Gods of the Earth; Gods of the Sea

Today it’s time to leave Rousay. Sadly the promised improvement in the weather does not materialise, but in any case, I’m not feeling well enough to attempt the clifftop walk G has planned. Unfortunately, my recurring medical issues mean I have another infection, and I just hope the antibiotics I have with me will sort it out.

I do manage, however, to dash out from the car to snap the artwork positioned on the island’s north coast; a rough-hewn slab of Portland stone sits in the converging squall  - and today it really is a squall - of the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea. About 7.5 metres long and 2 metres wide, Ian Hamilton Finlay's ‘Gods of the Earth/Gods of the Sea’ was commissioned by a local arts centre and installed in 2005, the words taken from Virgil’s Aeneid. Certainly, here is a place where elemental forces can be strongly felt. His son suggests that it reflects Rousay's 'Platonic perfection': as if it were the ideal manifestation of a small, rugged Scottish island, bearing all the essential features, including a loch, mill, farms, ancient ruins, and ragged cliffs.

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/gods-of-the-earth-gods-of-the-sea-ian-hamilton-finlay-and-orkney

And so while G walks boldly across the fields towards a standing stone he wants to see, I stay by the car and watch swallows zooming past tantalisingly. It’s so difficult to judge their flight path, their quick changes of direction and altitude confusing. It’s wonderful to watch them, but so frustrating when trying to capture that motion. I must take a few hundred images, and, to be honest, I’m surprised I manage any recognisable as swallows. 

Then it’s back to the pier fir the Kirkwall ferry, a chance to visit the very good Orkney Museum - though I’m reminded yet again how limited my knowledge is - then the ferry to Westray where we will spend the next three nights.  

Today my main is a swallow. I really wish it wasn’t against the road surface, but he did insist on some very low flying along the highway! The the art work is in extras - plus a swallow collage of  near misses. 


Thank you again for all your lovely comments, stars and hearts.