Live from the Hoy Pier

Alone on a boat.  The midday sailing to Hoy from Stromness on a Wednesday is a cargo day, passengers rarely show up.  A fine day for a cruise, blue sky, wind SW force 5.  A member of the salty crew commented on me being in sole charge at the bolt hole.  Johnny Mowatt joined as a passenger at Graemsay, he'd been carrying out maintenance at the Hoy High Lighthouse. l alighted on the Hoy Pier, rucksack and box of messages.  Amy got onboard to go for a shift in Stromness. As soon as the boat departed, l searched for Roy Plomley.  I didn't think to check the Hoy Kirkyard. 

The first thing was to light the stove.  When l went out for logs the clouds clung to the hills and dreichness had swept in.  Wind was now shifting faster than the waves; peat banks soon damper than the beach.  Summer has well and truly departed, coastal pastures of yellow and green forgottten.  Stonechat, bog- cotton, primroses, trefoil, wagtails are now only dreamt about.  Time of enchantment past, the land slowly slips into the sea.