Thursday 19 January 2012

Headline shouts: Weekend windless, Orkney beaches overrun.

Now folk often ask what its like living on an island. The first response, never mind the time of year is both 'windy' and 'beautiful' in the same sentence. However, over the last weekend, Orkney had no wind. Headline news indeed - NO WIND it doesn't happen very often. The headline told no lies, I am as speechless as all other 20,000 residents here, no wind, a joy to behold!  Our local beaches were therefore overrun with folk, OK, well we counted 8 people on the beach we walked at, overrun or what? For here on a beach, that's overrun, believe me!
Often we go to a different beach if we find folk on one, only fair locally if you find a beach with people on - we try and let them enjoy it in peace. But, with an unpredictable wind-free weather gap, we opted to nod and overran the beach ourselves too, at the Churchill Barrier causeway - number two. There are the blocks which form a causeway.......like concrete sugar lumps but far larger obviously, concrete-y sugar lumps for giants maybe. Peedie our intrepid cairn hound explorer extraordinaire, wanted to get on with the job at hand, wind free walking (he's not a fan of walking in the wind, not much of an 'island dog' this one)......not much of a character for history that one, so leaving the historic causeway engineering behind, clearly lost on him, we went a walking. Walking indeed we did, in wind free conditions.......
 We like that beach, going from rocky shore, to pebbles, to seaweeds......
 
.........and then to gorgeous white sands............very lovely it is to.
And, we get to the sand and then watch the wave a lapping.........the noise is soothing, rather than the normal crashing!
 For today we do enjoy the company of other folk, everyone jovial - no wind, welly boots and coats on - out we all go and explore the winter air, whilst we have the light to enjoy it!
Admiring boats, bobbing about with buoys colourfully shining out to greet us.
We come here to explore and do a bit of beach combing.........for a wee tiny treasure of a gastropod - Groatie buckie, we like to think they bring luck and happy times so we collect them.........when of coure we can find them........
 ..........a bit further on and more inspection required - here we go, real treasure.......altogether we find 5, one for each of us (humans and teenagers and dogs). Not of course that the 'young people' have joined us on the walk, they've been kidnapped by 'prelim exams' (exams schools set after Xmas just for kicks and to keep children away from their families), or so I'm told.
 And a bonus to a busy beach is to find a friend - to play with and have a wee rummel and tumble around with. Always good to do that.
 And, whilst he plays we find pebbles, which look like dots and/or buttons............
 and we sneak photos of sandy snozzles.......
 Mr F was in Orkney too, unbeseiged by exams or work, he even came  for a wind free wander too - no doubt hunting for his tea.......
 And we clamber into the car, first having a stop to drink in looking over to Hoy and scapa flow and enjoying how still everything was. The day there was no wind.
 Alas, as the light is fading, time for tea - and time to see how much of the beach can we bring home...............
We try to bring as much sand home as possible on our toes and on our noses. Just to remember how lovely it was to walk, on an overrun beach, with no wind, finding shells and having a giggle. Not a breath of wind to be heard. That was headline news in Orkney at the moment, no wind, sandy snozzles and overrun beaches. It lasted for 4 days, blissfully 4 days, no wind. The winds back. But the respite did us good!

24 comments:

  1. Eight people! Eight? I'd have an anxiety attack if I saw 8 people on the beach. (8 sheep yes, but not 8 people).

    I'm going to have a lie down now.

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    1. Tony, believe me when I first saw the first couple of folk I was twitchy and said, um shall we leave them in peace, but the day was short and I wanted to hunt for shells. But here, sheep not really on beaches, we contain them in the grass fields in ovine-prison. Unless you're on the other islands like Nrth Ronaldsay where their special sheep eat seaweed and there are walls to keep them on the beach (I think).

      We don't normally walk on beaches with 8 folk, I promise, hence the 'overrun' headline. Nice to see you!

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  2. Glad to see you got out for a lovely non-blustery walk! Peedie looks like he enjoyed it too :) xx

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  3. Peedie is NOT a fan of the wind, but does enjoy a good beach. He's had fun thank you cheery!

    Non-windy walks are fun.

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  4. We used to hunt for Groatie Buckies at Evie Beach. P used to find a lot more then me so I used to drop my one again and again and pretend to have lots..
    So how many days in the year does Orkney have no wind?

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    1. 10 according to Prof. Crawford (Orkney Nature) and to some other excellent research done by the University up here! A good ploy Janet - didn't know you could find them at Evie - I've only ever found them at barrier two......

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  5. fabulous pictures. i enjoy seeing your pictures of your walks, especially with your lovely wee dog. i am a fan of wind but i can totally understand that every day is a bit too much. glad you were able to get out and about on your "day off".

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    1. Thank you JTS - I don't wind a bit of wind either its just how long its been blowing hard at the moment I'm not a fan of. :)

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  6. Cute photos of the sandy snozzle. He looks cheeky!

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    1. Rob nice to see you - I've just read/listened to 'Rosie' set on your island I think. Sounds lovely. And cheeky is his middle name, funny you knew that. Nice to see you on here and thank you to Suej for introducing me to your lovely blog.

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  7. Peedie looks like he had a good time, though without wind he must have been a bit confused, thinking, 'maybe it's that day in August already!' Nice photos too. Time to tie yourself down again, though, I fear!

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    1. Aye he did look a bit confused, summer already............! Now, the winds back. everythings tied down again *sigh* - oh well, keeps things a bit different eh.

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  8. Replies
    1. Very happy, he hates the wind! Peedie tips a paw to your lovely chap too!

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  9. How fabulous to have a windless day at this time of the year - just what was needed after some of the weather you've had lately I should think! xx

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    1. Robyn how true, but it's been a rotten year here last years summer was just like this, with the odd nice day chucked in. I hope you get a few still days.

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  10. Fabulous pictures, you certainly live in a lovely place!

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  11. Nice :-) xx

    ps - we have all the wind here - just letting you know. xx

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    1. pps - how do you do this comment reply thingy?

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  12. Lots of groatie hunting at Westhaven beach near Carnoustie when young - hence my user name. Found a few at Lossiemouth and Hopeman beaches too.

    Hurray to no wind!

    Groatie

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  13. Our not so Peedie Pup says hi (25.5 pounds/11.5 kg of bounce!) and what are Groaties?

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  14. Given how rare a windless day is up your way, it seems kind of appropriate to share the experience with other island survivors!!

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  15. I could smell the sea on that walk...so well described. Also wind free in the Arigna hills at the moment...bliss!

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