#100happydays Round-up 26th-2nd April

Photoshoot at the Ring of Brodgar 26th March

Poppy cat hunting in the garden 27th March

Mrs Blackbird watching me, watching her 28th March

First bunch of daffodils from the garden picked by John 30th March

It may be cold out but it is sunny and the fire is warm 2nd April

Well I didn't manage to remember to take a pic everyday so I have thrown in a couple of extras from the week. 

First a male pheasant who has been hanging around lately.

A little wren stopped by in the garden for a few days.

And this Redwing followed John home up the drive.

It has been a busy week for birds in our garden :)

Chances to visit the Ring of Brodgar

Things have been fairly busy around here the past couple of weeks as we have had John's daughter staying with us for a bit of R&R. The weather in typical British style, turned cold, wet and windy for most of her stay, but we did managed to get out and about a bit when it brightened up.

It was feeezing up at the Ring of Brodgar on Monday, but the lighting was fantastic to photograph in.

 (mental note, taking photos with the sun shining in eyes, makes people squint)

 Every time I get chance to come up here it looks different,

with the undergrowth changing colour with the seasons.

I few more weeks and the heather will be a sea of purple.

 

The wind has died down this morning, and with it there is a hint of warmth in the sun when it breaks through the cloud (a shame as the step daughter left last night), and calling for me to work in the green house later this afternoon.

But first I have another tutorial to get typed up and posted.

I had better go make a large pot of tea, this could take some time.

Beach Babes

Well we made it back safely from a whirl wind four day round trip to fetch the boys up from their dad's house in Southampton, very exhausting and still recovering form lack of sleep but glad to be back on the island.

And now we are here and enjoying good weather when we can, with trips to the beach and barbecues in the garden, and poor weather doing crafts and going to the cinema to see the new movie Brave, which BTW was fab :)

Beach trips seem to revolve around the boys throwing rocks about, John sleeping, and me wishing I wasn't the only one who prefers sandy beaches to rocky ones, followed by me twisting my angle on the way off the beach (sandy beaches are better when you are clumsy) :)

I'm not really here

That's right by now I should be the other end of the UK entirely, infact if I went any further south I would have to catch another ferry :)

I haven't been watching the Olympics, but I have heard the updates on the morning radio news, and although I am not a sports fan, I just want to say well done to all the athletes taking part. The above photo was taken last summer when the torch was doing the tour, we just happened to be in Kirkwall on the day :)

Just sharing a few piccy I dug up from last summer of us out for the day visiting the standing stones of Stenness, which is around half a mile from the Ring of Brodgar. You cant move for archaeology up here !

We had picked a gorgeous day for it, although they seemed to think the wind was chilly, hmm seems me and John have acclimatised to the cold up here :)

We also went to Gerrie's ice cream parlour which I forgot to take pics of and hope to remedy soon :)

Also a few pics visiting St Magnus cathedral in Kirkwall.

It rained but we still had ice creams :)

Connor posing beside the tomb of the Arctic explorer Dr John Rae.

And Brandon beside the wall where the bones of St Magnus are encased.

A terrible photo of a beautiful building, very similar in design to Durham cathedral where I visited a lot whilst at college in Durham. More about St Magnus cathedral here.