91 today!

Happy birthday to Dad!!

He wanted to visit an old haunt so we did a bit of detective work and finally found it, much changed from 42 years ago but still with an air of peace. I remembered the place full of light and a cheerful old gentleman who offered us classic Orcadian hospitality, flowers round the door; Dad remembered the waterfall that powered a light bulb (the only concession to modernity) and a wind up gramophone.  Isn't memory a wonderfully selective thing?!!  Sadly, the house is now locked and empty but still externally charming, the wheel long gone but the leat and waterfall still there, the trees mature and the garden shaded but still some cheery rough planting.

We had a fairly brief visit to Stromness Museum and much enjoyed their exhibition on salvaging the scuttled German Fleet.  Thank you, N, husband of EllyJay for his helpfulness :-) Dad was tiring a bit by then; he's very game but rather too much walking and peering at things he finds hard to see is tough.

Back to his favourite shepherds' pie (or was it cottage?) and a cake with candles - no birthday should be without this but I wonder where the tradition ever started?