Fri, May 11
I hate coming to the end of a trip, especially journeys where I have stayed in one place long enough to make it feel like home. This morning I stand in the kitchen, awash in nostalgia. I look out at the harbor and think, this is the last day I can breathe in this particular view.
The four of us–Michael again stays behind, this time to work on his drawing–walk down the main street, popping into the bookstore where I buy a print copy of The Outrun so I can share it with the others. Then we drive off to Kirkwall where Jill finally decides on sweat shirts for Gussie and Fayley. We catch a quick lunch at The Reel, a cafe but also a popular site for folk music and shows,
https://www.wrigleyandthereel.com/
and then a quick ride up to the Dounby Butcher for lamb chops (to be our final cottage dinner!) and to buy the really substantial tote bags they sell.
We haven’t been to the Michael Sinclair Shop and Gallery–he’s new to the Craft Trail although he has been turning bowls for a quarter century–so he’s our next stop, nearby in Howar. I have collected enough bowls over the years, surely I will not be tempted here at least. Wrong! I love his work, we all do and all four of us buy bowls. His wife Sara is fun to talk with too. In fact, at one point, she tells me, they too had raised Angora goats. www.michael-sinclair-woodturner.co.uk
Back at the cottage Michael has been busy. He has taped his painting up on one of his windows, drawn the curtains around it and then we are all invited in to view it, one at a time, and only from a certain distance. As each of us is positioned, the curtain is drawn back to reveal his still unfinished work. No, I have no photo of it as this was not allowed.
Jen finally sits down and does a small painting of the Ring of Brodgar.
And Lynn has done some sketching too.
We haven’t exactly been prolific with our painting and sketching, not as we had thought we would be. Perhaps the cold, persistent wind deterred us from our plein air plans!
Our last cottage supper, prepared by Jill and Jen, is Dounby lamb chops, mint sauce, steamed new potatoes, herbed carrots and a salad. We drink up the remains of the wine, scotch whisky and beer. A bit of TV, a bit of knitting finishes the evening. We are all pretty quiet. In our bedrooms we pack and repack our bags. Tomorrow we will have to be out of #18 by 10 o’clock.
