Old Haunts, Continued!

The weather has changed.  Gone is the misty, moisty flat calm of recent days, the wind is picking up and we had the occasional shower.  Shelagh's last day with us, so a trip to the east mainland, to revisit a few more of her favourite places.  

This is Newark beach, in Deerness, where Shelagh used to do a beached bird collection every month, looking for oiled sea birds.  This was in the years when the oil terminal had just opened on Flotta and tanker traffic was becoming more frequent around Orkney.

We had a super, bracing walk and while Ollie and Scratch hurtled up and down the beach, we hunted about in the strand line.  Found drift wood and shells, decaying seals and various dead birds (un-oiled), including a juvenile gannet, a beautiful bird, huge, with the most amazing feet, like half furled umbrellas.  

Managed to persuade the dogs not to roll in anything too unpleasant!  

We've all had a lovely time with Shelagh here, lots of chatting and laughing and remembering incidents and people of years gone by.  We'll be sad to wave good bye tomorrow!