First of all thank you all for reading our blog! We sometimes hear about people reading it but we have no idea how many people have been reading it... So if you’d give us a short feedback we would really appreciate that! Either at blog - at - gabathuler.org, or with the contact sheet on your left.

As you can see in the title, this will probably be our last blog from here, but we will give you an update once we are back in Switzerland... We are in the middle of packing, cleaning and saying our goodbyes, eating cakes, tatties and crisps while drinking tea, wine, Prosecco and Shloer...

Despite not having found a roof rack Matt has already managed to get everything we’ve had packed into the peedier car, which belongs to our house swappers. We will swap it against our larger car in Edinburgh. The children and me will fly to Edinburgh with three large suitcases - and if need be we can take a fourth on a stand by basis.
Every time I walk through the house (well prepared with a bag) I find more things we need to take home - so it will probably be chockablock by Monday morning!

Apart from having cakes and meals with friends the Commonwealth Baton was another highlight this week!
We were impressed with the organisation and all the police vehicles - especially as Nanouk and Maleah were allowed to sit on the police motor bike. Also, one of the baton bearers came over to us to let us touch it which was quite exciting!


The other really exciting thing that happened this week: The first buffalo calf was born! It’s just outside our window and we are happy that we were here to see it! Of course, we’d love to stay even longer, and see many more being born - and celebrate Russell (the buffalo farmer)’s birthday next week. But, unfortunately we will just miss it. Just as we will miss the East Mainland (and many other) Shows! And we will certainly miss all our new friends here!


The other exciting farming news (for us) has been the farmers mowing the fields and making silage! They all work together and the fields are mown and cleared in no time. Someone in Orkney made this video
(It is well worth watching till the end, as the helicopter is attacked by a gull!)

Ok, I think that’s all! More cleaning awaits me and the children are slightly cranky after so many special late nights. So let us know if you’ve enjoyed this blog (or not) and we will keep you posted about our further Orkney plans!

Last Saturday we finally made it to Copinsay. It's was a bit like man's quest to the moon. You see it every day and you are desperate to go there, but it's not that easy. Fortunately it is much easier to get to Copinsay than to get to the moon. We were taken with the boat of a local man and he took us all around the Horse of Copinsay, Copinsay itself and the smaller islands around it. I especially loved the view of the Horse from the East. It's absolutely stunning and rough. He dropped us off at Corn Holm. Just before we were dropped off, we saw some Puffins fly by. We really hoped we'd see a few of them here. And there was one of them swimming right next to the boat. But when I tried to take a photo it just took off. What happened then seemed to be straight out of some surreal movie. For once we didn't look out of the boat on the right towards the shore but on the left and suddenly we saw dozens of Puffins swimming right next to the boat. An amazing experience. On the islands we also saw a lot of young birds and almost stepped on some on our way to Copinsay. One Fulmar started a sick attack on us, but luckily we were not close enough. We then walked over the Isle Rough to Copinsay just in time before the tide started going over. The weather was great and at times we wished for a bit of shade. We pick-nicked at the lighthouse (which of course included hot chocolate from the Kelly kettle). And then slowly made our way back along the cliffs. All in all one of the most memorable days here in Orkney. Photos of our trip left under 'Our Orkney Photos'.

Another memorable moment was the wedding the day before that we were so generously invited to by a friend. We especially loved the dancing and even took part in one of them even though it took me some time to figure out how to move around.

Monday was out farewell party with loads of friends and acquaintances. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, while it rained heavily in the rest of Orkney. We had delicious buffalo burgers and loads of cakes and breads of which we will be eating until we leave. The rest of the week is quite busy with packing and also visiting loads of people whom we have not visited before.

