A Perfect Day for Cycling

It never seemed to get dark last night.
We have bedroom with a picture window looking out over the water on the approach to Stromness harbour and have no need to draw the curtains.

I was aware of a blue sky and glittering water long before His Lordship piped up and said he was getting up at 7 am to bring the bikes to the door and then we should go for our first cycle run.
True to his word and with a bit of bad humour on my part cue - ( this is meant to be relaxing and you have me out of bed at what hour?), we were up, dressed, saddled and off before the town clock struck 8 dings.

It was a perfect morning for cycling, with the fields a patchwork of greens and ochres sliding down between meandering dry stane dykes to shimmering lochs of deepest blue, fringed with a shore line of brown seaweed covered stones.

Cattle of all colours from blue black to brown and cream lay in fields behind hedgerows filled with meadow flowers.
Oyster catchers called overhead and flocks of little birds rose in front of us to wheel away into the distance.
The silence was only broken by the thrum of tyres on asphalt as we cycled on by a circuitous route to the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness.
We had the stones all to ourselves as we did with the Callanish stones in Lewis- it helps if you are there before 9am!

Then it was back to the lovely Julia's café for a late breakfast, sitting outside in the warm sunshine.