Finally our holidays have arrived. Don’t know if they are well deserved, but whether they are or not, they are here and we’ll make the most of them. Initially we wanted to go to Shetland over the holidays but some insiders told us that Shetland in April may not be the best choice. So we decided to stay in Orkney. To people from the South, this logic is probably beyond comprehension. Orkney, Shetland, it’s all the same! It seems I am from the South, too, because in hindsight I have to say, if you’re brave enough to enjoy winter in Orkney, an April in Shetland wouldn’t have killed anyone. Anyway, we still decided to go North, if not quite as far as Shetland, but we’ll be spending a few days on North Ronaldsay, Stronsay, Sanday and Eday. To balance it out, we decided to go South, too, so we went ahead and booked two days on Hoy. So plenty of adventures coming our way and there will probably be plenty of blogs in the next two weeks.

After the holidays the visitors (mostly from Switzerland) will start coming in. We’ll be playing hosts to 21 visitors on about 45 days starting at Easter. Actually Orkney will be playing host because none of our visitors will be staying with us permanently. One reason for it being the quite small house we’re living in, the other to keep some independence and a little bit of our everyday Orkney lives. But of course we’re very much looking forward to showing them all around our favourite sites in Orkney and also to do some accompanied island hopping. We’ve already booked Westray, but Rousay and Shapinsay are certainly also on the agenda as well as Hoy again and hopefully Copinsay.

Our children are starting to pick up a bit of an Orkney accent and we can certainly hear more and more of the Orkney sing-song, even sometimes when they speak German. One thing that has started to stick out the most is the pronounciation of the ‘i’ (like in ‘wind’), which in German I would say sounds like a mixture between an ‘ä’ and an ‘e’. Also, Maleah came home the other day, telling us about the ‘troots’ they saw in school. It took me a while to find out she was talking about ‘trouts’.

Natalie and the children are at the last craft club right now. There is a big buffet at the end and kids certainly didn’t want to miss that. A lot of indoor activities stop here after spring because why would you want to spend your time inside when it’s light outside for most of the night!

Maleah wrote this report at school. There are photos of this trip on her class blog.
Here it is:

On Wednesday Primary 3 went to visit St. Magnus Cathedral. First we lookt at the west Window. Then we saw four huge pillars with Metal rings. Next we saw a Statue of St Olaf. Finelly we saw pictures of St Magnuses bones. We found out that St Magnuses bones are stil ther. We saw the dungen. We lisend to Fran the lady now shod us araund. Then we went outside were the Bus waited. Then we went on the Bus and drofe to St Andrews Primary School. We had such a lovly time in St Magnus Cathedral.

From Maleah

That was a famous and often quoted song in the eighties in Switzerland, and it’s an adequate title, because apart from my cycling trips to the shop, admiring the geese, the blooming daffodils and the rabbits, there are not that many interesting things to talk about, now that I’m mostly home. But here are a few things that have been happening:

I went to see St. Magnus’ Cathedral with Maleah’s class and although I’ve been a few times before, it was fascinating! Now I can’t wait to show our visitors all the new things I have learnt. We also went to see a film in the St. Magnus Center, in which I will volunteer a few times over the next few months. I’m looking forward to that, too. Even if I am a little nervous.

I’ve finished writing my reports in English and German and will send them off soon and I have started writing the article for the Swiss teachers’ magazine about reading. They asked me to write about 6000 characters. First, I thought that was sooo much! But I had those in no time - and went far over, so now I have to see how I can cut down again!

I’ve also been invited for an interview at St. Andrews School, where I applied as an Early Years Assistant. It would only be Friday mornings, so it seems perfect. So I’m quite nervous about that.

Also I’m going back to Glaitness, the school in Kirkwall, next week as they’re having an outdoor practice day, trying to make fire without a lighter and then cooking hot chocolate on a Kelly Kettle! I’m very excited to learn that!

Ok, that’s all for now. Nanouk has Youth Day in Stromness tomorrow and the rest of us have been invited to Sheila and Iain’s for a lunch in Birsay. Hopefully we’ll get to go on the Brough, too! (You can only go out there if it’s low tide) as it’s one of my favourite places in Orkney!