Also I have injured myself slightly. Yesterday there was a long jump competition at the Athletics and since I had not used my spikes I thought this would be the opportunity to get some Orkney sand on them. My Achilles tendon started acting up even before the first jump. I still managed a fair jump and then a huge one which went over 5.60m but was just slightly over the board. I called it a day after that and maybe I should bury my spikes now so I won't get tempted to do it again. Still I was quite amazed at how well it went (aside from injuring myself ...) without any training to speak of. It really seems like doing the long jump is like riding a bicycle, you never forget how to do it.

We’ve been invited to a wedding, which is tomorrow and we’re very excited, but also a bit nervous about that! It will be at the Deerness Hall, but the Dance only starts at 9pm, so that’s way past our bedtime, but it will be great to see a wedding! Also, Maleah and me went on my favourite bike tour (long way round to the shops) and after our shopping - this week’s paper (with a mention of our children in the Chess report!) we had a hot chocolate, watching the cars go by and the starling feeding it’s babies, who are hidden in an old petrol pump!

We’re slowly saying goodbye to people, which is very sad! There was a huge beautiful concert for Thelma Holt, the marvellous head teacher, and we got a very long and nice mention! A little embarrassing, but also very touching. I don’t know how Thelma managed not to cry - I was very close various times.
But it was also impressive to see how musical St. Andrews is! The orchestra was amazing, playing a part of Beethoven’s 9th symphony and several teenage boys standing up and singing amazing solos!

Also, we’re planning a farewell party at the Deerness Hall. It will be great to see all our friends again, and then we will have to start packing seriously! Matt is very nervous about getting everything in the small car we are using. Once we are in Edinburgh, we will exchange it with our house swappers for our larger car. But getting all our things there might be tricky... I’m going by plane with the kids and hoping to take an extra suitcase so hoping we will manage!

Unfortunately Matt’s not on holidays yet, as there’s just too much work to be done for his work and he’s too good a guy to just let his colleagues out in the rain... But he still takes some time out to fly kites with us, which we all love!





We cannot believe that we forgot to bring our kites out earlier! Nanouk’s getting very good at flying it and Maleah is just learning to guide hers. Unfortunately we lost Mim and Jeremy’s kite! I was ripped out of Nanouk’s hands at the beach and blew out onto the ocean. Nanouk tried to catch it but we called him back, so we had to watch it fly towards Scotland Mainland and are still waiting for a newspaper report about a UFO sighting...
Luckily it’s Maleah’s birthday soon, so the postman is being awaited eagerly!

Something else that fascinates us is the speed at the mowing of the fields. Matt’s hay fever really caught up with him, which we understood, as all the fields were full of grass, but now, all the farmers are working together mowing it all at an amazing speed! Fascinating to watch! And the hay fever is getting less with every tractor we see taking the silage away!

This might be our last (or second to last) update from Orkney, depending on the stress we feel next week! We’re loving all your comments about our Happy in Orkney Films! And whenever we watch them, it makes us happy - which we can really use, when we get sad about leaving or stressed about packing!

So many things we do now might be the last time we do them: cycling the scenic route to the shop, talking to the nice man, who is always in a rush to get home as he’s left the washing out (but always has time to chat), watching the curlew following me, ...
But, even if it is the last time, the happy feeling of Orkney will follow us for a long time - and we’re hoping to come back soon - maybe even another (shorter) house swap?

But, among all these lasts - there is also a first: When you go on youtube and look at all the happy videos from places all over the world, now Orkney is among them, too!
Just put ORKNEY and HAPPY in (or click on the links here and here) to watch our happy films of Orkney. You’ll probably figure out quite easily which one is mine and which one is Matt’s!

Nanouk was part of an amazing concert at the St. Magnus Festival! I’m sure you all know who Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is and Nanouk was part of the concert celebrating his 80th birthday! We had front row seats and enjoyed the evening enormously!
Even the Telegraph wrote about it today. Read the article here. Luckily, althought the Telegraph just cut off Nanouk from the picture, we’ve got some (many...) with both of them:

(Can you find Nanouk?)

