkney ice cream is almost as good as that of Lucas of Musselburgh.

We have a final meal with our Orkney friends before cyclinig to the ferry in the light of an Orkney evening.