Landing the Catch

I was down at the harbour this morning in time to see the Caspian from Banff land its catch of fish and witness a little of the rigours of fishermen who work in hard and dangerous conditions to bring us all those crates of fresh fish which I saw being loaded onto a van.

The men in the blip were struggling with some malfunction of a hoist on the deck of a very oily dirty trawler- such a difference from the pretty little painted fishing boats which also operate from the harbour,

We had a day off from cycling and instead this morning we drove from Stromness through Orphir via Scapa to Kirkwall and on to St Margarets's Hope and Hoxa Head.

A big black cloud hovered over us all the way, accompanied by a cold north easterly wind. A walk on Scapa beach prompted His Lordship to remark that it didn't quite feel like Key West, the only answer being that at least we weren't foreigners in Scapa, only 'Sooth Moothers'.

On to Hoxa Head for soup and a sandwich before a walk in St Margaret's Hope and another visit to the lovely craft shop with some handy hints for finishing hand knits thrown in.

So it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks, and the other bit of good news is that the big black cloud is nowhere to be seen as I write, leaving a much more bright and cheerful day.

Edit: not for long though, the cloud has descended again.