Ring of Brodgar

After seven days with His Lordship in a catatonic state following the transference to island life, suddenly he appeared this morning dressed in cycling clothes, just before 6am, ready to roll on a proposed cycle run we had planned today, I thought later.

However, nothing daunted, we were saddled and mounted and straining up the hill out of Stromness at 7am.
It was a good day to be on the road, with a mild wind and no traffic except a loose cow, which we managed to avoid, escaped from a field.

We had the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar all to ourselves, and no cars or visitors to spoil the views over the Lochs Stenness and Harray.

Home via a circuitous route for a shower and breakfast, knowing that we had missed the Olympic torch circuit of Kirkwall, but also knowing that with 3 cruise liners in dock there and all the other tourists and locals, it would have been a crowded blip.

Yesterday as we drove up to Evie to buy wool we met an Edinburgh cycling friend leading 12 hardy souls on a cycle-camping tour of Shetland and Orkney.

With all the rain during the last few days we had worried about them trying to get dry in tents, but we needn't have worried because they seem to have had much better weather in Shetland - at least that's what he told us, and being a Methodist preacher, we have to believe his honesty, although he did say that that the terrain in Shetland was undulating, while we know from experience that it's just impossibly steep.

I must try and cultivate more of this positive attitude to life's little difficulties.