The Roeberry Page

They say the English talk nonstop about the weather but in my experience Orcadians even more so. Fine day, isn't it? Well let's see. The wind isn't blowing today, so yes. Very fine. It's so relentlessly windy here on the other side of the hill from St Margaret's Hope that you really notice when it stops. Today, there's a pond like calm out in Widewall Bay, with uninterrupted views of Scotland, Hoy, Flotta and Switha.

The wind takes some getting used to. We're not quite there yet. We've been here since July, and for most days since then, the going-outdoors ritual has been the same. Big coat - check. Trousers tucked in wellies - check. wide scarf wrapped securely round head - check. We came from Speyside where the weather isn't that different; Scottish at least, prone to wetness, though admittedly nothing like so windy. Now when I open the boot room door to the world in the mornings - Hello World! - it's answer tends to be a whooshing in the ears. I tend to set off with body set at a 45 degree angle. But the great thing about having animals is that you have to get out there, even in 100 mile an hour winds (November) that pick you off your feet and dump you in the compost heap. We have horses (2), five chickens - there were six until Ava Gardner died; she's buried in our wood, with the 25 cats generations of Dennisons and Grays gave a christian send-off there - an inherited barn cat called Colin, two dogs.... and apparently a pet rat, heavily pregnant, that's moved into a burrow under the henhouse.

This is a bit of longwinded and digressional introduction but it will serve. The BBC warns you off long screeds of text. Apparently people find it tiring. Aww. Poor you. I tried to summon up some illustrations but my jpgs are just too darn big. How can you take smaller ones with an ordinary digital camera? All advice welcome.