A Photographers Dream

Well, mine anyway!

Today began with a wee drive into Kirkwall to book the ferry to Westray tomorrow for day two of the Great Puffin Hunt and to pick up packed lunch supplies for the same. We had hoped to get on the 07:20 sailing (something I was going to have to steel myself for as this would have meant a 05:30 wake up - I'm not a morning person) but alas we were told we'd be only second reserve to get aboard so we settled for a slot on the 13:00. Slelently I was quite pleased but it will restrict our time on the island as the last ferry back to Kirkwall is 17:55. Ah well...

Following a lovely lunch with Freespiral and Himself our first visit of the day took us to the Iron Age Broch of Gurness which is situated on the north east coast overlooking the Eynhallow Sound and Rousay beyond. The site contains around 14 houses surrounding a central stone broch (tower) and protected by three ditches with stone ramparts. It is believed to have been settled somewhere between 500 and 200 BC and occupied until some time after 100 AD. The site itself was amazing. Each of the dwellings can be clearly identified although much of the site only contains single height vertical slabs. Walking through the houses you really got a feel of how tight-knit the community must have been. Heh, if there are villages today where everyone knows everyone and all the goings-on, it was nothing compared to this. At least the walls weren't paper thin!

During our blipmeet the other day Porridge recommended a trip to the Kirbuster Farm Museum. Built from the 1500's onwards and expanded throughout it's life the traditional firehoose was occupied into the 1960's. It is in fact the last remaining un-restored example in Northern Europe and a Mecca for any photographer. From the beautiful gardens to the wonderful interiors full of characher, it's a perfect location for shooting umpteen vignettes of life through the ages. I've included several shots in my extras but today's main shot is of the the broken and rusted kerosene lamp that sits in one of the windows of the stable. I don't think Gitama really shared my enthusiasm for a bunch of rusty objects in a dusty old stone building but I was in heaven.

The only other extra I'm posting is of the gorgeous sunset we had last night. Fingers of light blooming through the clouds as the sun dropped low over the Brough of Birsay. Who said you can't do sunsets in black and white?!!

Gitama's take on the day can be seen here.

Sorry for being such a bad commenter recently. Long days and lots of driving leave me pretty much exhausted at the end of the day. I keep nodding off processing my images of an evening... ;-)