Stromness from the other side of the Water

Where to start….. ? The sunshine streamed in the bedroom window from first light giving the world a golden glow from the off. The only negative being that some clouds appeared just as I was leaving to walk to the slip so that it was still bright but no wall to wall blue sky. There were about 6 of us swimming although 2 of us were happy to drift aimlessly chatting until we discovered that we had drifted far enough for a work out to get back to the slip. The obligatory handstands were accomplished with aplomb- the endless practising at Porty has paid off. 

Wendy Selkie picked me up to chum her to visit an old friend in his nineties who was amazing in the tales of his past life and his Sylvia Wishart paintings. If you have to live into your nineties, then to be as amusing and entertaining as he is would be the way to go.

We then had a tour of Hamnavoe, the area on the other side of the water  before finishing on Copland’s Dock where this blip was taken. Passing the house of another Selkie we stopped to say hello before going back Wendy’s house for soup and a toastie.
What struck me forcibly was how everyone knows everybody else particularly if you have been born and bred on the islands,  gone to the same school and have married locally. Even for me, having come to holiday in Stromness for 12 years, I say hello to more people on one outing to the shops than I do in a whole week at home in a big city. City life can be quite isolating.
Thank you Wendy for feeding me and entertaining me so royally.