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Changeable Weather

I got up early Wednesday morning to walk to work. When I left the house, it was a gorgeous, sunny day. Puffy white clouds were scudding across the sky, and rays of sunlight shone onto my face and warmed my skin. Then, past the model yacht lake (that’s why they had to reclaim the land!), I noticed gray clouds on the horizon.

According to my safety training, this sign indicates the Danger posed by the Presence of Otters

A minute later, it was absolutely pishing.

(I put on my waterproof overpants backwards TWICE, which ought to be impossible in three-dimensional space).

That’s the thing about the weather in Orkney: sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad, but whatever it is, it’s probably going to be different fifteen minutes from now. I’ve never lived anywhere with such variability in the weather.

Bruce’s

When Fiona first picked me up in Kirkwall, she mentioned that the best place to get local delicacies would be Bruces Stores, which were open until 7:30 on weekends. As it turned out, they were only open until 5 on Sunday, and various nefarious factors conspired to prevent me going until yesterday.

Bruce’s stores are a surprising minty color. I forgot to take a photo and had to go back for this one.

Bruce’s stores (there’s actually only one) is, indeed, full of local foods. These are mostly baked goods from the (award-winning) Orkney Bakeries, and a bunch of cheeses. Who would have guessed?

I wound up getting the carmelised onion biscuits out of curiosity. (They were a bit dry, but tasty.)

I also got the smoked cheese, which did not taste very smokey.

They suggest using the smoked cheese as a substitute for paneer or halloumi. I didn’t end up actually frying it, but I cut it up and crumbled it into my pasta today and it was good.

Options from the Westray Bakehouse. Check out those massive butter shortbread rounds.

I may have to get those when I come back.

In case you thought they were done

It does seem like the local specialty of every food company on the island of Orkney is making beige, dry foods. This includes both the bakeries and the cheeseries. I did not get any of the products of the Westray Bakehouse to test my hypothesis on their moisture content, so I may have to go back and get one of those butter shortbread rounds in the future.

Bruce’s store also has normal things, like fountain pens

and bath fizzers.

I didn’t buy the bath fizzer since we don’t have a bath but I got a picture, so you can gaze at it to your heart’s content. It has nice wrapping.

Walking around

I was caught by a number of interesting things while walking around yesterday to get to Bruce’s.

First was this window, which had an absolutely beautiful flower arrangement.

So colorful!

It was all the more interesting because it’s tucked away in a tiny side alley where nobody could reasonably be expected to ever see it.

Next was this jeep.

blub

The significance of my deliberately taking a picture of a fish only later dawned on me. 🐠

The fish car was also tucked away in a tiny back alley.

There was a garden with a wall just overgrown with these delightful white flowers.

I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re pretty

Very pretty. I like the ivy-ish leaves.

I think that the tree behind them is a Laburnum but someone better versed in arbory would be able to say for certain.

You just know that it would be nice to live in that house.

Near Bruce’s, someone had a very well-made political statement.

This collage illegal in the UK

Further down, I came across

The Scottish Tourist Board

Here seen attached to the Scottish Scottish Tourist Board Board.

Buidings

A couple of days ago I got a picture of the rear end of William Shearer’s Hardware and Garden Centre. The front is equally cute, but there’s also a fascinating building next to it.

They also have provisions. For what? Unclear.

There’s a passageway that just goes straight through the building. At this point it had started to rain (of course) and the rain was falling in a courtyard about halfway through the passage. Also, the sun came out around the same time, and was illuminating the raindrops in the courtyard halfway through the passage through the buiding next to William Shearer. The effect was magnificent and I more or less totally failed to capture it on camera.

This was my best shot.

There’s a couple of other interesting things to see around the town, though, if buildings are what interest you. Most of the architecture around Kirkwall seems to use the same stucco-y walls that to me suggest California and ’70s beach resort towns, but within that there is some variation.

Very British-feeling stair-steppy roofs

Hand-painted street signs

Tile house numbers, very elegant

Chaotic and sunny alleyways.

My favorite, though, was this self-announcing house.

It’s a charity shop!

Check out their facebook page! So cute.

Orkney

Certain things about being in Kirkwall seem very specific to the isles. I keep talking about the weather, and that’s because it’s crazy. The wind here is fast enough to break the way birds work.

Another stereotypical picture of a bird

It also breaks clouds:

A rare moment of sun.

In person, these were some of

the biggest clouds that I have ever seen in my life.

“Main street” actually ends in a tiny little alleyway, terminating right near Broadsands. One end of it had some beautiful chiaroscuro during the sunny moment.

The shadows were crisp.

Walking down Main street to get back home, you notice that the sidewalks are all shale. Orkney exports a lot of oil, so it makes sense that they would have abundant shale supplies.

Walking on the most common source rock for hydrocarbons

At the end of it is a beautiful ruined wall from old Kirkwall, which I saw previously but couldn’t get a photo of due to the weather.

The window seems to use the same red sandstone as the cathedral.

Walls

I did my best to channel Robert Frost for these pictures.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

Including ferns,

Grasses,

More mosses,

Cracks,

Fissures,

And flowers.

Red flower

I’m ending with this one. I liked it so much that I got two pictures, and I couldn’t decide which one to keep. I put both of them. I hope you like it.