After a week of fantastic sunny weather, Oliver and Nicola’s second week has not been so warm. This has not stopped them exploring the island and having all sorts of fun and experiences. We took them to the amazing and very moving Italian Chapel, a second World War Nissen hut that was converted by the Italian prisoners of war into a most amazing place of worship with trompe l’oeil  paintings all over the wall surfaces.

One place of call that could not be missed was Jerry’s Ice Cream Parlour where the amazing ice cream Sundaes are made with yummy Orkney ice cream and the incredible ‘Stenness monster’ can be consumed. This is a large cone with seven scoops of your choice, should you succeed in eating one of these your name goes in a ‘book of honour’ as proof you did it. Needless to say that both Oliver and Nicola achieved this, this being Oliver’s second successful mastery of this task, the first one, some years ago on his first visit to Orkney.

Yesterday we took Oliver and Nicola to the Tomb of the Eagles in South Ronaldsay, this visitor venue is a great introduction to the Neolithic in Orkney. You get a talk about the site, finds and life in the Neolithic and an opportunity to handle some of the finds. Then you walk out to the tomb on the cliff top and haul yourselves into the tomb via a homemade trolley. The Tomb is of the stalled type and is well worth a visit. After this you can take really nice cliff top walk back to the carpark. On this walk the sea birds fly past your heads and at certain times of the year you can see seals pupping on the shore below you. Whilst Oliver and Nicola were doing all this, Anna and I were meeting some dear friends, Peter & Ftankie who are on holiday here, for lunch at the Skerries restaurant. After a very pleasant time we headed back to pick up Oliver and Nicola, hoping that they were not waiting for us as we had been some time. We found them sitting on a bench by the cliff tops watching the wildlife, they looked very contented.

Today our picnic was taken in the car for the first time as the weather has really changed to very wet and cold for the first time. We had just finished visiting the Orkneyinga Saga  centre at Ophir and what started as a light drizzle had made up its mind to become a bit more determined. This has not dampened our intrepid couple’s spirits and they are enjoying experiencing the different Orkney weather.