Maleah also had a very emotional last riding lesson on „her pony” Rosie Gold and was allowed to brush her afterwards, which she did for nearly an hour, enjoying a bitter sweet farewell...


Apart from that nothing really interesting has happened. Luckily we had planned our last month with loads of “free time”, which we are now cherishing, meeting up with friends, playing outdoors and enjoying life!
We’re also trying to plan a little farewell party, which has not been easy, as we’ve had to postpone it twice due to the Swiss Football Team being so good :o) but we’re hoping to see a lot of people and get a chance to blether a bit, before we leave...
But, of course, we’re also planning a return trip - maybe even a (much shorter?) house swap again? Just to meet up with our new friends and get back into the “Orkney Feeling”, which we are afraid of losing when we get back to busy hectic Switzerland...
Maleah has given her address to all the children of her class - and many other pupils, too, and she is hoping for a lot of mail! Nanouk only wanted to put our skype name onto his cards, as he doesn’t really enjoy writing :o)

And as the sun has just come through the clouds, the sea is sparkling in the distance and the oystercatchers are calling (even that sound has become dear to me...) I think I’ll take the paper and a cup of tea outside and enjoy one of the many hidden (from wind and sight) secret places in the garden and enjoy some afternoon peacefulness!

It’s hard to believe that our last guests have left and we only have one more month left!
My friend Andrea (who has been my friend since Kindergarten, and who is a farmer’s wife, with hardly any holidays) came to visit me with a friend and I was delighted, not only to share this beautiful place with her, but also to have four days together!
They were so excited and enchanted by Orkney and the Orcadians and have totally fallen in love. The start was a little rocky, as the B&B we had organised was not ready, but then we found lovely Sidney, who put his caravan up to the Community Centre and they had a great stay there!
The weather was not the best, but will still had some sunshine now and then - and they made the most of the long days, visiting Mull Head once after leaving us at 9pm (as we went to bed) and then again, on their last day at 5am, just because they wanted to see the lovely cliffs one more time!

We went to Yesnaby and Marwick Head and waited for the fog to lift, which took a while but then was well worth it, as they did not only see all the thousands of birds but also some puffins!


Sunday we went to watch Matt being a long jump official at the Junior Inter-County. This is a big weekend in which junior athletes, netballers, swimmers and footballers compete against their “rivals” from Shetland. It is an amazing event with many talented young people - and Matt probably was the only official with his own fan base!
He received a “coach” pullover in return and was over the moon!
(And it made up for him missing the Hoy Marathon which he had to cancel because of his aching foot...)


(Can you spot the most handsome coach?)

Continuing the sports Sunday we headed over to our friends to watch Switzerland beat Ecuador. We do miss our large screen at home - and all the friends coming over to watch games with us - but we did enjoy sharing this with our new friends and will head over again tomorrow - and of course we’re hoping for another victory!
Our visiting Swiss friends also came by to have dinner with us and see the amazing buffalos, who we have all fallen in love with - they also visited some other farms and were amazed at the differences between Swiss and Orcadian farming.

Now that we only have one more month left (and no more visitors) you’d think life would be a little quieter. But far from that! We still have soo many things we’d like to do:

Visit the Orkneyinga Saga Centre, the Unstan Tomb, eating a Stenness Monster, climbing the Mountains of Hoy, visiting Happy Valley and exploring the closest (but still unvisited) site to our house: Mine Howe. There are still some islands we want to see: Egilsay, Wyre, Auskerry and the one closest to our house: Copinsay. And there is one more location for our music video we want to film at: St. Magnus Cathedral. Matt is a little shy about filming when other people are there, so this might be a tricky one. Although, we have filmed at the Ring of Brodgar and were asked by a ranger what we were doing. She now wants a copy of the video when it’s finished :o) We are thinking of a very early film session, but we will see how it goes!


But realistically we will have to postpone some of these things to future visits, which we hope will lie in the close future...

We have all fallen totally and utterly in love with this place and are hoping to return soon and regularly!