![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On Summer Holiday 2021 - Part I
Jul. 19th, 2021 12:50 pmI am returned from two weeks holiday on Orkney with MLW and the Captain.
We did not do much.
We spent a little time looking at birds, specifically looking for puffins. No puffins to be seen. The breeding season ends just as we arrived. We did see some razorbills which are not dissimilar to puffins (small, black and white, stubby winged birds) and got excited but no actual puffins. But two good walks at Broch of Birsay (the iron age settlement on the causeway) and Marwick Head (near to the spot that is near to where Kitchener died). We met some cows. We did not see any small children re-enacting the Denouncement of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by the Traitor Judas Iscariot through the medium of kelp, but not every trip can be just like the last.
We visited neolithic sites, specifically Skara Brae and the Ness of Brodgar dig. The Ness of Brodgar continues to be impressive and epoch changing. Despite Covid interruptions they had managed to open up another trench near the northern end of the site. I suppose the interruptions will have allowed them to catch up on some of the write-ups and analysis but there must be several lifetimes of things to look at and understand already unearthed. Had some good conversations with the folks at the site.
The analogy I'm current experimenting with to explain the potential impact is this - imagine you were studying cinema but only had access to non-English films and then discovered Holywood.
As part of the trip to Skara Brae we visited the adjacent Skail House. Saw the flag of the Red Army's 4th Lithuanian Western Regiment captured in 1919 by one of the family. It was much less red 100 years on that when first flown.
Ate some seafood, cooked some local beef, drank some local beer, found a local rum distillery, drank their rum.
Visited the Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel. Confused MLW by taking her to see the sand dunes that have grown up around one of the Barriers and not, as she thought, the actual barrier itself.
Flew some kites.
Visited several beaches including one that is fantastically tidal leading to interactions with crabs and fish and some sort of animal that lives below the sand. Chose not to interact with jellyfish.
Wrote up most of an entry for a One-Page Dungeon competition.
Visited the Fossil centre where I discovered that Orkney had once been the bottom of a large lake during the Devonian, or more accurately the bottom of many many lakes for hundreds of thousands of years at a time over tens of millions of years - which made sense of the stone, which in turn helps explain the local neolithic architecture.
Read a bit, played some boardgames, did a jigsaw. Watched a couple of films, and one and half seasons of French comedy-drama Call My Agent.
Had an interesting conversation about local housing economics and the vintage paper trade with an apprentice bookbinder.
It was a nice holiday.
We did not do much.
We spent a little time looking at birds, specifically looking for puffins. No puffins to be seen. The breeding season ends just as we arrived. We did see some razorbills which are not dissimilar to puffins (small, black and white, stubby winged birds) and got excited but no actual puffins. But two good walks at Broch of Birsay (the iron age settlement on the causeway) and Marwick Head (near to the spot that is near to where Kitchener died). We met some cows. We did not see any small children re-enacting the Denouncement of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by the Traitor Judas Iscariot through the medium of kelp, but not every trip can be just like the last.
We visited neolithic sites, specifically Skara Brae and the Ness of Brodgar dig. The Ness of Brodgar continues to be impressive and epoch changing. Despite Covid interruptions they had managed to open up another trench near the northern end of the site. I suppose the interruptions will have allowed them to catch up on some of the write-ups and analysis but there must be several lifetimes of things to look at and understand already unearthed. Had some good conversations with the folks at the site.
The analogy I'm current experimenting with to explain the potential impact is this - imagine you were studying cinema but only had access to non-English films and then discovered Holywood.
As part of the trip to Skara Brae we visited the adjacent Skail House. Saw the flag of the Red Army's 4th Lithuanian Western Regiment captured in 1919 by one of the family. It was much less red 100 years on that when first flown.
Ate some seafood, cooked some local beef, drank some local beer, found a local rum distillery, drank their rum.
Visited the Churchill Barriers and the Italian Chapel. Confused MLW by taking her to see the sand dunes that have grown up around one of the Barriers and not, as she thought, the actual barrier itself.
Flew some kites.
Visited several beaches including one that is fantastically tidal leading to interactions with crabs and fish and some sort of animal that lives below the sand. Chose not to interact with jellyfish.
Wrote up most of an entry for a One-Page Dungeon competition.
Visited the Fossil centre where I discovered that Orkney had once been the bottom of a large lake during the Devonian, or more accurately the bottom of many many lakes for hundreds of thousands of years at a time over tens of millions of years - which made sense of the stone, which in turn helps explain the local neolithic architecture.
Read a bit, played some boardgames, did a jigsaw. Watched a couple of films, and one and half seasons of French comedy-drama Call My Agent.
Had an interesting conversation about local housing economics and the vintage paper trade with an apprentice bookbinder.
It was a nice holiday.
