Tues, May 20
A bright, sunshiny day, windy and no rain in the forecast. We head out early, north toward Birsay, watching our map which has all the studios and shops selling local crafts noted. Then we see a sign for the Barony Mill and we decide to check this out first.
It’s a lovely collection of farm buildings and the man who greets us is clearly happy to tell us all about grains and the milling process. We learn about the various grains in Orkney, especially the primitive form of barley called bere.. There are paper bags filled with barley, wheat, oats, bere and he asks us to identify each (we do fairly well) and then he takes us on a tour of the mill itself.
By the way the lower left bag contains the bere. Bere isn’t grown much now but had been the staple of Orcadian baked goods up through the 19th c. Jill buys a booklet of bere recipes and a bag of ground bere to bring back. The mill is about 150 years old–the building of it, especially the amount of wood which needed to be brought in, cost the family three generations to pay off–and is water powered. I get to open the sluice gate that starts the belts and then the various grindstones turning. Our guide explains the different gear ratios for each step of the process.
After we leave Barony Mill we head up to the village of Birsay, a rather rag-taggle place, wind-swept and very remote feeling. The ruins of Earl Robert’s mid 16th century palace (half-brother to Mary Queen of Scots and not a pleasant fellow) is here, much of it surrounded with scaffolding and some desultory reconstruction going on. His son Earl Patrick found the palace insufficient, abandoned it and built the more elaborate, more Renaissance palace in Kirkwall.
The kirk 
From there we drive out to the headland of Birsay and although we can look across to the Brough of Birsay on an island just a few hundred feet away, we can’t get there because the tide is high and the causeway is under water. We walk along the beach but it’s very windy so we sit in our Focus, eat our BLTs and Michael and I share an Orkney Dark Island beer. We will be back another day after we’ve checked the tide times.
At the Yellowbird Gallery, where following my own tenet that if you take up someone’s time in a shop you should then buy something, I acquire several cards, reproductions of larger prints. They (husband and wife) also make small ceramic “rocking robins”, lovely little birdlike forms that do indeed rock back and forth. Then we’re on to Fluke Jewellery (www.flukejewellery.com) where Jill buys a couple of silver charms for her granddaughter Fayley’s charm bracelet. Michael, who has previously found a tiny cowrie shell, learns from the artist that such shells are tokens of good luck. But what we are most interested in finding is The Woolshed where we meet Denise Dupres and where we know we will find yarns, roving and finished goods made from the North Ronaldsay seaweed-eating sheep.
The fleece is not particularly soft and there is a fair amount of kemp but nonetheless it makes very handsome sweaters. Jill buys a vest, Lynn and I each buy a sweater and a skein of rainbow-dyed yarn. (I know I’m going to need my sweater as the weather continues cool and windy even with all the layers I’ve brought with me.) Michael buys a kit with yarn and a pattern for a scarf and hat. We cut across the West Mainland and drive into Dounby where we find a cafe in the small local hotel and although we have had our BLTs , we stop in for a pick me upper.
Afternoon snack in Dounby where we find good coffee
The coffee is good and the teenage boy who serves us bobs a little curtsy as he sets down the cups. Then we go across the street to the Dounby Butcher where we buy lamb chops and pork sausages from the owner’s farm. The farm turns out to be one we saw when we were at Skara Brae and we learn from a passerby who happens in that the shop has just been named “Best in Scotland” …the owner proudly shows her plaque to prove it.
Nearby is the Harray Potter studio where we meet up with the potter himself, Andrew Appleby, and see a much greater range of his work. Among his several styles he has studied the neolithic art very closely and incorporates many of these motifs into his pots, mugs, buttons. (www.applepot.co.uk) We also admire his chickens…
Back in Kirkwall we park again near the main shopping street and spend a lot of time in the Sheila Fleet Gallery (Jill orders a ring) and other shops. And finally on a more practical level we shop at the Tesco supermarket, finding everything we will need for the coming week. As guardian of the kitty (we had each put in 200 pounds) I find that after this foray into Tesco we have about half our joint account left. I must mention that although all of us are certainly familiar with sheep and cows and by now have seen thousands of ewes with their babies and cows with their calves we continue to ooh and aah every time we see more (which is all the time!). They are dotted everywhere in the landscape, often grazing around abandoned farmsteads.
Back in Stromness Michael and I go to the library because there are signs saying “Free WiFi” and a “Open 2 to 7 PM” the window…but inexplicably it has closed early.
Barony Mill Supreme
4 fresh pork sausages, sliced and fried in the wok, then set aside
1 chopped onion
2 sliced parsnips
3 large cloves garlic….sauteed together
1/2 head of savoy cabbage
2 Bramley apples (Granny Smiths would do) sliced
Combine all with rosemary, salt and pepper and cook until the cabbage and apples are slightly carmelised.
Serve with mashed potatoes and healthy dollops of butter and yogurt.
We had a very nice Chilano tempranillo and, while playing our usual Spite & Malice, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce (50:50 ratio of dark chocolate and yogurt).
Lynn continues to win. Then we knit….