Struck lucky

Woke to another haar, and pootled about a bit to think what to do today. Decided to tick off the remaining things from Tweedy’s list and see the remaining places on the creative trail, so set off to an artist’s studio, via Waulkmill Bay. We walked down to the bay, where the tide was coming in but I managed to have a lovely wander on a pristine sand bar. Despite the haar it was a beautiful beach and we had it to ourselves. After the gallery we nipped into Stromness and had a coffee in the Pier bistro then explored the Pier Art Centre….some good pieces (Barbara Hepworth heads, extra, and a nice juxtaposition of a giant colour palette against a matching fishing boat outside the gallery).
From there we drove up to see the Fisherman’s cottages on the coast below Marwick Head….with a slightly tricky wrong turn down a very bumpy farm track on the way! Had a lovely walk along the coast path and managed to find some shells (finally!). The waves were gorgeous, crashing into the flat rocks on the beach and with patches of turquoise sea, lambs in the nearby fields and lots of flowers amongst the rocks (extra).
Having had our dose of sunshine we popped into a textiles studio in Finstown and again chatted to the (incomer) owner and I bought some soft socks.
We’d come back to the cloudy/haar side of the island, so were really pleased we’d caught the sun for at least some of the day. Drove to Polly Kettle cafe on Burray…very nice and would be a good place for lunch with an excellent menu…maybe needs better advertising. It’s the sort of place Stromness needs! After our tea and yummy carrot cake/Bakewell tart we came home and had some time for reading our novels. We had supper whilst watching TV….a picnic selection with very nice ham and cheese and new sourdough bread.
My homeswap for July finally got back to me and wants to change the dates which would mean there was no chance of taking the grandchildren, so I spent quite a lot of time sending notes to alternative places….fingers crossed!