Music and Friends

The Jo Philby Band

Our good friends, Colin and Jan, came up to Orkney last week – principally to “babysit” and feed the animals at Slap Cottage while Catherine had a well deserved holiday in Malta; it was great to see them both and they seemed really to enjoy themselves. I am pleased to report that all the animals and chickens/ducks etc they were taking care of survived the experience!

Once Catherine returned they came to stay with us for a couple of days which was great. On the Saturday night we went to see the Jo Philby Band play at Highland Park House in Kirkwall.

We had met Jo a couple of weeks earlier and she had told us about the gig, with her new “line up” as it was a precurser to a tour which is taking them down through Scotland to Dorset and Gloucestershire. So along we went and believe me it was well worth it. The band is excellent and the banter between them just adds to the fun of the evening. We are sure they will have a very successful tour – they deserve it, and we will be going to see them again at the Orkney Folk Festival in May. The picture isn’t great but you can find the Jo Philby Band on Facebook and there are better ones there!

I have been enveigled into acting as Minute Secretary for the John Rae Society (one day I will learn to say no!) but it is on the strict understanding that it’s the minutes and ONLY the minutes. Mark is in charge of their website and has now been co-opeted as a Trustee and I was going to stay well clear but it just didn’t happen! Anyway, the first meeting was on Sunday so we had to abandon Jan and Colin, who were left in charge of putting the lasagne in the oven ready for when we got back. The meeting was quite itneresting so we will see if they approve of the minutes I have produced. I think (I hope) the Honorary Secretary was quite glad to be relieved of that particular duty – I know how difficult it is to take part in a meeting and to take the minutes at the same time and have every sympathy with any Secretary who wants to split the task and shed that bit.

Not much else really – as I type the seagulls (I THINK they are glaucous gulls, but as my main “birdy books” are in a box somewhere in the container I can’t look it up) are swirling around the sky and the temperature is a pleasant 10 degrees. Poor Colin and Jan got MUCH colder weather with a pretty biting wind while they were here and I don’t think they were too impressed! But they DID like my Orkney lamb shoulder baked in Middle-Eastern spices I am glad to say !