Today the first of the cruise ships visited Orkney after the winter break. This meant that coaches are laid on to hurtle the passengers from the ships around the island in less than a day, no doubt so that these visitors can ‘tick off’ Orkney from their bucket list. They have no idea what they are missing!

As our friends Jan and Colin who are visiting for the third time said, in an attempt to try and define what makes this area so special, ‘Orkney is a land of experiences’ . It certainly is as they experienced a magnificent display of the Northern lights ( see here Anna’s time lapse ). Jan & Colin had come up to help look after the animals on the Corsie farm in Burray as Catherine Corsie was recovering from an operation and Colin and Jan also wanted to see how our house was looking before they disappear for their annual summer stay in their flat on the French south coast.

Whilst they were staying, Anna suggested that they might like to learn how to play MahJong as she already plays with some friends every Monday afternoon. Anna left out the more complicated rules for us and after a few games we began to get the hang of it, to the point that I feel Jan will be getting her own set when she gets back home. Our friends on the island, Vickie and Ian are also lined up for this treatment, Anna has really got the MahJong bug it seems!