Orkney days

I bought this book on Friday. It is newly published and written by a school friend who married a North Ronaldsay man and lived for 60 years on that most northerly island of the Orkney archipelago bringing up four children and running the family croft. At one time she had a monthly column in The Scotsman newspaper and the articles were published in book form many years ago. This is a new book incorporating these earlier articles with some personal anecdotes now added. After the death of her husband last year she has relocated to Edinburgh and is living 5 minutes away from me over on the other side of the Meadows. It must seem like a seismic change for her even if she was originally a Leith lass.

I had a stravaig round the policies after lunch in as much as it’s possible to stravaig through  the hordes and realised I was really tired seeing jugglers chucking nine balls in the air,  lit torches or even knives. I am Fringe weary and just want to reclaim some of the streets and all of the buses for the use of the residents. It’s been particularly tiresome this year as things seem to have been concentrated in my ‘hood’. The final festival concert I believe is tomorrow night but there will be nae sqibs lighting up the evening sky signalling THE END. Fireworks have been banned and that was the one spectacle that everyone in the City could enjoy for free.