Oh, no, I nearly forgot to mention Nanouk’s amazing musical! It was called the Dracula Rock Show and was played and sung by P4 - 7 at St. Andrews. Nanouk was a Zombie, delivered his two lines wonderfully - and impressed us with his Zombie Dance!



More photos on his class blog:

www.primary5progress.blogspot.co.uk

As discussed in the last blog entry by Natalie, cycling can be an adventure with ups and downs. On Tuesday, however, I was on a cycling trip which had only ups! Except of course for the many downhill sections ... Natalie did one of her last school visits in Kirkwall and was able to take me and my bike into town in the car. That way I didn’t have to do the Deerness - Kirkwall route, which I’m not too fond of. I’ve done it so many times in the car that it’s a bit boring by now. The first stop after Kirkwall was Wideford Hill, as far as I know the highest road in Orkney with 225m above sea level. The views from the top were a bit hazy, but still absolutely fantastic. And it was hot! I had to push the bike for a substantial part of the ascent because it was just too steep and I didn’t want to empty my reserves on the first few kilometers with so many still to come. I then walked down to Wideford cairn, an impressive 5000 year old burial chamber about 100m (altitude) below the top of Wideford hill (see fotos on the left under ‘Our Orkney Photos’). I just realized that there is no English Wikipedia page for the cairn which shows how many incredible ancient buildings / sites there are in Orkney, if this one is not even exciting enough for a Wikipedia entry. Anywhere else in the world this would be lit up all day with signs all over and a access path that earned its name. The path I was on didn’t really meet the expectations, I had wet feet for the rest of the day. Back up the hill to where my bike was, I just clambered through the heather. It is so soft and deep on these mountain sides that it feels like walking trough fresh snow. Maybe snowshoes would have been a good idea.

Then it was on toward Finstown on the old road and then south to Kirbister Lake in Orphir between Keelylang Hill and Mid Hill on a great mostly empty road, all the while it was getting warmer and I had to pull back my sleeves. The road was really so nice to cycle on, going left and right through the most beautiful countryside. Cycling in Orkney is usually limited to cycling on the main roads because most others just lead to the next farm. The main roads are mostly very narrow. You could never pass a bike while another car is coming towards you. And all this with a speed limit of 60 MPH / 97 kph. A reason why you never see a biker without a reflective jacket, even when the sun is shining brighter than anything. It always leaves a bit of a bad feeling when you’re on the road and hear a car approaching from behind. Did he see me? Or am I going to wake up in the emergency room? So you see why I was so happy about the road with little traffic.

Then further on to Kirkwall along the coast and another one of the main roads but with wind in my back to my full astonishment. I stopped at Scapa Beach near Kirkwall to eat lunch and gather energy for my last stretch to Deerness. In the end it was 55k with 700m of ascent. What a great day out!

Yesterday the weather was even more beautiful, although that is hard to imagine. In Kirkwall they measured 12° C and there was no wind to speak of. I ate my lunch outside (unfortunately we all had to work). Now it’s going to be another couple of weeks (I hope not months) before we get weather like this again.

In other news, we still owe you the newspaper article about us that was in the Orcadian (unless your reading this in Orkney, then you’ve proably seen in on paper and now have it framed and hung up in your living room!). So here it is.

When we asked our house swappers about bikes they said they had them, but M said she’d stopped riding hers when one day she had to pedal to get down a hill!
“Well,” I thought, “I’m very fit and a good cyclist and a little pedalling when going down a hill has never harmed anyone!”
Well, those words came back to haunt me yesterday!
I did my “longer round” to the shop, going up to the top of the hill, along that road and down to the shop. I’ve done it many times, and it’s a good, easy - and mostly fun - exercise.
But yesterday the wind was so strong and riding my bike DOWN towards the shop I knew I had to either pedal as hard as I could just to keep moving or the wind would either blow me back up the hill, or throw me off my bike altogether! I was very close to getting off, throwing the bike into the ditch and walking home. Luckily I didn’t! Because on my way back from the shop I had the wind behind me, pushing me up the hill and all the way home!
Now, I am back in love with cycling! And the wind!