As I type this on Tuesday morning, 18th April, (due back at work in a couple of hours) the sun is streaming over a calm sea. For all our Easter visitors the weather has been varied - plenty of sun, mingled with rain, snow and hail, and strong winds throughout.

We've enjoyed visits from Jenny's sister, Lis, with her family, followed by Steve's sister, Wendy, with hers. We also had Stockton friends staying (Paul and Debbie) and entertained their friends, Tim and Helen, for a meal or two.
We've had a wonderful time - so appreciate people making the effort to visit us. I wonder how many sandwiches we've eaten!

Lis, Andy, Rebecca and Matthew arrived two weeks ago by air (from Heathrow, changing at Aberdeen) and we spent most of the week on beaches. The weather threw everything at us, but we managed to enjoy all our excursions, including a trip to Westray (staying in a wonderful hostel, "The Barn") and even lying in the sun at times.

Wendy, Tony, Zoe and Jessica drove up the following weekend and overlapped a couple of days with Lis. This worked really well, and together we visited a couple of historic sites, walked cliffs and ate sandwiches. Another trip to Westray (without hail!) was good fun, and we also enjoyed beaches and walks and various ancient ruins. Even managed to go fishing with Tony, but the wind was not making life easy.

Paul and Debbie motorcycled up and we met at the Ring of Brodgar. Music featured highly as Paul gave Zoe a lesson or two on recorder, but my strongest memory is walking at Debbie's pace as we returned from the Gloup in a hurry - great walk, but a few aches two days later!

To all who joined us, thank you. It was a pleasure and priviledge to enjoy your company.
Thanks also for the photos - this time the photographers are:
Lis Holman; Andy Holman; Debbie Hales; Tim Burdan; Tony Amis; Wendy Amis; Jenny Bunning

Sorry they're not in order - everything kind of blurred after a while, and different photos from many people made sorting a pain and I just want to get these up!

As usual, click a photo for less compressed version.

Is it possible to take a bad photo of Tony?	Inside the Italian Chapel	Ring of Brodgar
Stromness harbour front	Summer Rose parked in Pierowall sea front - great place to lunch when the weather is poor	Rebecca and Matthew at Brodagar
Stenness Loch from Brodgar	Inside St Magnus' Cathederal	Snow laying - just...
Matt the lifeboat hunter	A gand visitor from Norway	Dingieshowe ploutering
Dingieshowe	Matt's sand sculpture - "shellbra"	Rebecca on the ferry to Westray
"Summer Rose"	In this hailstorm Rebecca and Steve were walking to the beach -everyone else waited	A lovely Westray beach (Mae Sands) covered in hail
The same wind blown beach	Pierowall - view from the Barn	Gales at Noup Head, Westray
Rebecca was blown from the cliff at Noup Head - seemed better to photograph her than try rescuing.	Grobust Beach in Westray had fun rock pools...	and wind and waves kept returning the mooring buoy
Birsay has a (low tide) causeway across this reef	...and interesting ruins to climb once there	Even a tunnel
Oh, back to haily Westray	and sunny Westray	Tony, looking good again!
Jenny enjoys the warm sunshine	Canoeing at Dingieshowe	Kitchener Memorial and stormy rocks
		Well, just a sample of our Easter holiday. Not everyone who stayed is here, but memories taken away yet still with us. Today has been a total contrast weatherwise, back to shirt sleeves for work today, although our evening walk up the hill demanded coats. Thanks again to all - a very special Easter for us.
Jessica loved canoeing	The beautiful bay just along from the Gloup

April 18th 2006